Researchers have determined that an odd giant fish that washed up on an Oregon beach is a recently discovered species.
The 7.3-foot-long fish found dead on the shore drew throngs of onlookers last week after it was first spotted just north of Seaside.
Media reports of the big fish reachedf New Zealand researcher Marianne Nyegaard, who soon determined it was a sunfish species that she had first identified in a report in 2017, noted the local Seaside Aquarium.
She had dubbed the creature the "hoodwinker sunfish" or Mola tecta, believed until recently to live in the temperate waters of the southern hemisphere. The commonly known huge ocean sunfish iin the Pacific Northwest is Mola mola.
Researchers at the Seaside Aquarium believe that other Mola tecta may have been spotted in the waters off Oregon, but were assumed to be the more common species.
"This fish, hiding in plain sight, has most likely been seen/washed ashore in the Pacific Northwest before," the aquarium noted on Facebook.
Divers in Monterey Bay photographed two hoodwinker sunfish in 2019. They were among the first confirmed sightings of the new species in Central California, the Monterey Bay Aquarium reported.
Identification of the fish was confirmed by photos and DNA testing.
Hoodwinker sunfish can grow up to 7.9 feet long, but are actually smaller than some other members of the ocean sunfish family, which can exceed 10 feet.
Hoodwinkers have a distinctive bullet-like shape, tough skin and a small mouth with beaklike teeth.
The curious will likely be able to continue to check out the Oregon hoodwinker for weeks because it's protected from predators, and for a bit from decay, by its tough skin.
