3-ton marine monster is biggest bony fish ever found

This fish certainly tipped the scales.

A monster, nearly 3-ton sunfish found dead off Portugal has weighed in as the heaviest bony fish ever discovered. While the oceanic behemoth was discovered in 2021, its Guinness World Record-breaking status only came to light recently, thanks to a new article published this month in “Journal of Fish Biology.”

The supersized bump-head sunfish – known by its scientific name Mola alexandrini – had been discovered floating in the North Atlantic Ocean, off of Faial Island in the Azores, in December, Jam Press reported. It was then picked up by local authorities and brought back to port, so it could be properly examined by scientists.

Accompanying photos show the battered carcass — which evokes a giant disembodied head — being fastened with ropes and hoisted with a forklift for transportation.

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A subsequent necropsy, detailed in the aforementioned study, found that the monumental Mola measured 12-feet tall and 11-feet long. However, its most impressive metric was its weight, measured via crane: 6,049 pounds, or approximately 3 tons — around as much as a Hummer or a fully grown white rhinoceros. This was around a half-ton heavier than the previous Guinness World Record of 5,070 pounds set by a sunfish that was caught in Japan in 1996, Live Science reported.

It’s unclear how the marine behemoth died. However, its head reportedly harbored a cylindrical dent with red paint, which they speculated could’ve been inflicted by the keel of a boat.

Either way, the Mola was truly a “majestic specimen,” according to the article’s lead author, José Nuno Gomes-Pereira, a marine biologist at the Atlantic Naturalist Association. He added that its post-mortem photos didn’t do justice to how the incredible critter looked when it was alive.

A denizen of temperate and tropical seas across the world, giant sunfish are the world’s largest bony fish, growing as big as 14-feet long and 5,000 pounds, according to National Geographic.

Only certain sharks and rays are larger, however they are cartilaginous — comprised of cartilage rather than bones.

Despite their monstrous proportions, Molas are harmless to humans and instead prefer dining on jellyfish, small fish and zooplankton.