Rare six-foot hoodwinker sunfish washes ashore at Bodega Bay
Mola tecta, a species only recognized in 2017, was confirmed by the scientist who first described it after beachgoers found the stranded fish in northern California
A large and rare hoodwinker sunfish (Mola tecta) measuring about six feet long washed ashore at Doran Regional Park in Bodega Bay early Sunday, surprising beachgoers and prompting confirmation from the scientist who first described the species.
Stefan Kiesbye, a Sonoma State University professor who said he was picking up trash on the beach when he spotted the animal, initially mistook it for a dead sea lion before realizing it was a massive, odd-looking fish. Sonoma County Regional Parks personnel said the fish appeared roughly six feet long and about three feet wide.
Marianne Nyegaard, a marine biologist in New Zealand who first described Mola tecta in 2017, confirmed to the East Bay Times that the stranded animal was indeed a hoodwinker. Nyegaard said the species can be distinguished from the more common ocean sunfish by features such as a narrow clavus and the absence of a head bump or chin bump, along with a tiny mouth and lack of a visible tail.
Nyegaard said the sighting in Northern California was unexpected. She noted that while Mola tecta is known from the Southern Hemisphere — including the Humboldt Current off South America as far north as Peru — the species does sometimes cross the equatorial belt, likely by diving deep and swimming beneath warmer surface waters.
The hoodwinker’s Latin name, tecta, means "hidden," a reference to the species having eluded recognition for years before being formally described in 2017. Since the first north-of-equator sighting in Santa Barbara in 2019, at least half a dozen hoodwinkers have washed up along the U.S. West Coast from Southern California to Oregon and as far north as Alaska, researchers and local officials said.
Sonoma County Regional Parks spokesperson Meda Freeman said rangers had reported seeing several sunfish offshore before the most recent stranding, and one ranger told county officials it was only the second dead sunfish the ranger had encountered in six years of coastal patrols.
Kiesbye said he was "still in awe" after finding the specimen and described it as "enormous and so weird and gorgeous." He told local media that he initially Googled "big weird fish around here" after the discovery and learned of prior regional strandings, including the 2019 Santa Barbara animal.
Nyegaard cautioned that strandings of sunfish are not necessarily a sign of human influence and said such animals "strand" — beaching themselves and becoming unable to return to the water — in many parts of the world. Scientists are analyzing the accumulation of West Coast sightings to better understand the species' distribution and movements.
The Bodega Bay shoreline, a windswept inlet about 60 miles north of San Francisco, draws campers, surfers and birdwatchers and has a history as an area where marine animals occasionally wash ashore. Officials did not immediately report any plan to conduct a full necropsy or autopsy on the fish; when such examinations are performed they can shed light on cause of death, diet and health indicators relevant to population studies.
The hoodwinker remains an object of interest to marine biologists because it expands understanding of ocean sunfish diversity and distribution. Researchers said continued reporting and documentation of strandings will help clarify whether recent Northern Hemisphere appearances represent occasional vagrants or a shift in range that merits further study.