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Can anyone identifiy this fish...
- Thread startermatrixed82
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
, There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Edu:
Theres 4 species that belong in the Molidae family:
Masturus lanceolatus, Mola mola, Mola ramsayi and Ranzania laevis.
The Mola mola is the most commonly recognised one, but around the Eastern Atlantic my guess would be R. laevis, the Slender Sunfish. Its more elongtaed than the M. mola. Maybe it looks more like a halfmoon? Who knows, sailors used to think Dugong were women.... rofl
btw the Mola mola can reach 2.3 tonnes... phew... now wonder the maxi yachts in the Sydney to Hobart race consider them bad news... :hmm
Theres 4 species that belong in the Molidae family:
Masturus lanceolatus, Mola mola, Mola ramsayi and Ranzania laevis.
The Mola mola is the most commonly recognised one, but around the Eastern Atlantic my guess would be R. laevis, the Slender Sunfish. Its more elongtaed than the M. mola. Maybe it looks more like a halfmoon? Who knows, sailors used to think Dugong were women.... rofl
btw the Mola mola can reach 2.3 tonnes... phew... now wonder the maxi yachts in the Sydney to Hobart race consider them bad news... :hmm
Hiya
Beautiful creatures!!! I've had a couple of encounters with them. Normally the first thing you see is their fin breaking the surface. You're normally scared silly, thinking GW shark!!! After getting into the boat, you see its a sunfish, then feel pretty stupid!!!
The older fisherman told me that when they see sunfish, you can be sure that bad sea conditions are approaching. Apparently, they seek refuge close to shore just before big seas are coming. Maybe somebody can verify this??
They've also picked up a bad reputation with our commercial fishing guys. By law we're required to have 2 outboard motors on any sea going vessel that operates more than 1nm from shore. The thinking behind this is that if one motor breaks, you can still get back home, albeit very slowly, with the other motor. Most people use two motors of the same kind, so that should BOTH break down, you could possible get one running with spares from the other. Highly improbable that the two will breakdown with the same part failing. Now our commercial fisherman only know one way to ride their boats.......VERY FAST!!!! Since our coastline contains many kelp beds, see peices of kelp afloat is common. HOWEVER, many of these fisherman don't see the Sunfish or mistake them for a peice of kelp. These fish are INCREDIBLY hard and BOTH gearbox's from your outboards WILL be ripped off if you hit one of them at speed!!! Quite a few of my commercial mates had this happen to them. Imagine having 2-3ton of fish on a 28' boat, with 10 crew memebers, in a choppy sea, with BOTH motors minus their gearbox's!!!! Thats why our commercial guys are VERY WARY of Sunfish!!
Regards
miles
ps. check out the inside cover of the latast Hawaii Skindiver magazine. 2nd page has a stunning picture of about 9 sunfish swimming in a school!!
A friendly sunfish comes to say hello to us!!!
Beautiful creatures!!! I've had a couple of encounters with them. Normally the first thing you see is their fin breaking the surface. You're normally scared silly, thinking GW shark!!! After getting into the boat, you see its a sunfish, then feel pretty stupid!!!
The older fisherman told me that when they see sunfish, you can be sure that bad sea conditions are approaching. Apparently, they seek refuge close to shore just before big seas are coming. Maybe somebody can verify this??
They've also picked up a bad reputation with our commercial fishing guys. By law we're required to have 2 outboard motors on any sea going vessel that operates more than 1nm from shore. The thinking behind this is that if one motor breaks, you can still get back home, albeit very slowly, with the other motor. Most people use two motors of the same kind, so that should BOTH break down, you could possible get one running with spares from the other. Highly improbable that the two will breakdown with the same part failing. Now our commercial fisherman only know one way to ride their boats.......VERY FAST!!!! Since our coastline contains many kelp beds, see peices of kelp afloat is common. HOWEVER, many of these fisherman don't see the Sunfish or mistake them for a peice of kelp. These fish are INCREDIBLY hard and BOTH gearbox's from your outboards WILL be ripped off if you hit one of them at speed!!! Quite a few of my commercial mates had this happen to them. Imagine having 2-3ton of fish on a 28' boat, with 10 crew memebers, in a choppy sea, with BOTH motors minus their gearbox's!!!! Thats why our commercial guys are VERY WARY of Sunfish!!
Regards
miles
ps. check out the inside cover of the latast Hawaii Skindiver magazine. 2nd page has a stunning picture of about 9 sunfish swimming in a school!!
A friendly sunfish comes to say hello to us!!!
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we will be there, thinking of making it a week this year, maybe follow it up with a week in Ireland if your interestedAlison said:Yes it was a good weekend :hungover are you guys coming over again this summer?
ps Colin came home yesterday, he says Hi
Good to here he's home at last, how is he?
For what its worth, sunfish are very plentiful off Southen California, and can be a real hazard to boats, particularly when they lay just under the surface on their sides so as to present maximum target area. I have hit them quite a few times, and on two occasions suffered expensive damage to my props.
When diving, its not uncommon to see them with scars and one eye missing, presumably from boat encounters that they survived.
When diving, its not uncommon to see them with scars and one eye missing, presumably from boat encounters that they survived.