It can mature equal to 11 feet in size and weight up to 2.5 tonnes
It bears a resemblance to ‘a big floating blob’ by the National Geographic
Sunfish pretty common in Australian seawaters, got their name from their habit of lying in the sun
Tim Rothman and James Barham appreciating a walk along the shores of the Kennett River in Victoria on Monday when they saw a fish the size of a six foot man.
Recognized as the ocean sunfish, it can mature equal to 11 feet in size and weight up to 2.5 tonnes. It is refer to bear a resemblance to ‘a big floating blob’ by the National Geographic, though Tim and James said it looked more ‘alien like’ to them.
‘We were walking along and saw this big lump on the sand,’ Tim told the Geelong Advertiser. ‘I’ve never seen anything like that before. It looked like an alien from a distance.’
Sunfish pretty common in Australian seawaters, however frequently found much faraway. They get their name from their habit of lying in the sun near the surface.
The fish discovered on Kennett River believed to there for a small number of days previously seen by a couple and their daughter on Saturday.
They stunned when they came across the unusual animal, which neither of them had seen before said Cath Rampton and her husband Tom.
‘My understanding is it’s not a very big specimen, I think they can get up to double that size,’ Ms Rampton said.
The fish collection manager, Ralph Foster at the South Australian Museum, beforehand enlightened why so many sunfish get washed up on the beach. ‘One of the big dangers would being hit by big boats at sea,’ he said.
‘They often eat plastic bags thinking they are jelly fish which can kill them.’ Foster said sunfish could do a lot of damage to yachts if they crashed in open water. One yacht in the 2018 Sydney to Hobart race forced to drop out after hitting a sunfish and breaking its rudder.
A hoodwinker sunfish washed up on a beach in Califronia in March last year, the earliest time one spotted in the northern hemisphere in 130 years.
