Scientists Shocked By Rare, Giant Sunfish Washed Up On California Beach
They initially thought it was a type of fish known to swim near Santa Barbara. But by collaborating with Australian scientists, they found it was a species never before documented in North America.
Stumbling upon a seven-foot-long sunfish while walking on a beach is already pretty surprising.
But what researchers initially thought was a common type of sunfish turned out to be much rarer – a newly discovered species thought to make its home almost entirely in the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere. This was in Santa Barbara, Calif. — much further north than anyone expected to find it.
"I literally, nearly. Nyegaard, a sunfish expert, discovered and described the sunfish — commonly known as the hoodwinker sunfish — in 2017.
