A giant, ‘sunbathing’ fish that washed ashore in Oregon turned out to be an unexpected oddity

  • 📰 NBCNewsHealth
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 24 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 13%
  • Publisher: 51%

News News

Health Health Latest News,Health Health Headlines

Elysee Barakett is a health intern at NBC News.

A giant species of fish that was first discovered seven years ago washed ashore in Oregon last week, according to marine biologists who study the animal. Beachgoers in Gearhart, a small town just south of the Washington border, found the 7.3-foot-long hoodwinker sunfish, also called a mola tecta, on June 3. The species was first discovered in 2017 and has been occasionally spotted near Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Northwest.

” But Nyegaard said the activity serves an important purpose: catching jellyfish and other gelatinous creatures for prey. Sunfish dive deep down into colder water when they hunt. Since their bodies cannot efficiently regulate temperature, they warm themselves using the sun. While the fish lie on the ocean’s surface, birds clean them by eating parasites off their skin. Certain features of hoodwinker sunfish distinguish them from ocean sunfish, Nyegaard said.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 707. in HEALTH

Health Health Latest News, Health Health Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Big, invasive Joro spiders are crawling up the East CoastElysee Barakett is a health intern at NBC News.
Source: NBCNewsHealth - 🏆 707. / 51 Read more »