A woman was left confused after discovering an 'odd-looking' sea creature on a UK beach. Katherine Hawkes, 39, found the fish, which is rarely spotted in Great Britain, washed up on the beach.
The Mirror reports that the 39-year-old was out on a New Year's Day walk with her family in Norfolk when she came across the huge sunfish. The sea creature is normally found basking in the rays of hot sun and is usually only seen in tropical waters.
However, experts believe that its presence in the UK could be down to warming oceans. The strange looking creature is the largest bony fish in the world and has an interesting back fin which is shaped like a bullet.
Katherine says she initially thought the enormous fish was a "seal pup" when she first came across it. As a keen photographer, she was "excited" to take a snap of the washed-up creature.
Katherine said: “It is really odd-looking and while it is sad it had died it was exciting to see as they are so unusual to find in this area."
Sunfish can grow up to a massive sizes, with some three metres in height and weighing up to two tonnes. The fish that Katherine discovered was just a baby but still measured in at around 1.5 metres (5 feet) tall.
Rob Spray, the joint coordinator of conservation charity Seasearch East believes that the gigantic creature likely died due to a lack of food. Alongside the food issue he stated the fish would have to struggled to withstand the cold temperatures of the North sea.
Rob said: "The sunfish is not something we commonly see in the North Sea. Even though it was a juvenile it is quite a big fish to find in these waters and it is likely it got stranded and ran out of things to eat. It is an amazing species."
The coordinator added that the discovery of the specimen on a UK beach could point to a sign of warming oceans bringing southern species into colder waters. Rob added: "Sunfish are very rarely seen in the North Sea but as climate change worsens more species will travel to the North Sea and it will become more diverse."
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