What beach goers thought was a great white shark turned out to be something even cooler—an ocean sunfish swimming around Pipes Beach in Encinitas, California. Also called Mola mola, ocean sunfish are bizarre animals that look like massive, swimming dinner plates.
Videos by Outdoors
They’re the largest bony fish in the world by weight, and their fins look (and act) like wings, propelling them through the water. When surfers saw that elongated dorsal fin sticking out of the water, they assumed it was a great white shark. A local photographer (Pipes Surf Photography) captured the strange animal hanging around and shared photos and videos of it on Instagram.
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“Early morning January 7th, @sdsla responded to a call about a great white shark sighting at Pipes. Imagine their surprise when there was no shark . . . but instead an ocean sunfish – or Mola mola if you prefer their scientific name – drifting through the lineup!” wrote Pipes Surf Photography. “Sunfish get their name from the behavior . . . in some of these photos, where they lay on their side and float around in order to absorb heat and energy from the sun before going on extended dives to forage, often observed at depths below 3,000 feet! Another Mola mola fun fact – their larvae start off at just a 1/10th of an inch long, but adults can reach up to ten feet in length and 6,000 pounds, which adds up to a roughly 60 million times increase in size.”
Check out the ocean sunfish below:
Header stock image of an ocean sunfish fin by birdsonline/Getty Images
