Earlier this month, an “unusual” and “strange-looking fish” washed up on the Oregon coast, surprising people with its enormous size. At first, experts thought it was just the “millfish sunfish,” as it is known by its scientific name. cool, But now they know it's something different, and rare.
Seaside Aquarium said in a Facebook post last week that a photo of the massive 7.3-foot fish “created a stir on social media.” New Zealand researcher Mariann Nyegaard believed the fish was a species unfamiliar to Oregon. She has extensive experience. The fish turned out to be the sunfish she “discovered and described” in a study published in 2017.
According to the Australian Museum, the Hoodwinker was discovered “hiding in plain sight” in the museum's collection after the specimen was misidentified for 125 years. Describing the sunfish as a “beautiful giant,” the museum says the world's largest bony fish can grow to more than 4,400 pounds.
“Only a mother could love that face,” one person said of the aquarium's announcement, while another described the fish as “huge and scary and exciting at the same time.”
Hoodwinker sunfish were originally thought to live only in temperate waters of the Southern Hemisphere, the aquarium said. But that quickly changed.
“That theory will be challenged, as it has been by some. Recently washed up on a California beach “One is as far north as Alaska,” the Seaside Aquarium said. “Hidden in plain sight, this fish has likely been spotted or washed up on the Pacific Northwest coast before, but has been mistaken for the more common sunfish.”
In 2019, a hoodwinker sunfish was discovered at the University of California, Santa Barbara's Coal Oil Reserve Reserve, with one expert calling it “the most amazing organism I've ever seen on a beach.”
The aquarium will keep the fish at Gearhart Beach and at the time of posting said the body will likely remain for several more days, possibly weeks, because the fish's hard skin makes it difficult for scavengers to puncture it.
“This is an amazing fish and the aquarium encourages people to go see it for themselves,” he added.