Sunfish or Shark?

[Bunty]

Has anyone seen a large sunfish swimming on the surface? If so can it be easily mistaken for a shark? Here in Malta sometime during the summer months some imaginative person always decides that he has spotted a shark - probably to chase the tourists away. In all my life living here I have never seen anything that looks like a shark in the wild. Coincidentally very large sunfish have been seen in the actual areas where the so called shark/s were spotted at the same time. So is it logical the say that in all probability the sunfish have been mistaken for sharks?

[Ken]

Originally Posted by Bunty

Has anyone seen a large sunfish swimming on the surface? If so can it be easily mistaken for a shark? Here in Malta sometime during the summer months some imaginative person always decides that he has spotted a shark - probably to chase the tourists away. In all my life living here I have never seen anything that looks like a shark in the wild. Coincidentally very large sunfish have been seen in the actual areas where the so called shark/s were spotted at the same time. So is it logical the say that in all probability the sunfish have been mistaken for sharks?

I think it's an easy mistake to make. I saw a Mola Mola last week in the water off New York City. What made it easy for me was that I had seen Mola before and knew what they looked like. Most people think it's a shark.

There was a jellyfish bloom in the area and it was probably feeding on this bounty.

[ScubaSue]

Bunty

Where and when was the sunfish/shark sighted?

Malta and Gozo are both islands with plenty of jellyfish around, and this would make sense.

I'd love to see a sunfish.

[Okeanos]

There's been quite a few sightings of Sunfish off Cornwall this year, I saw 3 earlier this year.

[Bunty]

The last one I remember was last year - summer 2005 - and there was a report in the paper that a shark was sited near Paradise Bay. The next day there was a letter in the paper that a sunfish was seen close up that same day in Paradise Bay.
As for jellyfish.............the past two years have been really bad. Not thousands but millions of them. I have been stung a couple of times - once really badly - and I can tell you its like a knife going thru you. They are not the little white sea thru ones, they are the purple ones. Up until the beginning of July they were everywhere then one day we went for a swim in the blue hole in Gozo and we noticed that the jellyfish were turning white and looked half dead and the fish were eating them. Since that time there have been very few around. Is it a case that the water got too warm for them? The water was very warm this summer - it reached about 26/27C. Infact the whole Mediterranean has had big problems - there were beaches closed in Spain cos of this problem. One of the reasons mentioned is the lack of turtles, but on the more encouraging side my son did a few yachting trips over to Sicily June and July and he said they saw loads of turtles which is quite unusual.