A massive sunfish weighing 2,744 kilograms was found in the Azores archipelago, Portugal, and is thought to be the heaviest bony fish in the world (3 tons).
According to researchers, the animal was discovered floating lifeless in December close to Faial Island in the center North Atlantic.
Although the discovery was made last year, the Journal of Fish Biology has just now released information about it.
The fish was hauled to shore and analyzed by scientists from the Atlantic Naturalist Association and the Azores University, both in Portugal, for biometrical and morphological data. The fish was weighed, examined, and had tissue taken for DNA testing.
The bulk of fish species in the world—roughly 29,000 species—are bony fish, which have skeletal bone structures.
The carcass weighs more than 400 kilograms (882 pounds) more than the previous record-holder for heaviest bony fish, a female giant sunfish that was taken near Kamogawa in Japan in 1996 and weighed 2,300 kilos (5,070 pounds).
After being lifted above ground using a forklift truck, the sunfish was weighed using a crane scale dynamometer, a machine made to weigh items generally hoisted by a crane.
The beast measured 3.25 meters (10.67 feet) in length and 3.59 meters in height (11.78 feet). According to researchers, it had a maximum width of 86 centimeters (2.82 feet) when measured around its midsection (body). Unknown as of yet is the sex.
A postdoctoral researcher from the Atlantic Naturalist Association and the paper’s primary author, José Nuno Gomes-Pereira, told CNN on Tuesday that it was saddening “to witness the animal in this circumstance as it must have been a monarch of open ocean.”
He stated that the “tremendously huge” sunfish had been interred in Faial Island’s Natural Park.
Gomes-Pereira stated that the discovery was a “warning for more conservation in terms of pollution and boat traffic on marine islands,” but also a proof that the waters are still in good enough health to support the largest species currently extant.
According to a news release from the Atlantic Naturalist Association last Thursday, giant sunfish (Mola alexandrini), which were first classified as their own species in 2018, are reported to weigh twice as much as the second heaviest fish species, the ocean sunfish (Mola mola).
According to Gomes-Pereira, the dead sunfish had a “contusion” (bruise) on its front, which may have been the reason for the fish’s demise. It is unclear, nevertheless, whether the effect occurred before or after death. According to the journal publication, a red paint that is typically applied to boat keels was embedded in the wound.
The researchers think further research is necessary to fully understand the physiology of large specimens like sunfish and marine ecosystems in general because there is a dearth of information on these organisms.
According to Guinness World Records, the whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is the largest fish species in the world. The 21.5 metric ton specimen was discovered in Pakistan in 1949.
