ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. (KNX) — Two men paddling off Laguna Beach’s shoreline discovered a strange-looking fish.
It turns out the fish Rich German and his friend, Matt Wheaton, found on Dec. 2 was a huge mola mola, which is known better by its common name, ocean sunfish.
The mola mola has a “bullet-like shape” due a back fin that doesn’t grow, according to National Geographic. They often weight 5,000 pounds, and are normally 14 feet vertically and 10 feet horizontally.
“We were just paddling and all of a sudden we were like ‘Oh my god.’ That thing was massive,” German told the Orange County Registrar.
German, founder of Project O, and ocean conservation nonprofit, and author of the book “Blue Laguna,” said he went home to check what the Guinness World Record was for size of mola mola. He found that in 1966 an fisherman caught a mola mola that 5,070 pounds and was 8’11 off the coast of Japan.
German told the publication he believed the mola mola he saw could be longer lengthwise and will deliberate with marine scientists to see if the mola mola “could be measured based on the size of German’s board.
German shared the photos of the fish on his Facebook page.
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