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  Yahoo News 25 Jul 06
Giant fish swim into British waters
AFP

LONDON (AFP) - A shoal of sunfish -- the world's largest bony fish -- has been spotted in the waters off Cornwall, south west Britain, despite normally being found thousands of miles away, scientists said.

The sunfish, which is usually considered a warm water species, is a flat oval beast weighing up to two tonnes and growing up to three metres (10 feet) long.

Described by biologists as a "swimming head" or a "giant pancake of a fish", they have migrated from the warmer waters of the equatorial Atlantic Ocean to feed on the mass of jellyfish attracted to British waters by recent high temperatures.

Sunfish eat by lying on their sides and floating near the surface of the sea and aerial survey by the Marine Conservation Society and local scientists found 19 of the species in this position. That could mean many more of the fish were swimming beneath the waves, they said.

Brendan Godley, from the University of Exeter, south west England, said: "The sudden influx of these beautiful giant fish was a fantastic surprise. This is the first time we have spotted them during our surveys."

On a similar survey two weeks ago the sunfish were nowhere to be seen, Peter Richardson, species policy officer at the Marine Conservation Society, told AFP.

"They suddenly turned up en masse. They are a warm water species that spend their time in the open ocean. They have migrated vast distances to our waters and have timed their arrival at just the right time for the jellyfish.

"It's an amazing feat of migration," he said.

Despite their huge size sunfish have been seen to jump up to three metres (10 feet) out of the water like a whale. Sunfish are eaten throughout Asia, particularly in Taiwan and Japan. All parts of the fish are eaten including the skin, fin muscles, backbone and testes. In Taiwan the gut is considered a delicacy.
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