Whale? Shark? It’s a sunfish

What was believed to be a whale washed ashore on the Thames coastline has turned out to be a stranded sunfish.

The Department of Conservation and police received a report from concerned Thames locals of a whale stranding near Ash Street at the northern end of Kuranui Bay on Thursday afternoon.


Thames locals and a Belgian tourist managed to rescue a sunfish stranded on the Thames coastline on Thursday. Photo: Gail Prier/Facebook

But when rescuers arrived they discovered the whale was in-fact a sunfish roughly the size of a dinner plate.

Several people managed to manoeuvre the sunfish back into deeper water, which included Robyn Leach who was first to the scene.

Speaking to Fairfax, Robyn says she saw the fish flopping around but was unsure if it was a shark or whale.

'Me and a guy in gumboots walked out and got him a little way out, then a Belgian guy took him a bit further. Trying to get him upright,” says Robyn.


The ocean sunfish (Mola mola). Photo: Thinkstock

According to Te Papa's website, sunfishes are large, distinctive, oceanic fishes which are native to tropical, temperate waters around the world.

They are the heaviest bony fish species alive today, weighing on average about a metric tonne, while the biggest common sunfish ever caught weighed more than two metric tonnes.

There are four species of sunfish: common sunfish (Mola mola), slender sunfish (Ranzania laevis), sharp-tailed sunfish (Masterus lanceolutus) and southern ocean sunfish (Mola ramsayi).

Their diet consists mainly of small gelatinous animals, such as jellyfish, but they're also known to snack on algae, crustaceans, and small fishes if and when the opportunity presents itself.

You may also like....

2 comments

What ?

Posted on 25-09-2016 13:35 | By mutley

the size of a dinner plate. must be a pretty big dinner.


Yes Mutley...

Posted on 25-09-2016 19:35 | By GreertonBoy

Was just thinking that... I wonder if they intend to drag it out of the water and put it in a swimming pool on shore to 'save it'?


Leave a Comment


You must be logged in to make a comment.