SUNFISH ASHORE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23077, 30 June 1938, Page 12

SUNFISH ASHORE

[UNUSUAL iVISITOB

STRANDED IN THE MANUKAU

WEIGHT OVER HALF! A TON - A large sunfish, an unusual visitor to the Auckland coast, was stranded iff in the shallow waters of Huia Bay, .|| inside the Manukau Heads, on Tuesday morning and was secured without diffi- 2§j culty by Messrs. W. Barr and J. Evans, ;jl who rowed out in a dinghy and towed it ashore with a rope. The sunfish was first noticed by soma | children going to school, who said it was spouting fountains of water. They pointed it out to some men on the " shore, but they thought it was a larga ' - ! log over which the sea was breaking. Later in the morning it came closer inshore and its dorsal fin showed clearly. As the tide ebbed the fish became Btranded on a sandbank, where ' it was captured shortly after. ®' Nine Feet In Length ;.4 , ' . " A small, slate-coloured pilot fish aboufl ; nine inches long was foun'd, clinging to the upper fin of the sunfish. This was dislodged with some difficulty owing to the strong grip afforded by a curiously f, : barred suction pad under the jaw of the pilot fish. ■ > The sunfish is somewhat like a huge flounder, except that it has two large, .v thick fins, one on its back, the other beneath, and that it swims in an up. right position as if cutting the water. '0 The specimen at Huia is about 10ft. from tip to tip of it 3 fins and about fJ| 9ft. long, and is estimated to weigh vVwell over half a ton. Food at < Great SJepth The ocean sunfish (moia. ramsayi) is found throughout the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans. "I taw three at | 7.' one time in 1933 when travelling from Lyttelton to the Chatham Islands," . said Mr. A. W. B. Powell, assistantdirector of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, last night. "They were jußt lolling around near the surface. Their peculiar shape—they have practically, ; no tail—is designed for deep-sea diving, which is necessary in their hunt for % | food. They live on small organisms found at a great depth." A small specimen was killed last December off Walker's Reef, Point '-A&j Chevalier, and another was stranded. ; near the Onehunga Wharf in March of , , last year. Several large sunfish have been reported in recent years hear the coast of the southern portion of the 1 ; , South Island.