Nearly Seven Feet of Quirky, Circular Mola Mola Fish Ends Up on N. Oregon Coast - Video

Published 06/28/25 at 5:35 p.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Gearhart, Oregon) – Just south of Sunset Beach, on the north Oregon coast, a rather beautiful but slightly odd fish showed up onshore. (Photos and video Tiffany Boothe of Seaside Aquarium)

They're called Mola mola or ocean sunfish, and this one was quite big at 6 and a half feet in length, said Tiffany Boothe of Seaside Aquarium. It likely died of natural causes, so there's nothing extraordinary about it in that sense. However, they are not something that shows up here real often.

“This monstrous fish can reach lengths of over 8 feet and weigh up to 5,000 pounds,” Boothe said.

She managed to get video of the unique creature as well.

Oregon coast experts so far have maintained that the Mola mola does not come up here that much – usually only because they're following warm water currents from their regular waters down south. They wind up dying when they enter these cold waters.

However, there's increasing evidence they're fairly common offshore of the Oregon and Washington coast, as many fishermen say they see them.

“They can be found throughout the world, sometimes traveling as far as 17 miles in a single day and are known for their extensive vertical movements,” Boothe said. “Their ability to tolerate a wide range of temperatures allows them to dive hundreds of meters, encountering temperature fluctuations from 44-70 degrees Fahrenheit in a single dive.”

So what is with all the blood, making it look like a true crime doc?

That's simply because the animal died recently out there in the ocean waters, said aquarium manager Keith Chandler.

“If they've still got blood in them they haven't been dead long,” Chandler said. “It's just decaying.”

That term “decay” is the operative word in another aspect here: the creature will be left on the spot – about a quarter mile south of the Sunset Beach approach - to decompose naturally.

Indeed, it's not far from a where a sperm whale was left earlier this year after it made landfall.

“It will go the way of the whale,” Chandler said.

See Rare Sperm Whale Stranding on N. Oregon Coast, Was Hit by Boat

Boothe said there are three different species of sunfish in the genus Mola: Mola mola, Mola tecta, and Mola alexandrini.

“All three can be found all over the globe and are widely distributed throughout the world's oceans, except for the polar regions,” Boothe said.

However, Mola tecta has a unique little connection to the Oregon coast.

Another mola incident in recent years / Seaside Aquarium

In August of 2024, one showed up here that turned out to be a rare discovery on the Oregon coast. That now-famous fish was a Mola tecta, the Hoodwinker Sunfish. Scientific First for Oregon Coast: New Kind of Sunfish Confirmed at Gearhart

That stranding incident spread fast on social media, and it immediately caught the attention of a researcher in New Zealand, who then asked Seaside Aquarium to get some genetic samples of it tested. Her theory was correct: it turned out this wasn't a regular ol' Mola mola. It was a hoodwinker sunfish, a Mola tecta, which science has only recently discovered had been among the sunfish populations this whole time.

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