When I found a small sunfish washed up earlier this year, I knew exactly who to call.
The sunfish specimen found washed up north of Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Ellen Rykers
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Dr Marianne Nyegaard is an ocean sunfish scientist and research associate at the Auckland Museum. She’s been fascinated by sunfish, also known as mola, since she learnt you could dive with them on tropical reefs near Bali.
Despite being the world’s largest bony fish, there’s a lot we don’t know about sunfish. We don’t know where or how they breed, exactly what they eat, and how old they get. We also don’t know how they grow from babies so tiny they could fit on your thumbnail, into massive fish the size and weight of a car.
Dr Marianne Nyegaard diving with a bump-head sunfish (Mola alexandrini). Photo: Supplied / Auckland Museum
One species, the hoodwinker sunfish (Mola tecta) was only discovered in 2017 after a worldwide detective hunt spearheaded by Marianne. This species hangs out around southern New Zealand, but the species I found stranded north of Auckland is the bump-head sunfish, Mola alexandrini.
I join Marianne in the Auckland Museum lab to inspect and dissect the young sunfish, and discover what scientific secrets it might hold.
Marianne took two small tissue samples from the sunfish specimen for population genetic analysis and future research. Photo: Ellen Rykers / RNZ
To learn more:
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Listen to the full episode on Our Changing World
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Check out Marianne’s Ocean Sunfish Research Facebook page
