For the second time in less than four months, the city of Marsa Alam in the Red Sea several divers spotted the rare and endangered ocean sunfish, known as Mola Mola.
The appearance took place near the surface of the water and not the depths of its original habitat, amid warnings not to disturb it or catch it. The divers confirmed that the fish was spotted during a cruise near Elphinstone Reef in Marsa Alam, and some tourists watched and photographed it.
This marks the second time that the fish has been sighted at the Red Sea.
The ocean sunfish is one of the marine creatures that are threatened with extinction, and it is prohibited to catch it. It is the heaviest known species of bony fish in the world, where the average weight of adults is a ton.
Professor of Marine Sciences at the Faculty of Science at Al-Azhar University in Assiut al-Doshi Mahdi said that the fish lives in the deep waters of the oceans and seas, and that the water currents pushed it from the Indian Ocean to the waters of the Red Sea.
He added that the ocean sunfish spends its entire life in the open ocean, a fish that lives in warmer layers of water at night at a depth of 12 to 50 meters.
The societies for the preservation of the marine environment warned fishermen not to approach the places where the sunfish is located, catch it, disturb it or chase it, and demanded its protection and legal action against violators.
