Sunfish

During one of our recent surveys we received a call about an unusual finding – someone has found a strange (unfortunately dead) fish. People who found it told us they believed it to be an ocean sunfish (Mola mola). Luckily we were nearby, so we managed to locate the fish and confirm that the initial species identification was correct. It was more than one meter long. Even though fish are not the focus of our research we were very glad that the finders called us, because such cases are very important to properly document. The ocean sunfish is predominantly an ocean dwelling species that is seldom found in the northern Adriatic. Only about ten cases have been documented in the Gulf of Trieste in the last 20 years. We collected the fish and informed our colleagues from the Marine Biology Station and the Slovenian Museum of Natural History, that were understandably very interested in the case.