Yes we want your Mola sightings!
Be they recent or from the past.
The research continues into the TWO species of Mola (sunfish) that belong off our coast.
Please fill in the simple data form at www.mersociety.org/mola.
Here we feature some of the recent data contributions. Great thanks to ALL who have provided sightings!
Note that the photo of the poor dead sunfish is from 2005. All the others are from 2023.
We will report back to you via email about if your sighting was a Mola mola (Ocean Sunfish) or Mola tecta (Hoodwinker Sunfish).
The Hoodwinker (as the name implies) has “tricked” we humans into not realizing there were two species until very recently. There’s more background about that and how to discern the two species on our webpage at this link.
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Why does this matter?
This project for which we are helping collect data, will not only add to the understanding of sunfish species. It will also help demonstrate the value of crowd-sourced science in understanding marine ecosystems.
It highlights how much there is still to be learned about the ocean; that, in fact, there are still huge (sunfish-sized!) discoveries to be made.
We hope this will help inspire both greater humility and increased action for the ocean.
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Further resources:
- Marianne Nyegaard and others, Hiding in broad daylight: molecular and morphological data reveal a new ocean sunfish species (Tetraodontiformes: Molidae) that has eluded recognition, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Volume 182, Issue 3, March 2018, Pages 631–658, https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlx040
- 2020 – Australian Museum “Hoodwinker Sunfish, Mola tecta Nyegaard et al 2017“
- March 1, 2021 – Presentation by Dr. Marianne Nyegaard on Mola tecta
- February 2, 2021 – CBC article “Meet the Hoodwinker, the ocean sunfish we misidentified for years”
#Mola#HolyMola#OceanSunfish#MolaMola#Hoodwinker#MarineBiology#Sunfish
