A woman was left confused after spotting a huge fish floating in the water off the coast of Cornwall.
Niki Hicks was on a boat trip when she noticed something bizarre in the water, and eventually understood it was a giant ocean sunfish. The local resident, from St Agnes, Cornwall, posted a video of the fish on X (formerly known as Twitter), where she gained nearly 6,000 views from followers curious to discover what the floating object was.
Known as a jellyfish eater or Mola Mola, the fish is the second largest bony fish on the planet, growing up to 11 ft long and weighing in excess of 1,320kg. The Wildlife Trust said they can be identified as "a giant grey fish that looks a lot like a swimming head".
A giant sunfish floating on the ocean (Jam Press/Niki Hicks)
Niki was left confused after seeing the sunfish (Jam Press/Niki Hicks)The fish was spotted floating sideways, mistaken by viewers as a dead fish as it flopped along with the waves. Edward said: "The strangest fish." Racheal added: "Ohhh I saw one of those once. Love the nature down there in those islands. I thought it was a dead fish at first..."
"Bizarre things," commented another person. One more wrote: "These can be whoppers and I bet he's stuffing his face with all the jellyfish out there at the mo! My Newquay fisherman mate was always a bit superstitious about landing one..."
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Niki Hicks spotted the creature off the coast of Cornwall (Jam Press/Niki Hicks)It is not the first time a giant sunfish is spotted in the UK. Back in 2020, the fish was seen off the Dorset coast by Liz Hemsley who shared her amazing photograph with the Marine Conservation Society.
They tweeted: "Wow! An Ocean Sunfish (or Mola Mola) spotted off #Portland Harbour yesterday afternoon. #Sunfish are the largest bony fish on the planet and visit UK seas during the summer months to eat jellyfish. Have you ever seen one?"
Other people then shared their sightings. TheWaddells74 tweeted: "I love these fellas ... they can dive really deep for food ..... then they like to bask in the sun near the surface layer of the ocean to warm up their body." LittleFreeCoast said: "Awesome. I've seen few diving in Indonesia, such a unique looking fish!"
Sunfish is the second largest bony fish on the planet (Jam Press/Niki Hicks)
The video she published online was seen by thousands of people who wondered what the creature was (Jam Press/Niki Hicks)The fish is often as tall as it is long, and when they swim near the surface their tall dorsal fin can see them mistaken them for sharks. Its name refers to its habit of basking in the sun close to the water's surface.
According to British Sea Fishing, sunfish have an extremely wide distribution and are found on a worldwide basis. In European waters, they are mainly found throughout the northeast Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea, but can also be seen in the Nordic countries and in the Baltic Sea.
They are not caught commercially in Europe but in Asian countries such as Japan, China and Taiwan sunfish is classed as a delicacy. The main threat to sunfish has been through the species being inadvertently caught as bycatch. They are also threatened by plastic carrier bags and other types of waste which they mistake for jellyfish.
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