A disturbing and strange sea creature could be seen on the shores of a beach in Broome, Melbourne, Australia, surprising and alerting tourists who gathered on this northern coast of the west of the oceanic country.
The images of the beast were collected in shocking images so that users of social networks could discuss and decipher what it was. Finally, Internet users unveiled the enigma surrounding the supposed extraterrestrial animal.
It was concluded that the creature is nothing less than a sunfish, an animal that can reach three meters long, 4.2 meters high and weigh up to 2.5 tons. From its appearance, some of the witnesses claimed that it looked like an alien.
It was Tim Rothman and James Barham who first noticed the animal, as they were walking along the seashore in Victoria, near Melbourne.
“We were walking along and saw this big lump in the sand. I’d never seen anything like it before,” Rothman said.
The unique specimen was also spotted by a couple of veterinarians, who also said they had never seen such a fish before. However, last year another specimen of the same species was also found off the Australian coast, as it is apparently quite common in these waters.
“I understand that this is not a very large specimen, I think they can be up to twice the size,” added the female veterinarian.
They are often mistaken for sharks because of the appearance of their fin, and move in tropical waters around the world. They are a vulnerable species that often come to the beach to sunbathe, at which time they are hit by boats, which are also prone to damage, due to the enormous size of these marine animals.
The sunfish’s favorite food consists of jellyfish and zooplankton, but it also eats crustaceans, salps, algae and fish larvae. Its diet is really poor in nutrients and the fish has to consume large amounts of food to compensate for that fact and maintain its body size and weight.
Therefore, one of the problems that also affect this species powerfully is the waste thrown into the sea, as they often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, which they ingest causing their death. They are also considered a delicacy in some parts of Asia, of course, including Japan, China and Taiwan.
Definitely, ocean waters are rich in beautiful, interesting, well-known, but also unknown and rare species. One of those that present the latter characteristic to the vast majority of humans is the sunfish, the heaviest bony fish in the world and whose physique is, to say the least, curious.
The reality is that the most worrying threat to the species is still hunting by humans, who catch the sunfish accidentally, most of the time, but also do so to trade its meat. Share and raise awareness!
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