Beached giant Ocean Sunfish in CDO dies
Lim said the fish made loud noises at it slammed on the wooden stilts of Padera’s house, rousing his neighbors also.
He said Padera and his neighbors even tried to bring the big fish to the deeper portion of the shore to allow it to swim back to the sea.[]
“Padera told us they tried to bring the fish twice to the deeper portion but the fish kept going back under his house,” Lim said.
Lim said by the time they arrived at the site at around 7 a.m., the fish has already died.
Teodoro Bacolod Jr., head of BFAR’s Fisheries Inspection and Quarantine Services, said the Ocean Sunfish, which is the “heaviest known bony fish in the world,” might have been “disoriented” when it strayed to the shores of Macabalan.
He said the fish is commonly found in the deeper portion of the tropical waters in Central Philippines.
“It might have been a change in the water temperature because of climate change. There are so many factors that could have disoriented the fish to stray,” Bacolod said, adding the fish died “because of stress when people started to gather and touched it.”
“These fishes are known to be solitary sea travelers. Some roam the sea in pairs but never in a pack,” he said.
Bacolod said the fish may have been a juvenile considering that a matured Ocean Sunfish weighs up to at least 1,000 kilos.
He said the fish usually subsists on jellyfish, small crabs and shrimps.[]
The BFAR has not categorized the Ocean Sunfish as endangered but other countries in Europe ban its sale. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)
