Rare Ocean Sunfish reaches Iloilo waters
Iloilo City -- A crew of a pumpboat plying the Guimaras Strait stumbled upon an Ocean Sunfish Wednesday morning. Unfortunately, the fish lost its life dawn Thursday. Considered as a rare specie, the ocean sunfish is now under the custody of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (Seafdec) in Tigbauan, Iloilo for proper classification.
Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Regional Director Sonia Seville said the ocean sunfish is considered an “ancient fish.” She said, it is not extinct but rare and its number is limited. The last sunfish seen in Iloilo was in 1994. It was found in the town of Guimbal, south of Iloilo City.
Ocean sunfish, also called headfish, is a large fish that lives in the tropical and temperate surface waters of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans. It is related to puffers and porcupine fish but not to freshwater sunfish.
The ocean sunfish has one long fin extending from the top of its body and another extending from its underside. Its tail fin is only a narrow band that does little to help it swim. In fact, ocean sunfish are weak swimmers. They tend to float on their sides, often moved about by ocean currents, feeding on jellyfish, shellfish, crustaceans, squid, and occasionally, small fish.
Seville said the sunfish found recently weighed 200 kilos. It was so weak and was having imbalance when seen. However, it bore no injury in its body.
The sunfish was first seen in the waters off Parola and going to the Iloilo River. Four pumpboats then shooed the fish back to the Parola area.
Seville said a team from BFAR and Seafdec where able to see the fish when its was still alive. They wanted to bring the sunfish back to the water but it was already so weak. She suspects the sunfish ran out of oxygen when it reached Iloilo River.
The Maritime Command was preparing to bring back the fish in deep waters but it died at about 4 a.m. Thursday morning.