Gazing out into the ocean and spotting a sea monster sounds like something straight out of a horror movie. That’s exactly what happened for a couple of Massachusetts residents, however. The two fishermen were boating in Wareham’s Broad Cove when they made a very interesting discovery.
When they encountered this strange sea creature, the two men quickly turned on their camera in the hopes of documenting it. The two fishermen could hardly believe what was happening.
They were genuinely freaked out by the creature!
“We are seeing some s–t we ain’t never seen before!”
Other people were just as shocked too.
The two fishermen weren’t the only ones to spot this giant sea monster either. The local police department received several calls from concerned people who had also spotted the creature in the ocean.
Inside Edition reported on the sightings. Their coverage also included the call from one man to report his sighting of the creature.
“There’s something out there swimming around. All I can get out of it is a fin or a flipper.”
Others felt the creature was likely an injured seal or possibly a shark.
The creature wasn’t actually a monster, however. The creature that appeared so monstrous and so out-of-this-world was actually neither of those things.
It was a sunfish.
Just a plain old sunfish. Not a giant sea monster, not a gigantic new species, or anything that could potentially fight Godzilla in a future movie.
Inside Edition interviewed Long Island Aquarium’s Joe Yaiullo about the type of fish that caused so much concern with its appearance.
“They’re extremely docile fish. Sunfish eat jellyfish, smaller fish, things like that. They’re not a threat to humans at all.”
Despite having a very friendly-sounding name, sunfish can appear pretty intimidating.
Sunfish can grow up to 14 feet vertically and weigh close to 5000 pounds, which makes them interesting to run into out in the ocean. They are also called by the name “Mola” and have the largest mass of any boned fish on the planet.
National Geographic has the following to say about sunfish on their website:
“Mola are found in temperate and tropical oceans around the world. They are frequently seen basking in the sun near the surface and are often mistaken for sharks when their huge dorsal fins emerge above the water.”
The sunfish that caused so much chaos when spotted by fishermen and local residents wasn’t even a particularly large one.
The town’s Department of Natural Resources Director, Garry Buckminster, said the fish was actually fairly small for its species. He told Today that this particular sunfish likely only weighed 150-250 pounds.
A Facebook post was made to inform local residents that this is just a normal fish and they do not need to call the authorities about it.
The Wareham Department of Natural Resources posted the following to Facebook:
“We are aware of a sunfish in Broad Cove. We have checked on it, and it is doing normal sunfish activities. Its swimming. It is not stranded or suffering. The sunfish is FINE.”
The post continued:
“Dont be jealous just because it’s not swimming weather anymore! PLEASE STOP CALLING THE POLICE DEPARTMENT ABOUT THIS SUNFISH!!”
https://www.facebook.com/WarehamDNR/posts/3348470988570077
“Sunfish tend to be a normal visitor to our area during this time of year and we’re happy to report he exited our harbor inlet on its own.”
You can watch Inside Edition’s coverage of this story in the video below!
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