Australia: They found a monstrous fish-moon stranded on a beach



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Australia: They found a monstrous fish-moon stranded on a beach

A 1.8-meter-long moon fish, the world's heaviest bone fish, has been stranded on an Australian beach and images of this virtually unknown animal have circled the world.

The moon fish, also known as mola mola, was found dead last weekend at the mouth of the Murray River in southern Australia.

This type of fish is distinguished by its large size and characteristic body crushed laterally. It can weigh up to 2.2 tons, according to National Geographic magazine.

The reason this moon fish has reached the coast is unknown. "It's common to hit ships and some are so big that they can sink a sailboat," said Ralph Foster, head of the South Australian Museum's fish collection.

This specimen was of a rather average size for its species, according to him. Moonfish "can be much bigger (…) almost twice as big," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

"We know very little about it – it's only in recent years that technology has allowed us to start learning more about them." They are considered "vulnerable" by the International Union for the Conversation of Nature (IUCN).

These fish have the particularity of sunbathing on the surface of the water, which deserves its name in English "sunfish". They can also swim several hundred meters deep.

The images of the failed fish, published on Facebook by Linette Grzelak, aroused curiosity. "The number of media in the world who want to talk about it is incredible, I did not expect it," he said.

Source: Los Andes

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