Massive Sunfish Stranded On Shore Gets Help From Kindhearted Cop

A police officer in Florida helped save a stranded sunfish (Mola Mola) that had beached itself. Deputy Urquhart of the Volusia Sheriff’s Office responded to a call about the large stranded fish and waded into the water to guide it back to deeper waters.

The Volusia Sheriff’s Office shared a video of the rescue and wrote, “Here’s how to free a Mola Mola (ocean sunfish) from a stuck position. Thanks Deputy Urquhart!”

If you have trouble viewing the video above, try the version below.

The department shared several facts about the unusual fish that they sourced from National Geographic. They noted that the Mola Mola are the heaviest of all the bony fish, with large specimens reaching 14 feet vertically and 10 feet horizontally and weighing nearly 5,000 pounds.

“They are clumsy swimmers, waggling their large dorsal and anal fins to move and steering with their clavus,” they noted. Mola Mola primarily eat jellyfish but they will also eat small fish, zooplankton and algae as well.

Considered harmless to people, they are curious and are known to approach divers. Sadly, Sunfish are threatened, primarily by human activities. They frequently get caught in discarded drift gill nets and can suffocate on plastic bags which they mistake for jellyfish. At least this particular sunfish has a second chance thanks to Deputy Urquhart.