One of the strangest creatures in the seas around Wales has been found washed up on an Abersoch beach. A visitor fought to save the Ocean Sunfish, carrying it back to the water, but it was later discovered dead on the sand.
The creature looked so out of place that when a photo was posted online, some thought it was fake and AI-generated. Lacking scales and a tail, Sunfish are said to resemble giant dinner plates when idling at the surface soaking up the sun.
Sunfish are not uncommon in Cardigan Bay but usually they prefer deeper waters. This summer’s warm seas have brought them closer to shore in search of jellyfish, their favourite snack.
Two have been sighted off Anglesey this month, lolling in the water and flapping large dorsal fins at the surface. More have been spotted along the west Wales coast, including a recent sighting off St Tudwal’s Islands near Abersoch.
It’s thought this may be same one that, at the weekend, washed up on Traeth Trwyn y Fach just north of the Gwynedd resort. Online, a woman from Manchester described how she tried to save it the first time it stranded.
She said: “It was still alive and I carried it back into the sea as deep as I could. It appeared to swim away. I was really surprised how heavy it was – it was at least 4-5kg!
“I was so sad to see someone post later that day that it was back on the beach and was dead.” Get all the latest Gwynedd news by signing up to our newsletter – sent every Tuesday
A giant Ocean Sunfish washed up on Victoria’s south-west coast in Australia beach(Image: BBC)
Sea Trust Wales said that, in recent weeks, it has received a spate of sightings of the “awesome Ocean giants”. Most were juveniles, about the size of dustbin lids: adults grow to 1,000kg and a few have been measured three times this weight.
Occasionally, larger specimens are seen closer to home. Online, a sailing enthusiast said: “A number of years ago one swam passed my stationary boat on a calm flat sea outside Trefor in Caernarfon Bay – its top fin was just short of a metre out of the water.”
The dead Abersoch Sunfish was photographed by Gray Eaton, a Cheshire artist and photographer who showcases his work as Graysarts. He said birds had eaten the creature’s eyes but otherwise there were no sign of wounds: the ponderous fish is susceptible to propeller injuries.
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Abersoch.com, an online guide to the area, said it was an “extraordinary” visitor, adding: “Although they do occasionally make their way into UK waters during the warmer months, it’s still quite unusual to see one around the Llŷn Peninsula, and even rarer to find one ashore.”
Sunfish are the world’s heaviest bony fish, growing to an astonishing 80m times its birth size. Yet it is such a poor swimmer that predators eat it alive, fins still flapping and eyes rolling in puzzlement.
Orcas have been filmed holding Sunfish while others smash into them so hard they explode into thousands of pieces. A paper published this month suggests this “ram-to-fragment” behaviour could be a form of Orca play, or else a way of helping youngsters to feed.
By all accounts, Sunfish are so vulnerable to predation that they ought to be extinct. Yet they have a superpower that enables them to survive: the females are prolific breeders, each capable of carrying up to 300m eggs, more than any other animal on Earth.