Breaching sunfish

Lee Black & Natasha Phillips · Issue 108, May/Jun 2019 · pp. 52–54

Products mentioned: Nikon D4, Nikkor 28-300mm lens, Nikkor 14-24mm lens, Sea&Sea YS-250 Pro strobe, Ultralight Buoyancy arms

The ocean sunfish is the world’s largest bony fish, reaching up to 3m in length and as such they are an incredible species to see in the wild. These leviathans feed primarily on gelatinous planktonic prey including jellyfish medusae, salps and ctenophores, but less well known is that as smaller fishes, up to 40% of their diet also includes crustaceans, molluscs and some fish species. Since they pose no threat to humans and typically swim at a cruising rate of around 0.5 m/s, these gentle giants are a wonder to swim alongside or to watch as they bask in surface waters. The sunfishes are notable for their somewhat unusual appearance, with a round, truncated body, extended dorsal and anal fins, and lack of a true caudal tail. This body shape or bauplan, differs to many other open water fish species where often more torpedo- like streamlining offers pursuit predators like tuna and marlin a d…