{"id":1404,"date":"2008-11-01T21:49:28","date_gmt":"2008-11-02T01:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1404"},"modified":"2009-11-05T08:41:16","modified_gmt":"2009-11-05T13:41:16","slug":"exotic-ocean-sunfish-mola-mola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1404","title":{"rendered":"Exotic Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week we have witnessed an exotic array of species from\u00c2\u00a0a large blue shark to\u00c2\u00a0a rafter of wild turkeys.\u00c2\u00a0 But when it comes to bizarre, nothing in our corner of the\u00c2\u00a0universe matches the ocean sunfish (Mola mola<\/em>).\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the most massive bony fish in the world.\u00c2\u00a0 [Yep.\u00c2\u00a0 That “bony” adjective\u00c2\u00a0excludes sharks (cartilaginous) and, of course, the “fish”\u00c2\u00a0category cuts out whales and dolphins (mammals) and giant squid (cephalopods) and even our favorite sea serpent:\u00c2\u00a0Nessie.\u00c2\u00a0 Doesn’t seem fair.]\u00c2\u00a0 Researchers in the Pacific\u00c2\u00a0claim that they have documented an ocean sunfish that reached 14\u00c2\u00a0feet (from dorsal fin tip to anal fin tip) and 10 feet long from face to caudal fin, and hit the scales at near 5000 pounds.<\/p>\n

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Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola) – Dorsal Fin Left, Caudal Fin Top, Anal Fin Right<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That’s right:\u00c2\u00a0 nearly round, flat and awfully heavy … like a millstone and voil\u00c3\u00a0<\/span>,\u00c2\u00a0the Latin word for millstone is “mola.”\u00c2\u00a0 Yet, un-millstone like, the ocean sunfish swims lithely through the water not flat like a flounder, but upright with\u00c2\u00a0its dorsal fin topside and\u00c2\u00a0its anal fin beneath.\u00c2\u00a0 As the sunfish cuts through the ocean, its dorsal fin often\u00c2\u00a0prompts shouts of “shark” from\u00c2\u00a0nervous observers.\u00c2\u00a0 Sunfish are also known\u00c2\u00a0to bask motionlessly on the surface for thermoregulation (a.k.a., to warm up).<\/p>\n

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Ocean Sunfish (Caudal Fin Left, Dorsal Fin Bottom, Face Right)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We often see ocean sunfish in the late summer and early fall along the Outer Cape and unfortunately, and for some reason that we can only speculate about, we find several dead, stranded sunfish each year at the beginning of the cold-stunned sea turtle season.\u00c2\u00a0 Sunfish\u00c2\u00a0inhabit temperate and tropical waters and seem to prefer warmer temperatures, so perhaps they too become cold-stunned during the fall as water temperatures plunge in the Cape Cod region.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps they, too, seek refuge in shallower, warmer bay waters, only to succumb to the cold as the fall chill deepens.<\/p>\n

Bob Prescott, the director of Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary<\/a>, was interviewed by Matthew Belson, New Media Editor of Gatehouse Media New England – Cape Cod Region, recently about ocean sunfish that have turned up in Cape Cod waters.\u00c2\u00a0 Bob, as usual, gives an outstanding overview of the sunfish and its natural history.\u00c2\u00a0 Click here to listen to Bob’s interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Family Examines Ocean Sunfish on Shirttail Point, Wellfleet<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Earlier last week a sunfish was spotted swimming erratically in Wellfleet Bay and last Friday an observer reported a dead sunfish by Shirttail Point (the Wellfleet town pier).\u00c2\u00a0 On Sunday morning\u00c2\u00a0when a necropsy was scheduled, the sunfish had disappeared, dragged off by astronomical tides.\u00c2\u00a0 It surfaced again Sunday afternoon as the tide dropped on a sandy spit at the easternmost point of Shirttail Point.\u00c2\u00a0 As size goes, this one was smaller than most that we have seen, measuring perhaps 3.5 feet in diameter, excluding dorsal and anal fins.\u00c2\u00a0 You can get a good sense of its size in comparison to the tourist family in the picture above.<\/p>\n

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Click Here to View Video in High Quality<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Ocean Sunfish<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The ocean sunfish is a round, flat fish with a very small, scalloped\u00c2\u00a0caudal (rear) fin called a “clavus” (rudder).\u00c2\u00a0 It has very pronounced dorsal (top) and anal (bottom) fins, but small, obscure pectoral fins that are rounded and directed upwards.\u00c2\u00a0 The eyes and mouth are relatively small, and the protruding mouth contains fused teeth.\u00c2\u00a0 The gill slits\u00c2\u00a0are covered with an operculum and are found just anterior (forward) of the pectoral fins.\u00c2\u00a0 Its scaleless skin is thick and helps to protect the sunfish from stinging barbs of jellyfish, one of its favorite foods.\u00c2\u00a0 The sunfish preys on jellyfish, plankton, crustaceans, small fish, squid and sponges.\u00c2\u00a0 Its predators include sharks, orcas, and humans that consume Mola mola<\/em>, especially in the Far East.<\/p>\n

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<\/em><\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0Ocean Sunfish (Eye, Operculum Covering Gill Slits, & Pectoral Fin Facing Upward)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Satellite pop-up tags are used by researchers to understand the movement and the migration of ocean sunfish.\u00c2\u00a0 They reveal that sunfish stay in the same general geographic area, and that they move up and down the water column many times a day, dropping to 350 meters below the surface to hunt prey.\u00c2\u00a0 They appear to get cold at depths, which probably accounts for surface basking.\u00c2\u00a0 Sunfish are know to carry a large parasite load and have “cleaning stations” for other fish and seagulls to lend a helping hand.\u00c2\u00a0 They also are known to leap from the surface and slap down hard again,\u00c2\u00a0maybe to rid the sunfish of pesking parasites … or perhaps merely for sheer exhilaration.<\/p>\n

Fun factoid:\u00c2\u00a0 As adolescents, ocean sunfish school, but as adults they are solitary animals.<\/p>\n

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Keeping an Eye on Ocean Sunfish<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Request for Your Help\u00c2\u00a0<\/h2>\n

NEBShark<\/a> (the New England Basking Shark Project) in collaboration with the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance<\/a> wants to receive sightings of live and dead basking sharks\u00c2\u00a0& ocean sunfish.\u00c2\u00a0 You can report a sighting directly on the NEBShark<\/a> website, www.nebshark.org<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0and attach digital images of the animal.\u00c2\u00a0 Information on these amazing critters, two of the largest fish in the world, is shared with governmental officials and researchers worldwide.\u00c2\u00a0 “Krill” (Carol) Carson<\/a> of NEBShark offers\u00c2\u00a0her cell phone number\u00c2\u00a0(508-566-0009) for live sightings of animals in distress, so that the\u00c2\u00a0sunfish can receive expeditious help.\u00c2\u00a0 If the ocean sunfish is dead, Krill and her colleagues would like to conduct a necropsy to determine the cause of death and to collect tissue samples for genetic and scientific\u00c2\u00a0analysis.\u00c2\u00a0 As you have read before, you can always call our Turtle Journal 24\/7 hotline, 508-274-5108, for any distressed critter, for any unusual coastal happening\u00c2\u00a0or for information about any wildlife sighting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week we have witnessed an exotic array of species from\u00c2\u00a0a large blue shark to\u00c2\u00a0a rafter of wild turkeys.\u00c2\u00a0 But when it comes to bizarre, nothing in our corner of the\u00c2\u00a0universe matches the ocean sunfish (Mola mola).\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the most massive bony fish in the world.\u00c2\u00a0 [Yep.\u00c2\u00a0 That “bony” adjective\u00c2\u00a0excludes sharks (cartilaginous) and, of course, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[824],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1404"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3434,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions\/3434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}