Overview

• A roughly six-foot-long, three-foot-wide hoodwinker sunfish was found dead this week on the beach at Doran Regional Park in Bodega Bay, about 60 miles north of San Francisco.
• Marine biologist Marianne Nyegaard, who first described Mola tecta in the mid-2010s, confirmed the identification of the beached fish.
• Sonoma County Regional Parks said rangers investigated visitor reports near the jetty, identified offshore animals as sunfish, and notified wildlife agencies after one specimen stranded.
• Officials urged the public not to touch or move the carcass, noting that natural processes will return nutrients to the ecosystem.
• Scientists say Northern California occurrences are surprising but plausible as the species can cross equatorial waters by diving deep, and they caution the event is not necessarily linked to human influence; local researchers plan further documentation and possible tissue sampling.