Scientists and fishermen have reported more unusual species in Alaska waters, likely because of warming sea surface temperatures. Meanwhile, an Alaska research organization has created an online clearinghouse of all the news and research related to the anomaly called The Blob.
Many of the unusual sightings this summer have been of mola mola, or ocean sunfish. They’re the heaviest known bony fish in the world, and they’re normally found in temperate and tropical climates where ocean temperatures are at least 50 degrees Fahrenheit — not the North Pacific.
“It’s really interesting when you see a fish from a thousand feet that looks like a bedsheet floating in the ocean,” says Scott Pagau of the Oil Spill Recovery Institute in Cordova. Pagau says he and a colleague spotted as many as four large sunfish during their August aerial surveys off of Hinchenbrook Island.
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