GEARHART, Ore. — You may recognize this fish from "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" — though it's a slightly different species that washed up on a Gearhart beach on the Oregon coast, just north of Seaside.
On June 3, the 7.3-foot sunfish washed ashore, making a New Zealand-based researcher, Mariann Nyegaard, take notice.
According to Nyegaard, this particular fish isn't the more well-known ocean sunfish, also known as a Mola mola, but the hoodwinker sunfish, or Mola tecta. Nyegaard discovered the species in 2017; initially, it was thought to be a new species hiding in plain sight, according to the Seaside Aquarium, found through genetic sampling and eventual observation.
It was thought to only live in the Southern Hemisphere's temperate waters, but a few have recently washed ashore in California and as far north as Alaska.
Nyegaard reached out to the Seaside Aquarium to see if they would be willing to take samples for genetics. Staff did so, taking photos, measurements and tissue samples, and through the photos, Nyegaard confirmed the species was a hoodwinker sunfish and might be the "largest species ever sampled."
Meanwhile, the fish remains on the beach, perhaps for up to a few weeks, since its tough skin makes it rough eating for scavengers.
A number of creatures have been popping up on the coast this year, including a humpback whale (dead), a deep-sea angler fish (also dead), a rare blue rock thrush (alive), an octopus (also alive) and even a 20-million-year-old fossil (obviously quite dead).
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