Rare Sight: Colossal Sunfish Washes Up on Oregon Coast

What a shocking sight it is! A giant sunfish has washed up on Oregon's coast.

The 5 foot Mola mola washed ashore near Sunset Beach on Thursday. According to the Seaside Aquarium, the fish can get up to 10 feet in size and weigh as much as 5,000 pounds. This particular species doesn't have a swim bladder, rendering them slow-moving and at the whim of drifting whichever way the ocean current is flowing. They're known to eat jellyfish and squid.

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It's not clear why the relatively small (for the species) fish washed up on the shore.

There are three different species of sunfish in the genus Mola: Mola mola, Mola tecta, and Mola alexandrini. All three can be found all over the globe and are widely distributed throughout the world's oceans, except for the polar regions.
The newest species to join the genus Mola was the Mola tecta, which was just recently discovered in 2017. Only a few specimens have been examined and even fewer sampled. So, when the Mola tecta washed ashore it caused quite a stir.

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According to a report from Livescience.com, another species in the same genus, mola tecta, washed up north of Gearhart Beach in June. That one measured 7.3 feet in length.

An expert identified the enormous species as a hoodwinker sunfish (Mola tecta), which is one of the largest bony fish in the world and is rarely seen in the Northern Hemisphere.