Gigantic Fish Washed Ashore On California Beach Left Experts Spellbound
According to Wikipedia, there are about 28,000 different species of fish that are known to man, but no one really knows if that number is true or just a guestimate. Remember the fish with human teeth? Experts keep discovering new species of fish, for instance, did you know that in 2018 researchers discovered a new species of gooey fish that melts when brought to the surface? Yes, the hardest part of their bodies are their bones and their teeth, the rest of them is made of a gooey substance that experts are yet to study. There’s a lot to learn, lots of new species of fish yet to be discovered. But one gigantic fish washed ashore in UC Santa Barbara’s Coal Oil Point Reserve.
What’s more alarming is that this fish was first discovered halfway across the world, in the Southern Hemisphere, and it washed ashore thousands of miles away from its home, in California. Experts immediately started taking photos of the gigantic fish and even began testing tissue samples to determine the exact species it belonged to. It took a few experts and Marianne Nyegaard, of Murdoch University in Australia, to confirm that the 7-foot sea creature was a hoodwinker sunfish, a rare species that was first discovered in 2016 on a beach in New Zealand. Just so you know, the distance between New Zealand and Coal Oil Point Reserve is a whopping 8,438 miles, that’s around 13,600 km!
According to the University of California in Santa Barbara, the rare gigantic hoodwinker sunfish has never been spotted in the Northern Hemisphere and it was Nyegaard who discovered it in 2016, making it the first recorded species of the Mola genus in 125 years! Before confirming the discovered, when Nyegaard saw pictures of the mysterious fish going viral on social media, she knew she had to investigate. She immediately contacted ichthyologist Ralph Foster, of South Australia Museum, and told him how she would have confirmed that the fish was a hoodwinker if it had washed ashore in the Southern Hemisphere, but this was the Northern Hemisphere, and without proper photographic proof she couldn’t say for sure if the fish was, indeed, a hoodwinker.
As it turns out, after a few good photos Nyegaard could confirm that the gigantic sea creature that washed ashore UC Santa Barbara’s Coal Oil Point Reserve, was a hoodwinker! Now experts are trying to figure out why it turned up in California, over 8,000 miles from where it was first discovered. They’re wondering what made this fish cross the equator. We don’t know if they’ll find the answers they’re looking for, we’re just amazed to know that there are bigger fishes to deal with!
If you could give this fish a name, what would you call it? Let us know in the comments below. Don’t forget to share this article with your friends!
