An enormous sunfish got stuck in the nets of a tuna-fishing boat off the Mediterranean coast of the Spanish Ceuta earlier this month. The video of the caught sunfish, who was 3.2 metres long (10.5 feet) and 2.9 metres wide (9.5 feet), was released on Thursday.
“It’s normal to see large fishes but not this big. According to the bibliography, this one could weigh up to 2000 kilos,” marine biologist Enrique Ostale, who was called to examine the fish, told Reuters.
The fish was first put in an underwater cage attached to the boat before being lifted aboard using a crane, where Ostale and his fellow biologists took measurements, photographs, and DNA samples.
The ocean sunfish and southern sunfish are the two heaviest known bony fish in the world. Based on the animal’s appearance, the biologists said that the sunfish was a southern sunfish, also known as Ramsay’s sunfish.
After examining him, the sunfish was released into the water. “The consumption of this fish in Europe is forbidden. It’s consumed in Asia, but in Europe is forbidden,” Ostala said. He added that the fish is listed as vulnerable as their numbers are decreasing.
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