Rare sunfish

Hi Sea Fans!

I can't contain my excitement so I just have to write another post today.  The other day I saw something flapping in the waves while I was on the beach.  It looked like a fish, possibly in trouble, so I thought I'd get closer to see what was happening.  If it needed help, I'd call the other aquarists to come and help me get it to the aquarium to sort it out.  True as Bob, it was a fish and it was not looking happy.  Another lady (a helpful concerned tourist) came running into the waves and told me that this fish had almost been washed ashore a few minutes ago.  At closer inspection, I could see it was a type of sunfish - what a treat!  I had never seen a Sunfish in real life before so I was extremely impressed, wanting to take a photo but worrying about the fish  so I didn't.  I had a closer look and it didn't look damaged or sickly so we took it deeper behind the waves and it never came back to shore...I waited for quite a while, just in case.

The part that is so amazing about this story is that I only just recently looked up what kind of sunfish it was and you won't believe it...it's the rarest sunfish called the Slender Sunfish!! What a pity I didn't take a photo because the researchers need information about them and they plot sightings on a world map when you can send them proof of your sighting.  I feel really priviledged to have seen such an animal and to have been able to help.

What a beautiful fish!

As you can see from this picture I got off the internet, it's a beautiful fish.  They only grow to a metre in length so they are smaller than the Mola mola or Ocean Sunfish that I wrote about before in my blog.  What a pity it would have been if it had been washed ashore and nobody had been there to help it!


So if you ever see a marine animal in trouble, give your local aquarium a call so that they can help it.

Have a great week Sea Fans!
Cheers
Abby
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