Bump-head sunfish Mola alexandrini photographed in the north-west Pacific Ocean mesopelagic zone |
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Authors: | Etsuro Sawai Morihiko Yamada |
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Institution: | 1. Ocean Sunfishes Information Storage Museum, Shizuoka, Japan;2. Kagoshima City Aquarium, Kagoshima, Japan |
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Abstract: | We report a bump-head sunfish Mola alexandrini (120–130 cm estimated total length) photographed from a manned submersible at a depth of 220 m off Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, in May 2004. Mola alexandrini is often misidentified as the ocean sunfish Mola mola. This individual represented three records for this species: first record by a manned submersible, second record from the mesopelagic zone in the north-west Pacific Ocean and a new distributional record from Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. |
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Keywords: | distribution manned submersible mesopelagic zone Mola alexandrini morphology new record |
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