
A strange-looking fish washed up on a California beach - curtis
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/28/us/hoodwinker-sunfish-north-america-trnd/index.html
======
Someone
_”Except for one time in the 1890s, when drawings and records documented the
fish appearing in the Netherlands.“_

Reading [https://science.naturalis.nl/en/about-
us/news/collection/new...](https://science.naturalis.nl/en/about-
us/news/collection/new-autumn-collection-naturalis-mola-tecta/), those
‘records’ seem to include plenty of remains of the actual specimen.

Also, the species was first described as a separate species in 2017. So, it
seems not having seen it in the northern hemisphere may be more a matter of
not having looked for it than of it being rare there.

------
ggm
Sunfish are amazing. You see sunfish and manta rays on the eastern seaboard of
Australia. What's weird is where it is, not what it is: it's a well known fish

~~~
anitil
We came across one once off the coast of Sydney while fishing. Sadly, by the
time I managed to get in the water it had dived, so I only got a blurry
glimpse.

------
iscrewyou
Here are a couple of videos of a live one for reference:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nwA1hW0kUw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nwA1hW0kUw)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1WBilMrDIU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1WBilMrDIU)

------
pvaldes
Yup, must be Mola tecta. This tail is not from M. mola or M. alexandrini (syn.
Mola ramsayi).

Apart of USA, the species has been found in New Zealand, Chile, South
Africa... and Netherlands.

Sunfish have often huge loads of parasitic worms inside.

~~~
cheesymuffin
Parasites are good for you as they feed on dead, damaged cells. They're the
quickest method of detoxification. The best thing to do when you have a
parasite is to let it run its course while eating plenty of raw eggs and fat.

Source: Aajonus Vonderplanitz, We Want To Live and The Recipe For Living
Without Disease

~~~
PakG1
Does this go for all parasites, or only certain parasites? Is there data on
that? Intuition and quick Google tells me that may have to be careful about
which parasites you "ignore".

~~~
thaumasiotes
The normal case is that parasites cause serious problems and are permanent.
Take hookworm, which causes anemia in whites and was responsible for the
stereotype of the poor Southern white being pale and lazy. There is no reason
to expect a parasitic infection to "run its course".

Particular parasites may be largely harmless due to context; I believe a
tapeworm won't do much to you other than causing you to stay thin while eating
large quantities of food. This was more dangerous when people enjoyed less of
a food surplus than we do now. Of course, the tapeworm will also transmit
tapeworms to everyone in contact with you.

~~~
gotocake
All good points, parasites are generally to be avoided and do have
consequences.

As for tapeworms, it really depends on the type. Some as you say just eat your
lunch, but pork tapeworms are dangerous. They carry a risk of having their
eggs wend their way into tissues such as muscles, and most dangerously the
brain, with predictably disastrous consequences. Neurocysticercosis is no
joke, and if you’d like to never sleep again try a google image search for it.

The only two (controversial) benefits of human parasites I know of are non-
pork tapeworms used for dieting, and... something very interesting indeed. I
give you... Helminthic Therapy. Some clever folks noticed that certain
parasitic worms (helminths) are very good at modulating the immune system of
their host, presumably to protect themselves and their offspring. They
reasoned that a controlled infection could help with some autoimmune diseases,
and it’s a subject of research.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5401880/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5401880/)

Even more interesting though is the hypothesis that widespread helminth
infection is a contributing factor to lower rates of allergies and autoimmune
disease in developing nations.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy)

~~~
lazyjones
This raises the question whether some of our so-called lifestyle diseases are
due (or more prevalent or severe due) to eradication of some common parasites
we evolved with.

~~~
thaumasiotes
I think the evidence is decently strong that this is the case. The problem is
that the lifestyle diseases, while bad, are clearly much better than the
diseases they replace.

~~~
cheesymuffin
What is the evidence for that? Autoimmune conditions can really suck.

~~~
thaumasiotes
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis)

~~~
cheesymuffin
I meant the evidence that the lifestyle diseases are better than the diseases
they replace.

Very cheesy how I got downvoted for genuinely asking a question though lmao. I
don't know what the answer is -- I feel like it could go either way.

------
Regardsyjc
Does anyone know if the Japanese omen about oarfish have any weight? How
concerned should we be about events like these?

------
franze
There is this famous snd hilarious rant about sunfish on facebook
[https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1874957885867615&id=10...](https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1874957885867615&id=100000602658648&set=a.669037176459698)

~~~
AndrewOMartin
Which is entertaining, but shouldn't be read without this response, "why the
rant is wrong".

[https://m.imgur.com/gallery/MMRg9](https://m.imgur.com/gallery/MMRg9)

~~~
distances
Wonderfully informative post and presented in such a beautiful manner. Thanks
a lot for the link.

~~~
Fnoord
Except for the end. That wasn't necessary. Good read though, very informative
indeed.

~~~
Stratoscope
What are you referring to? I didn't see anything inappropriate at the end of
the article.

~~~
ido
Imgur's unfortunate UI - there is a button at the "end" of the page to load
the rest of it, which is not very noticeable if you're not looking for it.

The sentence refered to is:

    
    
        PS. The only living things that deserve to be
        considered useless are scumbags, like Scout
        Burns, or this moron who is riding an 
        unfortunate ocean sunfish.

~~~
Stratoscope
Ah, that is exactly what happened.

Now I know how to read all the way to the end of an Imgur article, thanks! :-)

------
bradknowles
TLDR: It's a huge sunfish, but not the species of sunfish they first thought
it was. Turns out it's a "Hoodwinker Sunfish", and this is the first known
sighting in North America -- they're usually found in the Southern Hemisphere.

------
saagarjha
Washed up right by here; it caused quite a stir. It wasn't the only one,
either: another one had washed up a mile or so west, though I don't think it
was a hoodwinker.

------
coleifer
Ugh ok, I'll bite..

------
raverbashing
A whale also washed up on an island in Brazil a couple of weeks ago,
apparently the tide movement and a river helped that happen

------
nilskidoo
There was another news story, shared by Drudge the same time as this, where
dozens of dead dolphins were washing ashore of some southern Cali beach. I
wondered if both stories, along with the case of the newly-discovered glow in
the dark sharks found somewhere around Hawaii a year or so back, all have to
do with traces of the Fukushima disaster being washed here and there around
the Pacific.

~~~
SECProto
I think that's extremely unlikely. Radioactivity doesn't really work like the
spider in Spider-Man.

~~~
nilskidoo
It can be a huge catalyst for change though. Food chains poisoned and
disrupted, throwing off migration patterns, etc. And THESE changes can illicit
evolutionary jump-starts. Unless he was just a fishy Paul Revere coming to
warn us CTHULHU is awakening.

~~~
nilskidoo
Sick marine mammals turning up on California beaches in droves:

[https://www.dailyrepublic.com/all-dr-news/wires/state-
nation...](https://www.dailyrepublic.com/all-dr-news/wires/state-nation-
world/sick-marine-mammals-turning-up-on-california-beaches-in-droves/)

