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Home » A 4,000-pound giant moonfish was rescued from a fishing net off the Spanish coast of Ceuta

A 4,000-pound giant moonfish was rescued from a fishing net off the Spanish coast of Ceuta

The mammoth moonfish was 10.5 feet long and 9.5 feet wide. Enrique Ostalé-Valriberas, coordinator of the Laboratory of Marine Biology at the University of Seville in Ceuta, estimated it weighed about 4,400 pounds based on comparisons with other catches.

“We tried to weigh it, but we only had a scale up to 1,000 kilograms and in this case we couldn’t use it because it was going to break,” he told CNN in Spanish.

Ostalé-Valriberas told CNN that her research team has been working with local al-Marra fishermen, who have used nets attached to boats to catch fish like tuna for four years for the study. Alone fish. Based on their catches, fishermen and researchers choose what interests them when they return other species to the ocean. In this case, however, the fishermen alerted Ostalé-Valriberas and his team — who were working on an invasive algae study at the time — to rush in to see the big catch.

Because the animal was so heavy, investigators used a crane to lift it after isolating it in an underwater chamber attached to the boat. They then measured their dimensions and took close-up photos and DNA samples.

“We had seen it in a book and in scientific articles, and to put it out there to tell you the truth really impressed me,” Ostalé-Valriberas said. “Above all, you have to imagine the stress that’s created as we’re at sea, we’re on a boat, the animal is alive, we have to move it quickly into the open sea while None is done. mal”


According to Ostalé-Valriberas, although moonfish of this size have been recorded in other parts of the world, fishermen and other researchers have not seen any large fish near their research center. The moonfish had dark brown skin and rounded skins, which led Ostalé-Valriberas to believe that it belonged to the species Mola alexandrini.

“I see, on the one hand, finding him and finding him alive, enjoying him and swimming with him,” he said. “On the other hand, we were also lucky, because it was difficult for us to manage with the cranes, because we had to think that we were in a boat, that we were in the middle of the ocean, and an accident could always happen. It does. Is.”

“Big Weird Balls” of the Ocean

According to Dr. Tierney Theis, a marine biologist and associate researcher at the California Academy of Sciences, Mola alexandrini is “truly one of the great aliens of the ocean.” Although its appearance may seem cumbersome, it glides through the water with funny wing beats from its long dorsal and anal fins, as if “it’s a sidebird,” Theis told CNN in an email. Mollas are the only known sea creatures that can generate support in this way.

Although the Mola mola, or common moonfish, species has been studied more extensively than the Mola alexandrini, it holds many measurement records. According to Ostalé-Valriberas, Mola Alexandrini…

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