Sunfish; Mola Mola
They appear to consist of nothing but a “huge head to which the fins are attached,” as Jordan and Evermann aptly express it.
When these unlucky vagrants are sighted in our cool northern waters they have usually been chilled into partial insensibility. They float awash on the surface, feebly fanning with one or the other fin, the personification of helplessness. Usually they pay no attention to the approach of a boat, but we have seen one come to life with surprising suddenness and sound swiftly, sculling with strong fin strokes.
The sunfish lives on an unusual diet, for as a rule the contents of the stomach consists either of jellyfish, ctenophores, or salpae
The sunfish grows to a great size. Heilner describes the capture of one 10 feet 11 inches long off Avalon (Calif.), while Jordan and Evermann record another Californian specimen 8 feet 2 inches long, weighing about 1,800 pounds. A fish 4 feet 1 inch long, caught off Boston Harbor, August 14, 1922, weighed 516 pounds.
From Fishes of the Gulf of Maine by Bigelow and Schroeder (1953) online courtesy of MBL/WHOI http://www.gma.org/fogm/Mola_mola.htm
Good Morning Gloucester 