Holy Mola!

The ocean sunfish (Mola mola) is the world's largest bony fish; reaching a mind-blowing 5,000 pounds and 11 feet in diameter! While unlikely to win any beauty pageants, it is one of the most popular animals on exhibit at the Aquarium, and often manages to grab more attention than the juvenile white shark currently in our Outer Bay waters!

There are so many amazing aspects to this weird flying saucer of a fish -- from its oddly truncated shape, to its retractable eyes, and skin that is 3 to 6 inches thick! Very little is known about how many sunfish there are in the world's oceans; sadly, this is because they are not fished (or in fact eaten by any predator), and this makes them commercially unimportant. So no one has ever counted them.

That's where you can help. Dr. Tierney Thys has a lifelong passion for these "behemoths of the bay" and has set up a website where you can record your sightings of sunfish (outside the Aquarium walls, of course!)

The Ocean Sunfish website is also full of information about this amazing fish.

Look for the 1,000 lb. sunfish on our webcam, along with its smaller companion - who at around 400 lbs still dwarfs many of the other critters in its realm!

Comments

[Dany]

I just wanted to tell you that your site is really awesome and is of a fantastic quality. The content is great and I will be returning….

[Ken Peterson]

Good catch! Updated and corrected.

And yes, white sharks are reputed to weigh up to 5,000 lbs. -- plenty big, but not as big as the whale shark, which is the largest fish (just not the largest bony fish).

[Mark Rovner]

5,000 TONS? That's a heck of a big fish. Did you perhaps mean 5,000 POUNDS? And aren't there white sharks that get that heavy as well?