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Notable: Northernmost sighting to date...

This Mola was caught deep inside a fjord named Rombaksfjorden. It is located 30 kilometers east of the town of Narvik North Norway. The water temp here is about 8-15 degrees C in summer and 2-5 degrees C in winter. It's never iced in winter because of the Gulfstream. From time to time small molas are caught here. We call them Månefisk (moonfish). The mola was caught Sunday 28 August 13:00 and it was caught with a small fishing rod and spoon (looks like a small fish) It fought about one hour before it was tired and the weight was 33 kilogram.

Torleif Lindell

Noteable: Dolphin herding sunfish

October 10 2001

The sunfish which I saw this summer was brought to me by a dolphin. A lone dolphin has taken up residence near where I live in the West of Ireland. She is very friendly and enjoys interacting with people in the water. The first time I went swimming with her this summer she started nosing around at something on or near the bottom, about 6-7m down. I was about 50-100m offshore. Eventually she herded a sunfish to the surface. I thought it was dead at first because it didn't seem to be moving of it's own volition, but after a while it started to swim. The dolphin kept the sunfish with us for about 20 minutes. Whenever the unfortunate fish tried to escape, the dolphin would let it get maybe 10 or 20m away then round it up and nudge it back. It was amazing to watch such deliberated, playful action. The fish seemed very lethargic or possibly injured. It swam nearly on the surface, very slowly, with its uppermost, flipper-like, fin flapping loosely from side to side. It was big (by Irish fish standards!) maybe 60-80cm long and the same or more in height. It felt hard to the touch, which surprised me. Eventually the dolphin tired of it and it was allowed flap slowly away to sea.

That's it. Not sure that this tells you much about sunfish, but it told me a lot about dolphins!

Citizen Scientist

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