Hawaiian Fishes 



373 



Ocean Sunfish 



Also known as the Common Headfish, Common Sunfish, Short Svinfish, 



Round-Tailed Sunfish, Kahala, or Makua 



134-1 Mola mola (Linne) 



Plate I, Figure 10 



The body of this sun- 

 fish is oval in shape, nar- 

 row in width, and is set 

 off by long dorsal ;-nd 

 anal fins. The body is 

 covered by a tough, thick, 

 leathery skin which is 

 dark gray above, grayish 

 brown on the sides, and 

 covered with a silvery re- 

 flection. It is marked with 

 a broad blackish bar along 

 the base of the dorsal, 

 caudal, and anal fins. The 

 posterior margin of the 

 body is rounded or wavy 

 in outline. They will reach 

 a length of eight feet and 

 a weight of one ton. 



The sunfishes live in all 

 tropical sea, although they 

 are not at all common. 

 They swim lazily at the 

 surface with the high fins often out of the water or lie on their sidss 

 sunning themselves with the fins waving in the air. They feed on jelly- 

 fishes, small fishes, crustaceans, and other marine creatures. 



Sunfishes are usually found living alone, although they sometimes 

 occur in pairs and are thought to be gregarious at the breeding seasons. 

 They will lay 300,000,000 eggs which hatch into creatures very different 

 from the adults. 



The flesh is tough, although it is not poisonous, and is seldom eaten. 

 The J-apanese consider the liver a delicacy. 



The Swedish botanist Linne gave the name of Mola to these fishes 

 because they resembled a mill wheel i-n shape. 



Drawn from Barnhart 



