Big Fish
Mola Mola (Ocean Sunfish)
Mola mola · Bony fish, family Molidae
The sunfish looks like the ocean ran out of fish halfway through building one: a huge silver head that simply stops, finished off with a scalloped rudder where the tail should be. Then it moves, and the joke dies: a big mola sculls past with unhurried authority, an eye the size of a plum tracking you, on its way to hang tilted at a cleaning station while bannerfish groom it like pit crew. Bali's cold-upwelling season delivers the world's most reliable encounters, strange gray giants materializing out of thermocline haze at Crystal Bay. It remains one of diving's oddest and most coveted sightings: a deep-sea jellyfish-eater moonlighting as a wall ornament.
在哪里、什么时候能见到
"常驻"表示在该目的地潜水时大多数情况下都能遇见它们;"季节性"表示在所列月份内可靠出现;其他任何情况都是意外惊喜,而非计划中的保障。
| 目的地 | 可靠性 | 月份 | 备注 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bali & Nusa PenidaIndonesia | Seasonal: reliable in season | Jul–Oct | |
| Galápagos IslandsEcuador | Occasional | 全年皆宜 | |
| The AzoresPortugal | Occasional | Jun–Sep | |
| California Channel IslandsUnited States | Occasional | Jul–Oct |
最佳月份一览
| 月份 | 可靠目的地 |
|---|---|
| January | Galápagos Islands |
| February | Galápagos Islands |
| March | Galápagos Islands |
| April | Galápagos Islands |
| May | Galápagos Islands |
| June | Galápagos Islands · The Azores |
| July | Bali & Nusa Penida · Galápagos Islands · The Azores · California Channel Islands |
| August | Bali & Nusa Penida · Galápagos Islands · The Azores · California Channel Islands |
| September | Bali & Nusa Penida · Galápagos Islands · The Azores · California Channel Islands |
| October | Bali & Nusa Penida · Galápagos Islands · California Channel Islands |
| November | Galápagos Islands |
| December | Galápagos Islands |
深入了解
栖息地: Open ocean through the water column; rises to cleaning stations on reef walls and basks flat at the surface after cold deep dives
分布范围: Temperate and tropical oceans worldwide; diver encounters cluster at Bali's channel reefs, the Mediterranean, California, and the Azores
习性: A vertical dinner-plate of a fish that flaps along on dorsal and anal fins, yaws like a badly trimmed kite, and queues at cleaning stations where bannerfish pick its parasites. Surface basking (lying flat, side up) warms it after deep foraging. Utterly placid around divers unless crowded off the station.
食性: Jellyfish and other gelatinous plankton, plus small fish and zooplankton, a low-calorie diet consumed in bulk
体型: 通常约 1.8 m; 记录深度可达 3.3 m (total length; among the heaviest bony fishes, with big animals beyond a tonne. Bali's famous 'mola' is now identified as the bump-head sunfish, Mola alexandrini).
与它相处时的行为守则
Nusa Penida's code of conduct is the model: stay behind the reef line at cleaning stations, minimum distances, no flash barrages, no bubbles beneath a cleaning fish, and never chase a departing mola; it won't come back that day.
保育
Vulnerable: vast numbers die as bycatch in drift and set nets worldwide; its slow-motion surface basking makes it easy accidental catch.
以此著称的已标注潜点
高亮显示的潜点由编辑团队为该物种标注;数字为1990年以来潜点约5公里范围内的GBIF出现记录数。
观看
来自官方渠道
Wildlife of Monterey | New film in our auditorium
Live Aviary Cam | Monterey Bay Aquarium
Live Aviary Cam | Monterey Bay Aquarium
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