Spotting a Sunfish basking on the surface while sea fishing is not an un common occurrence these days, but this unusual behaviour certainly grabs our attention!
These incredibly odd looking fish are more usually found in the equatorial regions of the Atlantic & Pacific oceans.
This Sun fish was pictured aboard the ‘Out the Blue’. After a quick photo the Sun fish was returned safely to the sea
These fish are believed to be the largest boney fish in the sea they can live up to 20yrs and can grow to a staggering 5,000 pounds in weight!
They normally spend their live swimming in the top 150 metres of water where the forage for squid, jellyfish, eels and small fish, but Sunfish can be found in water down to several hundreds metres deep.
However its the seemingly unusual behaviour of them drifting in the current lying flat on the surface of the sea, that grabs our attention.
There seems to be no clear explanation for this strange behavior but here are a few theories;
- Warming up after a deep dive
- Warming up before a deep dive
- Resting and allowing the currents of the world to take them to their prey
- Sunbathing while allowing birds to pick off parasites from their body!
Keep your eyes peeled next time you are out on a boat in the channel, a great sight to see!