Huge Sunfish Caught Off Spanish Coast
Published at : October 19, 2021
Marine biologist Enrique Ostale could not believe his luck when he set eyes on the enormous sunfish he had been called to assess, after a tuna-fishing boat noticed it tangled in its nets off the Mediterranean coast of Ceuta earlier this month.
The mammoth sunfish, a species classed as vulnerable and not eaten in Europe, was 3.2 meters long and 2.9 meters wide, a record find for the area that, thanks to tides and sunfish migratory patterns, has no shortage of such encounters.
The fish was too heavy for the 1,000-kilo scale, which almost broke under its weight, said Ostale, who heads Seville University's Marine Biology Lab in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta
The fish was first isolated in an underwater chamber attached to the boat before being lifted aboard using a crane, where it stayed for a few minutes while Ostale and his fellow biologists took measurements, photographs, and DNA samples.
(Reuters)
The mammoth sunfish, a species classed as vulnerable and not eaten in Europe, was 3.2 meters long and 2.9 meters wide, a record find for the area that, thanks to tides and sunfish migratory patterns, has no shortage of such encounters.
The fish was too heavy for the 1,000-kilo scale, which almost broke under its weight, said Ostale, who heads Seville University's Marine Biology Lab in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta
The fish was first isolated in an underwater chamber attached to the boat before being lifted aboard using a crane, where it stayed for a few minutes while Ostale and his fellow biologists took measurements, photographs, and DNA samples.
(Reuters)
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