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Southern Ocean Sunfish
Mola ramsayi (Giglioli, 1883)
A Southern Ocean Sunfish off Port Augusta, upper Spencer Gulf, South Australia, August 2003. Photo © B. & J. Carter. The photographers captured this image from their kayaks. The fish was slapping the water with its dorsal fin and made no attempt to swim away. It may have been moribund, because a dead sunfish was found washed up on a nearby beach about two weeks after this photo was taken. View larger image.
New South Wales Fisheries Officer Glen Staples with a 1.7m long Southern Ocean Sunfish. The fish was found washed up on the rock platform near the southern entry to Sussex Inlet, New South Wales, August 2003. It was approximately 190cm from dorsal to anal fin tips and an estimated weight of 750kg. Tissues from this fish are registered in the Australian Museum Fish Collection (AMS I. 42801). View larger image.
Front half of the Southern Ocean Sunfish in the above image. Note the ridge above and behind the eye and the fused beak-like teeth. View larger image.
The Southern Ocean Sunfish is a deep bodied species with high dorsal and anal fins placed posteriorly on the body. It has a small mouth with teeth fused into a parrot-like beak. The skin is leathery with rough denticles. Large fish have a ridge above and behind the eyes.
This fish is brown to grey above often with pale blotches, and paler below. After death it becomes white.
The Southern Ocean Sunfish grows to 3.3 m in length.
It occurs in oceanic waters of the South Pacific Ocean.
In Australia it is found in temperate marine waters from northern New South Wales, around the south of the country, including Tasmania, to south-western Western Australia.
Four species of sunfish are found in Australian waters, the Southern Ocean Sunfish, Ocean Sunfish, Mola mola, Slender Sunfish Ranzania laevis ,and the Point-tailed Sunfish, Masturus lanceolatus.
The two species of Mola can be separated by the number of ossicles in the clavus (the tail frill). M.ramsayi has 12 ossicles that are wider than the spaces between them. M.mola has 8 to 9 ossicles that are narrower than the spaces between them. There is a distinct band of smaller denticles at the base of the clavus in M.mola (view image) that is lacking in M.ramsayi.
View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.
Related links
- View image of the holotype at NHM
- View the Ocean Sunfish Stranding page
- View the Sunfishes list
Further reading
- Anon. 2003. OceanSunfish.org.
- Glover, C.J.M. in Gomon, M.F., Glover, C.J.M. & R.H. Kuiter (Eds). 1994. The Fishes of Australia's South Coast. State Print, Adelaide. Pp. 992.
- Hutchins, B. & R. Swainston. 1986. Sea Fishes of Southern Australia. Complete Field Guide for Anglers and Divers. Swainston Publishing. Pp. 180.
- Hutchins, B. & M. Thompson. 1983. The Marine and Estuarine Fishes of South-western Australia. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 103.
- Last, P.R., E.O.G. Scott & F.H. Talbot. 1983. Fishes of Tasmania. Tasmanian Fisheries Development Authority. Pp. 563.
