Santa Cruz, California, has vast beaches for beach-goers to enjoy, where surfers can enjoy the sea without a care in the world and just live out their best lives.
However, some Santa Cruz surfers happened to notice a type of fish that they had never seen before. While rare and unusual, it is also quite big and at first began to startle them.
Surfing Can Be Dangerous
Even the most experienced surfers can get into trouble sometimes. A kite surfer in Santa Cruz became lost and had to write “HELP” on some rocks to whatever was available.
Luckily, a private helicopter that was flying above the area at the time saw the cry for help and was able to call 911 to help get the man back to safety from his terrifying ordeal.
The Ocean Contains Some Unusual Creatures
The ocean is a vast space, with much of it still yet to be explored. This means that no one can ever honestly know what goes on under those waters other than the creatures we already know of.
However, because ocean areas are still being explored, new creatures and species are constantly being discovered. One such creature is a sea cucumber with 200 legs that eats ocean trash.
Surfer Thought He’d Seen a Shark
Surfers are used to coming into close contact with various sea creatures, one being sharks. So when surfer Eric Mendelson saw a fin poking out of the water next to his board, he assumed it was a shark.
However, when he took a closer look at it, he discovered that it was the dorsal fin of a sunfish. These are common in Monterey Bay and don’t threaten humans.
Sharks Regularly Turn up on the Beach
Sharks don’t just stay in the sea or ocean, as they can sometimes turn up on the beach, sometimes with little to no explanation. This was the case for a great white shark found on a South African beach.
The shark was found with a dolphin inside it, and a bite was taken out of its shoulder. It was later discovered that an orca had been the one to cause all this damage, using the liver as a meal.
Sunfish Are the World’s Largest Bony Fish
Sunfish are the world’s largest bony fish, and they are the largest species weighing more than 6000 pounds. On top of that, they stretch to more than 10 feet long. They have large heads, flat bodies, and are as long as they are wide.
They also have large fins that rise from the top and bottom of their bodies, which bend them towards one side when they are swimming.
The Fish Was a Mola Mola Sunfish
Tierney Thys, a marine biologist, filmmaker, research associate at the California Academy of Sciences, and sunfish expert, examined Mendelson’s photos.
Her belief is that due to the sheer size of the sunfish, it is a mola mola sunfish. According to Thys, this is the most common species in Santa Cruz.
A Sea Otter Has Terrorized Santa Cruz Surfers
The mola mola sunfish isn’t the only sea creature that has terrorized locals in Santa Cruz. In 2023, a sea otter was doing just that by attacking surfers.
The otters initially managed to draw people in with their cuteness until one started biting down on a surfboard and chewing a piece off. The otter then kept going towards the surfer and biting the leash that attached the surfer to the surfboard.
Various Sea Otter Attacks in Santa Cruz
The issue with the sea otter isn’t an isolated incident, as many other attacks on surfers in the Santa Cruz area have also occurred since then.
Sea otters can weigh between 30 and 100 pounds and grow up to 5 feet in length, making them quite large and challenging when coming up against a surfer.
Sunfish Are Vulnerable
Despite their size, sunfish are seen as one of the more vulnerable sea creatures in the ecosystem. This is due to their size and shape.
Sunfish are easily caught in drift gill nets and can suffocate on sea trash, such as plastic bags. This is likely because the bags share too much of a close resemblance to jellyfish when underwater.
Mola Mola Sunfish Love Warm Temperatures
Mola mola sunfish are most likely to live in tropical and warm places, but an increasing number end up in Santa Cruz. This is believed to be due to the phase-out of the drift gill net fishery in California.
It is also believed that warming ocean temperatures due to climate change could be another reason for the influx in the number of mola mola sunfish in the area.
Surfers Have Nothing to Worry About
The very size of the mola mola sunfish can be worrying to people, as it can be quite intimidating. There is also the issue of its fins, which initially look like those of a shark, which can scare people when they first see them.
However, Thys has assured surfers and other beach-goers that they have nothing to worry about. The creature is docile, and their primary concern is to consume jellyfish over anything else.
