Beachgoers stunned by 'rare' sight close to Aussie shore: 'Never in 35 years'

Dozens of bystanders were seen teetering on the edge of a jetty at a popular Aussie beach last week — all staring in wonder at a “rare” creature in the water below. The crowd began to form after passersby spotted the 1.2 metre-long fish with a dorsal fin struggling in the “knee-deep water” near the Frankston Pier, south of Melbourne.

In footage provided to Yahoo News, the curious onlookers also appear to be concerned about the well-being of the ocean sunfish, otherwise known as a ‘Mola mola’, as it slowly flaps around near the shore. With equipment in hand, three officers with the Zoos Victoria Marine Rescue Unit can also be seen standing near the sunfish, gently guiding it back out to deeper parts of Port Phillip Bay.

Experts work to save sunfish's life after Melbourne stranding

Experts were first alerted of the sunfish’s venture into shallow waters via a call to Victorian Fisheries Authority’s 24/7 hotline for reporting illegal fishing, prompting the rescue team to chuck on their wetsuits.

“It was a stranded animal at one point so we were just lucky enough that when the tide came in that it was re-floated enough and they were able to escort it out into deeper water,” Mark Kennan, MRU co-ordinator, told Yahoo News.

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“We’ve been able to do that with a couple of sunfish — been able to assist and move them into deeper water. But we also find periodically sunfish still on the shoreline, and we presume that they strand and and don’t get so lucky to go out with the tide, so we always respond to these things as quickly as we can.”

Once the sunfish — considered small at a whopping 1.2m — was in the clear, fisheries officers used their patrol boat to collect the marine rescuers.

Fisheries officer stunned by 'live sunfish this close to shore'

Some sunfish can reach up to 4.2m and weigh up to 1,000kg, according to the Victorian Fisheries Authority, which posted additional footage on Facebook.

While the creatures are occasionally spotted in Port Phillip from time-to-time, Mornington Supervising Fisheries Officer, Rod, who was at the scene, said online it’s “rare to see a live sunfish this close to shore” — so rare he’s “never seen one like this in 35 years on the job”.

Mr Kennan said in his 11 years with the MRU there have been half a dozen callouts for sunfish, but only two have been able to be successfully guided back out into deep water.

“I presume it’s just geographic stranding. They don’t realise that when the tide goes out, it’s going to shallow up really quickly and they’re a big animal — and they swim in a vertical plane — so sometimes they just get stranded,” he explained.

If you see any marine animals in distress or injured across Victoria please call the Melbourne Zoo’s Marine Response Unit on 1300 245 678.

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