Diving with Sunfish
The Mighty Mola Mola
There are not too many dive sites in the world that can boast the presence of the magnificent Mola Mola, but those that do are rightfully proud of the fact. Diving with sun fish will provide you with an unforgettable memory - the odd looking flat disc lolling near the surface staring at you with its large dopey eyes. Dives with these creatures are great but all the more special if you know a thing or two about the stars of this show ...
The oceanic sunfish, is surely one of the most unusual looking creatures
in the sea. The German name for this fish is "Schwimmender Kopf" meaning
swimming head, which gives you some idea of what Mola Mola look like.
If you were diving in Bali, near the surface at Nusa Penida , you might see this large almost flat, awkward looking creature appearing just like a large head equipped with long sweeping fins atop and below. With a body less than twice as long as it is deep, sunfish tend to loll near the surface seemingly sunning themselves. Diving with one makes for a life time experience to remember.
Mola Mola are usually found in oceanic waters, but occasionally come inshore. This happens between July and September every year in Bali, making these months the best time to see these fish. Because they are often seen at the surface sunfish are sometimes mistaken for sharks, because of the large dorsal fin which protrudes into the air and sometimes flaps comically.
Its tail is rounded and its coarse skin is covered with enormous amounts of mucus. Normally of a silver opalescent colour, they can exhibit amazingly changeable patterns of spots. One whopper measured at 3.1 metres in length was found to weigh 2,235 kg making it the heaviest bony fish in the world.
Sun Fish Fact Sheet
Family name: Centrarchidae Molidae
Order name: Tetraodontiformes
Common name: Oceanic Sunfish
Scientific name: Mola Mola
The oceanic sun fish is an unusual looking fish. It doesn't have a caudal (tail) fin. Instead it has a clavus, which is formed by extensions of the dorsal and anal fin rays. These take the place of a true tail fin which does not form.
Mola Mola as you might guess from their appearance, come from the same order as puffers and porcupine fish. The name of the order, Tetraodontiformes, refers to the four fused teeth that comprise their characteristic beak. Puffers can defend themselves by taking in water and puffing up, whereas oceanic sunfish suck and spit chiefly to render their prey items into bite-size pieces before ingesting the morsels using their long, claw-like teeth in their throat.
It has a deep body that attains a maximum length of 3.3 metres. Sunfish are harmless to people, and feed on jellyfish, salps, ctenophores and occasionally small crustaceans and fishes.
Mola Mola produce an impressive number of eggs. A 1.4 metre female was estimated to be carrying 300 million eggs in her single ovary which to date remains the largest number of eggs ever recorded in a single vertebrate at any one time. After hatching, the larvae expose their affinity to their spiky pufferfish relatives by looking more like swimming pincushions than sunfish. As they grow the spines disappear, as do their tails.
A few years ago a Mola Mola got stuck on the bulbous bow of an Australian cement carrier, slowing the ship from 14 to 11 knots. The huge sun fish was removed and weighed in at approximately 1,400 kg and its skin was so rough that it had worn the ship's paint work back to the bare metal.
Although they are considered tropical or subtropical fish, they are regularly sighted in temperate climates. Sunfish are in fact weak swimmers and some are carried by the Gulf Stream to places as far north as Scotland and the coast of Antrim in the north of Ireland.
Dive Sites
More detailed information on Mola Mola diving destinations:
Indonesia - Bali
Dive The World Recommendations: Lembongan Island and Nusa Penida in Bali.
• Send for your sunfish diving holiday options
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