Video Of Absolutely Massive Sunfish Dwarfing Human Divers Will Drop Your Jaw

You’re definitely gonna need a bigger boat if you’re going to try to land this behemoth, but you’d probably be better off just taking in the sights, as yet another truly massive sunfish has been caught on camera for the delight and wonderment of the internets.

As regular Inquisitr readers will know, sunfish get big on the net from time to time, usually when some person who hasn’t seen them before runs across one of the big beasties. Recently, one Boston man delighted the internet when he totally flipped his lid upon seeing a massive ocean sunfish. In an expletive-laden video, Michael Bergin alternately called the sunfish a “big f*****g sea turtle” and a “baby f*****g whale” before proclaiming that he and his friend were going to get “some big money” for landing the saltwater sunfish. Bergin also thought the sunfish could have been a flounder or a tuna.

The newest video, though, is a quieter affair, and it comes by way of Earth Touch News (h/t: GrindTV). This huge sunfish was videoed off the coast of Portugal by Michael Pereria and his fellow divers, all of whom are dwarfed by the ocean sunfish.

The video may lack the hilarious NSFW commentary of a shocked Bostonian convinced he’s found his ticket to the nightly news, but the new sunfish video at least gives a better view of a specimen. Whereas the Bostonian video may have shown a sunfish sunbathing after a deep dive – or perhaps in its death throes – the Portuguese video shows the massive fish simply swimming about, apparently unbothered by the school of photographers orbiting around it.

“The slow-moving fish and clear water allow for some spectacular close-ups of this amazing animal.”

Saltwater sunfish are also known as ocean sunfish or mola mola. The term “sunfish” itself covers a range of both fresh and saltwater fish species.

Air 2 spotted this on the way back thru #Duxbury from some humorous beachgoers. #shark #Jaws pic.twitter.com/YQrLT9fPLV

— Dustin Fitch (@DustinGFitch) August 25, 2014

The gigantic specimen seen is an example of how truly massive sunfish can get. In the wild, sunfish have been known to measure nearly 15 feet vertically, according to GrindTV, and they can reach lengths of around 12 feet. They can weigh as much as 5,000 pounds.

Earth Touch News commended the divers for resisting the urge to touch the massive fish. Apparently, sunfish are known to be teeming with parasites. Sunfish play host to more than 40 different parasites, some of which even have parasites of their own. Plus, you know, the fish isn’t bothering them, so no need to bother it.

But sunfish are apparently gentle giants, roaming temperate ocean zones to feed on sea jellies, small fish, and plankton. The Inertia notes that, while they typically hang out between 160 and 650 feet underwater, sunfish have been found at depths of up to 2,600 feet. After a deep dive to grub on jellyfish and the like, sunfish tend to spend about half their days near the surface warming up and presumably enduring the obscene rants from shocked Bostonians.

It’s not all sunbathing and leisure for sunfish, though. In some areas, fishers will “fin” sunfish when they catch them, slicing off a fin or two and then tossing them back into the ocean to drown slowly. This is to keep the “nuisance” fish’s population low, although it’s probably not terribly effective, as sunfish numbers in the ocean appear to be plentiful.

If you’re wondering, you can eat ocean sunfish, but they’re not said to be very enjoyable as food. Apparently, though, sunfish is a pretty popular dish in Japan.

Sunfish also apparently overcompensate when it comes to reproduction. Female sunfish carry up to 300 million eggs in their ovaries, which puts them high up there in the running for Most Prepared to Get Down.

Sunfish are also sometimes mistaken for sharks, as was the case about a year ago at a Marshfield beach. Swimmers saw a fin sticking out of the water and reported it to officials. The beach wound up being closed down for a while until officials saw that it was a sunfish and not a great white.

What do you think, Inquisitr readers? If you saw this massive sunfish swimming near you, would you pop over for a closer look? Maybe grab hold and go for a short ride?

[Image via YouTube]