{"id":235211,"date":"2026-01-09T01:22:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T01:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/235211\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T01:22:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T01:22:06","slug":"alien-like-mola-mola-stuns-surfers-washes-ashore-in-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/235211\/","title":{"rendered":"Alien-like Mola mola stuns surfers, washes ashore in San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jan. 8, 2026, 12:25 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">An alien-like Mola mola surprised surfers as it surfaced along the San Diego coastline, ultimately dying and washing ashore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cA rare Mola mola (ocean sunfish) washed up on our shore at Cardiff State Beach today,\u201d San Diego State Lifeguards stated Wednesday via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DTOrreMgQEC\/?img_index=1\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s the heaviest bony fish on earth and can weigh over 2,000 lbs. It mostly snacks on jellyfish and loves sunbathing on the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" style=\"height:396px\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/88084805007-mola.jpeg\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Mola mola in wave in north San Diego.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Images show the sunfish alongside a lifeguard buoy on the beach, and in the surf before it stranded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ftw.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/outdoors\/2025\/11\/10\/birders-in-awe-massive-shoebill-lands-on-tour-boat-uganda\/87196625007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ALSO: Enormous, dinosaur-like bird lands on tour boat in Africa<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">A top comment: \u201cAw, watched it float down the coast from Swamis, barely alive. It sat under a few surfers at dawn but once it floated into the impact zone I knew it was dying.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cLots of people thought the flopping dorsal fin was a shark. Beautiful to see it close up but too bad it died.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"gnt_em_ig_bl\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DTOrreMgQEC\/?img_index=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" aria-label=\"view Instagram post: \"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Mola molas, more typically encountered in deep, offshore waters, are strange-looking creatures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">From the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montereybayaquarium.org\/animals\/animals-a-to-z\/ocean-sunfish\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Monterey Bay Aquarium<\/a>: \u201cThe ocean sunfish (Mola mola) looks like the invention of a mad scientist. Huge and flat, this silvery-gray fish has a tiny mouth and big eyes that vanish into an even bigger body with a truncated tail.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" style=\"height:396px\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/88084849007-mola-2.jpeg\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Surfer eyes Mola mola off San Diego beach.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The aquarium added that ocean sunfish can weigh up to 5,000 pounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">They\u2019re the largest bony fishes on the planet, as noted, in a category that does not include sharks and rays.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 8, 2026, 12:25 p.m. ET An alien-like Mola mola surprised surfers as it surfaced along the San&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111173,61,60,82,119777,119778,119780,114769,111800,119783,119781,111493,119782,119779,114767,111176,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-235211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-sstssportsoutdoors","13":"tag-sstsnoutdoors","14":"tag-tagbeaches-islands","15":"tag-tagearth-sciences","16":"tag-taginstagram","17":"tag-taglocal-affiliate-travel","18":"tag-tagoffbeat","19":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","20":"tag-tagsan-diego","21":"tag-tagsurfing","22":"tag-tagwildlife","23":"tag-typestory","24":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}