Seaside Aquarium is our “go-to” for marine mammal strandings and more on the North Oregon Coast. And the past few weeks they’ve been busy – a humpback whale on the southern end of Manzanita Beach and then this – a very large, unusual Sunfish on Gearhart Beach.
You’ve heard of an ocean sunfish, but have you heard of the hoodwinker sunfish? On June 3rd a 7.3-foot (221cm) hoodwinker sunfish washed ashore on Gearhart beach, just north of Seaside, Oregon. Initially this large, strange looking fish was creating quite a stir on social media and though it was stormy folks were flocking to the beach to see this unusual fish. It wasn’t long before news of this fish reached Mariann Nyegaard, a researcher based in New Zealand. The photographs she saw indicated that this might not be a run of the mill ocean sunfish (Mola mola) but a different species that she was very familiar with, the hoodwinker sunfish (Mola tecta). It was through her research that she discovered and described this new species of sunfish, which she published in 2017. Dubbed a new species hiding in plain sight, it was genetic sampling and eventual observation that contributed to its finding. Originally thought to only occupy the temperate waters of the southern hemisphere, that theory would be challenged as a few have recently washed ashore in California and one as far north as Alaska. This fish, hiding in plain sight, has most likely been seen/washed ashore in the Pacific Northwest before but was mistaken for the more common, Mola mola. Marianne Nyegaard reached out to the Seaside Aquarium to see if they would be willing to take samples for genetics. Staff quickly responded, took more photographs, measurements, and tissue samples. Through photographs, Marianne confirmed that it was a hoodwinker and that this may be the largest specimen ever sampled.
This fish is still on Gearhart beach and will probably remain for a few more days, maybe weeks as their tough skin makes it hard for scavengers to puncture. It is a remarkable fish and the aquarium encourages people to go see it for themselves.
Photos by TiffanyBoothe, Seaside Aquarium
