World's Largest Bony Fish Found After Giant Sunfish Washed Ashore in the Azores

A giant sunfish, which was found dead and washed ashore near an island in Portugal, is now being considered to be the world's largest bony fish and the heaviest bony fish ever recorded.

The gargantuan fish was discovered in the Azores, a Portuguese group of islands, in the North Atlantic Ocean back in December 2021.

Now, a new study officially depicted the appearance of the enormous marine creature.

World's Largest Bony Fish

Details of the Azores giant sunfish (Mola alexandrini), also called as bump-head sunfish, Ramsay's sunfish, or southern ocean sunfish, was published in the Journal of Fish Biology on October 11, almost a year after it was revealed to the world.

The stranded giant sunfish weighed three tons or 6,049 pounds (2,744 kilograms). It also had a size of 12 feet (3.6 meters) tall and around 11 feet (3.5 meters) long.

The dead giant fish is indeed a "majestic specimen."

However, the pictures of its carcass do not show its appearance in the water, according to lead author Jose Nuno Gomes-Pereira, a marine biologist with the Atlantic Naturalist Association, who told Live Science via email.

What is a Giant Sunfish?

The giant sunfish belongs to the genus Mola and family Molidae and are considered to be the largest bony fish in the world.

They can grow up to more than three meters in length and weigh over 2,000 kilograms.

The said sunfish species M. alexandrini is often misclassified and compared to the more common ocean sunfish (Mola mola) which can grow half the size of the recently discovered colossal Azores sunfish.

The bump-head sunfish have attracted interest of humans for centuries due to their unique shape and large size.

Sunfishes can be found across the globe in the open ocean of tropical and temperate seas.

The juggernaut fish have no caudal fin and is replaced by a clavus, which in Latin means "rudder," according to the Australian Museum.

The marine animal was formally known as Mola ramsayi until recent research in 2018 redescribed the species, which ultimately resolved the long-held confusion between the giant sunfish and ocean sunfish.

Several morphological factors are also used to distinguish the two sunfish species. For instance, M. alexandrine has a rounded clavus edge without an indent and has a rectangular shaped.

Sunfish are also often mistaken for sharks due to the big dorsal fin, which is often visible above the water when they swim.

However, they are reportedly harmless to humans but there are instances where they bump into ships.

Confusion with Ocean Sunfish

Belonging to the same genus with the giant sunfish, the ocean sunfish has a bullet-like shape since their back fin which they are born with never grows.

Instead, it folds into itself as the large fish comes into maturity or adulthood. M. mola, which means "milestone" in Latin, has a circular shape, according to the National Geographic.

In general, the sunfish population is considered vulnerable.

They are frequently caught in drift gill nets and can die from suffocation from sea trash such as plastics bags which also resemble the appearance of jellyfish.