Difference between revisions of "Sunfish (fish)"
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=====<span style="color:#006400">In the News~</span>===== | =====<span style="color:#006400">In the News~</span>===== | ||
[[File:Feb. 25, 1895 sunfish.png|350px|thumbnail|right|<center>Sunfish, Santa Catalina Island, 1895 </center>]] | |||
'''February 25, 1895 [SF Morning Call]:''' “Catching a fish by means of a lariat is certainly a novelty in piscatorial sport. The patient small boy has been known to snare fish, and spearing fish is a method that goes back to aboriginal times. The enormous sunfish whose picture accompanies this article was captured recently by means of a rope lariat off Santa Catalina Island on the Southern California coast. Just how it was accomplished is told by a veracious fisherman in those parts, who sends the following account to the New York World: | |||
"I was out last week with old Manuel, the abalone hunter, who lives up toward Little Harbor, and saw him round-up a sunfish with a lariat as well as you would a steer. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. I had taken the old man with me to look at the wild goats. We were on our way down the mountain just above Catalina Harbor, when the old man suddenly stopped and pointed to the entrance of the harbor. Looking down, I saw which I took to be the fins of several sharks lazily moving up and down. We went down a narrow trail or short cut to his shanty, where from an ancient trunk he pulled an old lariat. He gave it a fling and and landed it over a post some distance off, just to show that he had not lost the trick, then picking up his oars, led the way down to the boat. The harbor sets in half a mile there, and I supposed by the time we got out the sunfish would be gone; but not so. As soon as we rounded the sandbar I saw them, their fins standing out of the water like stakes. The Mexican now gave the sculls to me and took his place in the bow with the rope, and with one eye over my shoulder I rowed slowly along. The nearer we came to the fish the bigger the fins at a little and stopped. , one especially standing high out of the water and shining in the sunlight with a peculiar iridescence. The old man gave me direction show to pull, and after a few moments I turned the boat a little and stopped. Manuel had the rope in hand, and in a second it went whistling in the air, whizzing along like a snake, the noose dropping down exactly over the big fin just as he had sent it over the post. But there was this difference: the moment the fish felt the rope, which the old man jerked fast, it made a rush. First along the surface of the water, nearly hauling the old fellow overboard, then down like an arrow, and scarcely before I knew what happened Manuel was lying back in the boat holding on to the lariat with all his strength, while the boat rushed through the water as though it were being towed by a tug. I jerked the oars and laid hold of the rope with the Mexican, and for awhile it was all we could do to hold our own. The fish headed directly out of the little harbor and made for the open water, and I don't know how it would have towed us if we had not taken it in. That was no easy matter. We took it in hand over hand, and would gain ten feet, when the fish would make a rush and down it would go, taking the rope hissing through our hands. One of these excursions gave me the scars on my hands. After nearly half an hour of this work we had the fish in sight, but it didn't like our looks, and making a terrific plunge, took the rope over the side, and the first I knew we were knee deep in water pouring over the side like a waterfall. To right the boat we had to let go and then had all the work over again, but finally we had the fish alongside and a whopper he was. The moment we got him on a short rope he seemed to give up, and looked all the world like a big wheel with all the spokes gone. How such a fish could get up such a pace was a mystery, as it was almost circular, and the tail looked as though it had been chopped off. We lashed it alongside and towed it ashore, and when it was set up found that it was almost ten feet high—as curious looking a creature as you ever saw." | |||
'''August 12, 1906 [SBMP]:''' “Captain Gourley of the Pleasure Pier has a young sunfish in captivity. The fish weighs about 80 pounds and is kept at the end of a line in the water.” | '''August 12, 1906 [SBMP]:''' “Captain Gourley of the Pleasure Pier has a young sunfish in captivity. The fish weighs about 80 pounds and is kept at the end of a line in the water.” | ||
Latest revision as of 02:35, 8 January 2024
Sunfish (Mola mola) are represented by three species worldwide, each with a short body that ends abruptly behind the tall triangular dorsal and anal fins. Sunfish are flattened from side to side and have small mouths, fused beak-like teeth, and tough skin which is scaleless, leathery and very elastic. The mola is an enormous grey or brownish species that can reach 13 feet in length and up to 4000 pounds in weight. They are the largest bony fish in the world.
They feed on jellyfish and plankton, mollusks and small fish. Their closest relatives are the puffer fish. Mola is Latin for millstone. Southern California anglers and boaters frequently encounter sunfish lounging near the ocean’s surface.
Charles Frederick Holder wrote: “The flesh is insipid and uneatable.”
- Sunfish, California Channel Islands
3206
Sun Fish caught at Catalina Island.
Girth 9 ft., 9 ft. long, Weight 1,500 lbs.
M. Rieder, Publ., Los Angeles, Cal.
original in SCIF archives
Sunfish caught at Catalina Island
The monster sun fish caught by W. N. McMillan of E. Africa, at Santa Catalina Isl., Cal. April 1st, 1910. Estimated wt. 3500 lbs. 
The monster sun fish caught by W. N. McMillan of E. Africa, at Santa Catalina Isl., Cal. April 1st, 1910. Estimated wt. 3500 lbs. 
Zane Grey with a 2200 lb. sunfish caught in 1926.
Photo: Catalina Island Museum.
In the News~
February 25, 1895 [SF Morning Call]: “Catching a fish by means of a lariat is certainly a novelty in piscatorial sport. The patient small boy has been known to snare fish, and spearing fish is a method that goes back to aboriginal times. The enormous sunfish whose picture accompanies this article was captured recently by means of a rope lariat off Santa Catalina Island on the Southern California coast. Just how it was accomplished is told by a veracious fisherman in those parts, who sends the following account to the New York World:
"I was out last week with old Manuel, the abalone hunter, who lives up toward Little Harbor, and saw him round-up a sunfish with a lariat as well as you would a steer. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. I had taken the old man with me to look at the wild goats. We were on our way down the mountain just above Catalina Harbor, when the old man suddenly stopped and pointed to the entrance of the harbor. Looking down, I saw which I took to be the fins of several sharks lazily moving up and down. We went down a narrow trail or short cut to his shanty, where from an ancient trunk he pulled an old lariat. He gave it a fling and and landed it over a post some distance off, just to show that he had not lost the trick, then picking up his oars, led the way down to the boat. The harbor sets in half a mile there, and I supposed by the time we got out the sunfish would be gone; but not so. As soon as we rounded the sandbar I saw them, their fins standing out of the water like stakes. The Mexican now gave the sculls to me and took his place in the bow with the rope, and with one eye over my shoulder I rowed slowly along. The nearer we came to the fish the bigger the fins at a little and stopped. , one especially standing high out of the water and shining in the sunlight with a peculiar iridescence. The old man gave me direction show to pull, and after a few moments I turned the boat a little and stopped. Manuel had the rope in hand, and in a second it went whistling in the air, whizzing along like a snake, the noose dropping down exactly over the big fin just as he had sent it over the post. But there was this difference: the moment the fish felt the rope, which the old man jerked fast, it made a rush. First along the surface of the water, nearly hauling the old fellow overboard, then down like an arrow, and scarcely before I knew what happened Manuel was lying back in the boat holding on to the lariat with all his strength, while the boat rushed through the water as though it were being towed by a tug. I jerked the oars and laid hold of the rope with the Mexican, and for awhile it was all we could do to hold our own. The fish headed directly out of the little harbor and made for the open water, and I don't know how it would have towed us if we had not taken it in. That was no easy matter. We took it in hand over hand, and would gain ten feet, when the fish would make a rush and down it would go, taking the rope hissing through our hands. One of these excursions gave me the scars on my hands. After nearly half an hour of this work we had the fish in sight, but it didn't like our looks, and making a terrific plunge, took the rope over the side, and the first I knew we were knee deep in water pouring over the side like a waterfall. To right the boat we had to let go and then had all the work over again, but finally we had the fish alongside and a whopper he was. The moment we got him on a short rope he seemed to give up, and looked all the world like a big wheel with all the spokes gone. How such a fish could get up such a pace was a mystery, as it was almost circular, and the tail looked as though it had been chopped off. We lashed it alongside and towed it ashore, and when it was set up found that it was almost ten feet high—as curious looking a creature as you ever saw."
August 12, 1906 [SBMP]: “Captain Gourley of the Pleasure Pier has a young sunfish in captivity. The fish weighs about 80 pounds and is kept at the end of a line in the water.”
June 26, 1908 [SBMP]: “Mr. Fanning had an exciting experience about four miles from shore on his return trip [from Dick's Harbor, Santa Cruz Island]. Discovering a large sunfish, he decided to capture it. After a lively skirmish, using a harpoon, the party were enabled to lasso the fish that weighed over a ton. It measured between eight and ten feet long. They towed it to the wharf where it is on exhibition for those who care to see it.”
June 26, 1908 [SBI]: “A huge sunfish weighing 3000 pounds and with its eyes like saucers was harpooned in mid-channel yesterday by Fred Fanning and towed four miles to the pleasure pier, where it was still alive and swimming at the end of a line. Mr. Fanning was returning from a pleasure trip to Santa Cruz Island with Guy Cruikshank, Fred Thornburg and Raymond Lewis, when one of the party saw a monster fin on top of the water about 100 feet from the boat. Mr. Fanning altered his course, and when the boat came alongside the fish, a harpoon was rigged up and hurled into its side. For half a mile the big fish put up a terrific struggle, so that the full power of the gasoline engine was required to keep the boat on its course. He finally became exhausted and was towed ashore. The fish is about eight feet long and five feet high. In shape and color it is exactly like the smaller sunfish.”
March 3, 1916 [SBMP]: “Two young men who went out in one of Captain Gourley's boats yesterday morning returned to the dock with a baby sunfish weighing 25 pounds. The last named specimen was remarkable chiefly for its smallness, fish of this variety weighing up to 1800 pounds having been captured in these waters.”
