Mola Mola aka Sunfish

scubbie · 1259571. Sat Nov 04, 2017 4:05 pm

In this week's episode (O: Oceans, Episode 3), it was stated that Mola Mola do not appear in British Waters.

Whilst the ones seen in British waters do not grow to the large size seen in warmer waters, they are most certainly seen by boaters and divers in the UK.

fishman1980 · 1278289. Tue Mar 20, 2018 8:33 am

I have indeed seen one in West Wales from the cliffs, and the regularly come off the Welsh coast following the gulf stream and the jellyfish that they feed on (which is why they are so massive as they have to eat a lot and have a very big capacity to get enough nutrition out of them).

Jenny · 1278307. Tue Mar 20, 2018 10:21 am

Interesting! We may have to put that in the fabled Retractions Special, if that ever happens - I think we could probably do a series of them by now!

dr.bob · 1278330. Tue Mar 20, 2018 11:42 am

We are rapidly approaching series "R" ;-)

scubbie · 1278368. Tue Mar 20, 2018 2:12 pm

I couldn't post a link to the video when I made my original post as it hadn't been published. That situation has changed now:

https://youtu.be/uOtquy23W0g?t=171

The clip with the sunfish was recorded off Portland IIRC. A member of my club recorded it and allowed me to include the clip in the video linked above.

If you would like to use it I can put you in contact with the person.

Another member saw one whilst diving near Plymouth last year, but the video wasn't as clear.

What I have also learnt is that there are a number of different varieties of Sunfish / Mola Mola. The group name is Sunfish or Mola, but the sub-species includes varieties such as Ocean Sunfish, Southern Sunfish and Hoodwinker Sunfish.

I guess it would be akin to saying that a fox is only seen in Europe when you actually mean that a specific variety of fox is seen in Europe, but other foxes are seen elsewhere.