[Gimbo]

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Wife and I very curious to see a sun fish (mola mola) on a dive :amazed:  Can one readily spot them on a dive and where & when are the best times to see them? The more I see and heart of them the more fascinating they seem to be.

 

[Lou]

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Didn't see them on a dive, but from the boat going from Sharm to the Thistlegorm last June.  There were 3-4 of them and from a distance we couldn't decide if they were sharks, milkfish or manta rays as all we could see was something breaking the surface.  When we got close and saw they were sunfish it was all very exciting on board.  Even the guides were chuffed.

 

[Tim Ingmire]

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Take at a peek at:

http://www.oceansunfish.org/

Looks like a very good site.

 

[John Gulliver]

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I'd love to see a sunfish, too. I've dived in many places, in many countries, and never seen one yet. I believe they exist in just about all the oceans but I wouldn't think there's any way of planning to see them. I suppose it's just a matter of luck. Why didn't you put your mask and fins on and jump in, Lou? Nothing would have stopped me!!!

 

[Lou]

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It didn't occur to us to ask, believe it or not.  The boat had circled out of it's way so we could see hwat it was and the engines were still running.  We were just gawping over the side at them.  It was about 6am and I had been asleep, along with most others, after the early start out from sharm, so blame the shell-shock of a rude awakening!  I never am very good in the mornings!

They were amazing though.  Not huge specimens, maybe about 5-6 ft tip to tip of fins (apparently they grow much bigger) and so slow and rolling on the surface.  

We were very lucky with our sightings that week.

 

[John Gulliver]

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"They were amazing though.  Not huge specimens, maybe about 5-6 ft tip to tip of fins (apparently they grow much bigger) and so slow and rolling on the surface."
I think that's pretty big, actually. A foot or two seems to be the typical size. from what I've read. 

 

[John Gulliver]

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I checked in my fish book, which is pretty reliable. It says sunfish normally grow to a maximum size of 2.5 metres and a weight of 1400 kilos, exceptionally to 4 m and 2000 kilos, so yours were, as I suspected, pretty big, Lou.

 

[angleseydiver]

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We get Sunfish off Anglesey fairly regularly in late summer.
Not the monster big ones, I've got a photo of one somewhere- An 18-pounder (my Dad tried to eat it -went like jelly- he wasn't too impressed! Normally if you can kill it my Dad will eat it- not in this case though)
You don't need to dive to see them -they just flop around
on the surface, flapping their fins and eating jellyfish.
I'll see if I can dig out the photo and find some way of posting it for you to see- I'm not telling Porkies so I'll have to prove it.
Regards, Terry

 

[Scuba1]

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Just a bit of useless information on the sunfish. It is one of the most prolific egglayers with up to 300 million eggs( try to get that out of a chicken ) the larvae mesure 3mm and form part of the plankton.

Michael

 

[parahandy]

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Read a few dive reports of the Sun fish being seen quite regularly in Summer in Pembrokeshire.

 

[Geoff Oldfield]

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Saw a sunfish off the Wirral coastline on a hot calm day last summer. Everyone in the RIB was amazed. No one realised they were prevelant on our coatline. It was about 2ft from top to bottom and just flopped about on the surface.

 

[Mark Chase]

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Saw loads of sun fish on the boat trips out and back to dive Lundy islend last Aug. Basking sharks too. Snorkled with the basking sharks, way cool.

George on the boat was champion sun fish spotter with about 5 in one crossing.

Mark Chase