Sunfish (Mola Mola)

[Stone]

Saw two of these guys yesterday (11 Mar 03). I didn't have my camera, so here's a site with photos.

Ocean Sunfish

Also saw a leatherback turtle (very large, maybe 5 ft from front to back of "shell")

Never seen either of these species around Destin before.

 

[O-ring]

Here are the pics and MPG...

http://www.royhopgood.com/mola.htm

http://www.royhopgood.com/molamola1.mpg

 

[jiveturkey]

I've always thought this is the strangest looking fish in the sea. But for some reason....I can't help wondering what it'd taste like.

 

[Rick L]

I snorkeled with one for about 20 min. this summer!
It was pretty cool. Did you touch them their skin feels like sandpaper! here is my original post.
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14624&highlight=mola
Rick L

 

[Dee]

You saw this one in Destin? I'd love to see one of those and the thought that they are in the Gulf gives me hope!

 

[Scubaroo]

Saw these last year in Monterey - including three on the edge of a kelp bed at what can only be described as a "blue water cleaning station"! First time I'd seen cleaning behaviour in fish. We didn't approach close enough to see what species was doing the cleaning - you could just see the little guys darting all over their body while they hung out. They were curious, but timid - the ones that weren't being cleaned would slowly circle about 30' away, just checking us out.

Later saw one on the surface being eaten by a sealion - very Discovery Channel, but a bit sad - the sealions grab them by a fin, and then toss them like a frisbee on the surface - it tears the fin off, which they eat, and the fish then sinks to the bottom sans-fins and dies.

Since then the only ones I've seen have been dead ones on the bottom that sealions have killed.

 

[drbill]

Back in the early 70's my students saw a Mola mola soliciting a Heerman's gull to clean it. The fish waved its dorsal fin at the surface while the gull was nearby. When the gull approached, the Mola rolled over on its side and the gull used its bill to clean the fins. This behavior has since been recorded by others. Awesome example of interspecific communication!

We see them with some regularity off Catalina Island. The first one I saw in the wild approached me head-on (what else could it do!) as I was leaning over the swim step of our boat to pull a drifting kelp raft into the boat for my research. At first it looked like a large shark approaching until it got closer!

 

[caymaniac]

Ive seen them twice, once alive and then once whildiving off Freeport, Bahamas I surfaced next to a large one that apparently had a hugh bite out of its mid-section by a shark.:wacko:

Dive Safe,
Caymaniac:mean:

 

[scuberd]

wow, I've never been in the water with a living one. I've only seen them from the boat

Does anyone remember the giant Mola they had at the Monterey aqarium, they had to pull it out with a crane :wacko:

 

[Scubaroo]

scuberd once bubbled...
Does anyone remember the giant Mola they had at the Monterey aqarium, they had to pull it out with a crane :wacko:

They have one there now in the tuna tank, but it's not exactly huge - did they have a full sized one at some stage?

First time I saw them underwater I had the same thought - shark!