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Post by nikeajax on May 19, 2015 9:35:51 GMT -8
I'm kinda really wanting to see one of these: They talk about them here: www.montereybayaquarium.org/animal-guide/fishes/ocean-sunfish Has anyone on this site ever seen one live and in person? Yeah, not a beautiful fish, to most, but really cool none-the-less! They are the larges of the boney-fish... totally boss! Jaybird
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Post by george on May 20, 2015 4:13:47 GMT -8
Have seen one in person coming back from Nova Scotia, off the Cape Hatters national sea shore on the Research Vessel Advance II. It reminds me of a AMC Gremlin were is the rest of the fish?? They are very large and they just float with the current most of the time. We were about 50 miles off shore just before we rounded the Cape.
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Post by nikeajax on May 21, 2015 12:32:05 GMT -8
"It reminds me of a AMC Gremlin were is the rest of the fish??"SNORT! I've never seen a real, or living one. I found out about them because the California Museum in Oakland had an exhibit about Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary: cordellbank.noaa.gov/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordell_Bank_National_Marine_SanctuaryThey had a model of one as well as a skeleton--UFF-DA--that's one big fish! I think they're neat looking, and in a grotesque-way, beautiful, not unlike Turkey-vultures: perhaps it's a California-naturalist's thing... It was learning about Cordell Bank that I found out one of the members on this forum, Fishnbeer-Jerry, was fortunate to have dived this area--GASP! Please follow the link to find out why this is amazing: vintagescuba.proboards.com/thread/3093/cordell-bank-national-marine-sanctuaryOnly a handful of people have done this: I've heard it called one of THE most difficult dives--PERIOD! Jaybird
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Post by vance on Dec 5, 2016 10:48:40 GMT -8
Old post, I know, but I just read it.
A friend has a house on the beach at DelMonte in Monterey. While playing beach petanque one afternoon we kept seeing dinner plate sized sunfish washed up on the beach. They were missing their tall fins and their eyes (at least on the top side--gulls I think). They numbered in the hundreds all along the stretch of beach.
When we got back to the house, I looked it up. Apparently, sealions like to torment them and rip their fins off for fun. They don't eat them, or at least most of them. Helpless, the sunfish then washes in onto the beach. Some of the ones we saw were still alive.
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Post by cnotthoff on Dec 5, 2016 16:45:46 GMT -8
We see them often while diving Monterey. And yes, I've seen sea lions tossing them around like a frisbee.
The best way to see them is to get out in the Bay a bit. That means a boat ride or maybe a kayak paddle.
Good Dives, Charlie
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Post by vance on Dec 5, 2016 16:57:00 GMT -8
I read that Monterey Aquarium had one that grew so massive, so fast, they had to chopper it out of the tank and drop it in the bay! I also read they're called sunfish because they lie on their sides at the surface soaking up the sun. They area hazard to boats and can cause serious damage!
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Post by tomcatpc on Dec 5, 2016 17:19:31 GMT -8
I've seen a couple from the Flight Deck of the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) off of the So Cal Coast back in Aug. 1992. Mark
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Post by nikeajax on Dec 5, 2016 17:55:00 GMT -8
I also read they're called sunfish because they lie on their sides at the surface soaking up the sun. They area hazard to boats and can cause serious damage! I'm sure if the Mola could talk, it would be something like, "DUDE--what gives!" Kinda like when an older sibling is hitting you with your own hand saying, "Stop hitting yourself!" JB
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Post by vance on Dec 5, 2016 18:24:07 GMT -8
True. I had that widdershins. It's the boats that are a hazard to the sunfish and causing damage.....
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Post by nikeajax on Dec 5, 2016 18:32:17 GMT -8
Every time my wife and I see something about matinees I wince, "Okay, queue up that sad music, time to get depressed..." Gee-whiz, yet another creature humans smack into with their boats!
I hope I can remember that bit of jargon/vocabulary you just laid on us daddio--I do like it!
JB
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Post by scubadiverbob on Feb 13, 2017 20:33:12 GMT -8
I've only saw a dead one on the beach in Monterey ...
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Post by george on Feb 14, 2017 5:12:41 GMT -8
The good thing about the manatees JB is they have been taken off the endangered list.
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Post by ffdiver on Feb 16, 2017 12:02:35 GMT -8
A couple of years ago I jumped into the water and was hanging out next to the swim platform waiting for a student to do a giant stride in.
As I was floating there I saw a fin pop up about 5 feet away from me.
I got that terrible feeling in my stomach that this was the end. I wanted to see it happen face to face so I dropped my head into the water I was relieved to see a mola mola rather than a shark.
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Post by ffdiver on Feb 16, 2017 12:03:52 GMT -8
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Post by nikeajax on Feb 16, 2017 12:07:16 GMT -8
Almost, but not quite in the "Bigfoot" category Very cool, thank you for sharing JB
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