Rare mola mola fish spotted in California water

HOLY mola! A super rare sighting of one of the world’s weirdest fish has been caught on camera in California.

ONE of the world’s freakiest looking fish was spotted in a rare sighting in the waters off the Californian coast for the first time in more than eight years.

The mola mola, or ocean sunfish, was snapped by keen-eyed Jodi Fediani who was on a whale watching boat at the time the odd sea creature came to the surface to feed.

This mola mola slurps up a velella velella, also known as by-the-wind-sailors. Picture: Jodi Frediani/Caters News

Growing up to 4m in length and being the world’s heaviest bony fish, these can dwarf a grown man, but it’s their peculiar round shape that makes them so fascinating. The word mola is Latin for millstone and, looking like a lab experiment gone wrong the round, tailless mola mola almost looks out of place in the ocean.

Instead of having a tail that grows out like other fish, it grows in on itself and leaves the fish with a rounded rudder-like tail, known as a clavus.

It may not have a tail as such but they can move surprisingly quickly. Picture: Jodi Frediani/Caters News

Not seen in Monterey Bay in over eight years. Picture: Jodi Frediani/Caters News

What makes this sighting so rare is the mola mola spend most of their time in the open ocean, not in bays, and feed about 150m below the water’s surface. According to the photographer, the giant fish came to feed on jellyfish-like creature called by-the-wind-sailors.

“We were able to watch it as it honed in on one by-the-wind-sailor after another, slurping each into its open mouth, then squirting out a jet of unwanted seawater,” the photographer said.

“They swim in a curious, rather clumsy fashion for a fish, wagging their tall dorsal and ventral fins and stubby tails.”

Often their dorsal fins are mistaken for shark dorsal fins. Picture: Jodi Frediani/Caters News

Not a lot is known about these creatures, particularly how fast they grow or how long they live for.

Facts about the mola mola:

• In Germany it is called schwimmender kopf, which means “swimming head”

• The heaviest mola on record weighed in at 2300kg, found in Japan

• Molas are found in temperate oceans with sightings around Australia previously recorded

• They are capable of changing their body colour when stressed or under attack

• Their skin is rough and gritty like sandpaper but they are covered in mucus

• They come from the same order as puffer fish