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A giant sunfish weighing 3 tons was found off the coast of Faial Island in the Azores, a group of islands in Portuguese territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Photo / Live Science
The giant fish has a height of 3.6 meters and a length of 3.5 meters and weighs 2,744 kilograms or about 3 tons. The researchers performed an autopsy to look inside the sunfish and take DNA samples.
The researchers detail the findings in a new study, published Oct.11 in the Journal of Fish Biology. “This dead fish is truly a majestic specimen,” Jose Nuno Gomes-Pereira, marine biologist with the Atlantic Naturalist Association, told Live Science.
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The previous world record for heaviest bony fish was held by another giant sunfish caught in Japan in 1996. According to the Guinness World Records, the sunfish weighs around 2,300 kg.
In June 2022, fishermen in Cambodia caught the heaviest freshwater fish in the world, the 4-meter-long giant freshwater parsnip (Urogymnus polylepis) which weighs up to 300 kg. Giant sunfish can be found all over the world, but the exact number is unknown.
The giant sunfish had previously been misclassified as an unusually large individual by the more common marine sunfish. Sunfish that grows to about half the size of the newly discovered giant M Alexandrini was classified as a unique species in 2018.
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Sunfish are also called Sunfish because they love to bask in the sun on the surface of the sea. Scientists claim that sunfish sunbathe to warm their bodies after long dives in cold, dark waters in search of food.
(Spider web)