Absolute Unit Of A Fish Destroys World Record, Weighing In At Over 6,000 Pounds

Giant Sunfish Destroys World Record, Weighing In At 6,049 Pounds

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A giant sunfish (Mola alexandrini) discovered in the Atlantic Ocean near Portugal has broken the world record for the heaviest bony fish at 6,049 pounds.

The almost 12-foot long fish was discovered near Faial Island off Horta Harbor in the Azores archipelago by José Nuno Gomes-Pereira at the Atlantic Naturalist Association in Portugal.

Gomes-Pereira and his colleagues somehow managed to pull the fish to shore and with the aid of a forklift truck were able to weight the massive beast.

The giant sunfish was studied and a new report published in the Journal of Fish Biology confirmed its world record status.

“The M. alexandrini reported here is the heaviest extant teleost specimen reported to date,” the scientists stated. “It exceeds by nearly half a ton (444 kg [979 pounds]) the largest previously known specimen (2300 kg [5,070 pounds]), caught off Kamogawa, Japan in 1996… Giant sunfishes M. alexandrini can thus reach more than twice the maximum weight of its congeneric, the ocean sunfish M. mola (heaviest record 1320 kg [2,910 pounds]).”

The giant sunfish found in Portugal broke the previous world record by almost 1,000 pounds

The previous record holder for the world’s heaviest bony fish was also a giant sunfish. That fish, which was almost 9-feet long, was found in Kamogawa in Japan in 1996 and weighed 5,070 pounds.

Scientists aren’t certain how the new record holder for world’s heaviest bony fish was killed, but a large semi-cylindrical depression near its head with signs of red paint led them to speculate that it was hit by the keel of a boat.

The largest fish of all time was a whale shark (a cartilaginous fish, or fish who has a skeleton primarily composed of cartilage), which measured 41 feet, 6 inches long and weighed in at 47,000 pounds. It was captured off Baba Island, near Karachi, Pakistan on November 11, 1949.

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