It was announced that the giant sea creature that washed ashore in the Seaside region of Oregon on June 3 in the US was a 'hooded sunfish', a different species of the previously discovered but rare 'sunfish' species.
"You've heard of sunfish, but have you heard of the hooded sunfish? On June 3, a 7.3-meter (221 cm) sunfish washed ashore on the beach just north of Seaside, Oregon. It didn't take long for news of the fish to reach Mariann Nyegaard, a researcher based in New Zealand. The photos she saw suggested that this might not be an ordinary ocean sunfish (Mola mola), but a different species, the hooded sunfish (Mola tecta), with which she was very familiar. Initially thought to inhabit only the temperate waters of the southern hemisphere, it was recently investigated after several were washed ashore in California and one in northern Alaska."
The hooded sunfish is still on the beach and could remain there for weeks as it is difficult for vultures to pierce its tough skin, officials said.
