80 David S. Lee 



Except for the one December record, none of the Mola I saw were 

 known to be associated with jellyfish or other fishes, nor were any asso- 

 ciated with sargassum beds, floating boards, or other objects. Manooch 

 (pers. comm.), however, reported diving in water 20 to 30 miles off 

 Beaufort and seeing one M. mola associated with a large number of "sea 

 nettle type" jellyfish on 12 March 1976. Probably coelentrates are not 

 easily seen from above the surface. At any rate, none of the coelenter- 

 ates or ctenophores that could offer a prey base were seen regularly. The 

 only jellyfish typically seen on any of the surveys was Physalia, and it 

 invariably was in the Gulf Stream, offshore of the areas inhabited by 

 Mola. Likewise ocean sunfish were not found along "tide lines," current 

 edges, sites of local upwellings, or other areas where many marine organ- 

 isms tend to congegrate.. 



Migration and Movement: In that Mola mola is well known north 

 of North Carolina in summer and south of the state in winter (Anderson 

 and Cupka 1973) and is rare or absent from North Carolina waters 

 during these periods, most individuals seen off our coast are probably 

 migrants. All spring individuals whose orientation was recorded (about 

 one-half of the total) were swimming north. Their lack of apparent for- 

 ward movement may be deceptive; when the boat was in motion (10 to 

 18 knots), the fish appeared to remain in one area. On several occasions, 

 however, sunfish were watched moving past and out of sight of our 

 idling boat (in one case the boat was broken down) in a short time 

 period. As previously implied, movement was within a wide band gen- 

 erally over the 10- to 45-fathom contour. 



The records from mid to late August 1985 are interesting in that 

 this was the only summer in 10 years of offshore study that I have seen 

 ocean sunfish. Although late August at first appears early for "fall" 

 migration, I should point out that many southbound sea birds appear in 

 North Carolina offshore waters at this time. Furthermore, various 

 migratory sport fish locally appear or reappear in this same time period. 

 Nevertheless, southward fall migration of M. mola would appear to 

 occur primarily in October and November, with movements perhaps 

 starting as early as late August in some years. 



Most ocean sunfish were noted between mid-April and mid-May 

 when about 80% of the total sightings were compiled. It may be that 

 south of the Hatteras area migration occurs farther offshore. This is 

 suggested by the few sightings made off Beaufort (5 in 175 trips made by 

 Manooch, pers. comm.; none in 25 trips made by Wayne Irvin, pers. 

 comm., or me). In this area, comparable water zones and the inner edge 

 of the Gulf Stream are much farther from land than off the northern 

 Outer Banks where most of my surveys were conducted. 



DISCUSSION 



The ocean sunfish, Mola mola, is best regarded as an epipelagic 

 migrant in North Carolina's offshore waters. In the spring it can be 



