Gigantic Sunfish Spotted Near Laguna Beach Shoreline

LAGUNA BEACH, CA — If you were hanging out in Laguna Beach waters last week and thought you spotted a fin poking out of the water, worry not. That glimpse of a fin could have belonged to this gigantic sunfish spotted by two Laguna Beach paddleboarders Wednesday.

The huge, alien-like fish was discovered by Laguna Beach residents Rich German and Matt Wheaton while they were out paddle boarding just a few hundred yards from the Laguna Beach shoreline. The waters were clear and the waves were calm when this big guy floated into view.

"We were just paddling and all of a sudden we were like, 'Oh my God.' That thing was massive," German told the OC Register Monday. German is the founder of the ocean conservation nonprofit Project O and the author of "Blue Laguna."

"Most of my encounters are with dolphins and whales, but you never know what you're going to see," German said.

The common mola is one of the world's largest bony fish, measuring up to 11 feet and weighing up to 5,000 pounds, according to National Geographic. They are omnivorous, meaning they will eat a variety of foods — but their favorite snack is jellyfish.

German guessed the sunfish he and Wheaton saw in Laguna Beach was around nine feet in length.

The sunfish earned its name due to its habit of floating on its side, at the sea's surface, and basking in the sunlight. While certainly strange-looking, ocean sunfish are peaceful creatures that are often threatened by fishery bycatch.

"Even though they are huge, ocean sunfish are not dangerous to people," Project O wrote in a Facebook post. "Unfortunately, sunfish are frequently accidentally caught as bycatch in many fisheries that use drift gillnets."

Project O is an ocean conservation nonprofit committed to protecting the ocean and the life that inhabits it, according to the organization's website.