Sunfish of 3 Tons sets a New world record for the largest Bony Fish ever Discovered :
A giant, 3-Ton Sunfish recently discovered near a Portuguese island has set a new world record for the heaviest bony fish ever found, according to a new study.
The scale-tipping behemoth, better known as a Giant Sunfish or bump-head Sunfish (Mola alexandrini), was discovered on December 9, 2021, as it nears Faial, in the Azores – a Portuguese group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean. Was floating lifeless off the shore of the island. Local authorities picked up the massive carcass and took it back to port so it could be properly studied, according to a statement from the Atlantic Naturalists Association, a non-profit conservation and research organization based on Faial Island.
Researchers about Giant Sunfish :
Researchers performed a necropsy on giant Sunfish and detailed the results in a new study, published online October 11. Journal of Fish Biology. The humble fish was about 12 feet (3.6 m) long and about 11 feet (3.5 m) tall, and weighed 6,049 pounds (2,744 kg), or about 3 tons (2.7 metric tons). The researchers also analyzed the Sunfish’s stomach contents and took DNA samples, according to the statement.
The study’s lead author José Nuno Gomes-Pereira, a marine biologist with the Atlantic Naturalists Association, told Live Science in an email that the dead fish is indeed a “majestic specimen.” He said photographs of its corpse do not do justice to how incredibly it must have looked in the water.
The previous world record for the heaviest bony fish was held by another Giant Sunfish caught in Japan in 1996, which weighed approximately 5,070 pounds (2,300 kg). Guinness Book of World Records.
