Canterbury beach mystery: Rare washed up sunfish leads to 'epic' search mission

While walking on Taumutu beach on the southern shores of Lake Ellesmere, a member of the Birdlings Flat Community Facebook page discovered a very unlikely washed up specimen.

Immediately, he shared a photo of him standing next to the blob-like creature, which attracted a flurry of confused commenters.

One commenter wrote: “Poor old sunfish.....wonder why it washed up?”

“What a monster!! The fish is pretty impressive too," another said.

“If it's still there, would someone be able to get some measurements of the length and width. It would be great to add this amazing find to iNaturalist!”

Joining them in the online chatter was an eager and nationally renowned Auckland ocean sunfish researcher.

“SUNFISH S.O.S.!! INTEL NEEDED!!!” wrote Marianne Nyegaard on the Facebook page.

The academic explained in her post that she flew down to the beach within a day, hoping to check out the stranded sea animal. But all she found was an empty beach.

“OH NO! If anyone knows where it is, or sees it please comment or post here! I am in the area until Tuesday (26th of May) and will be so very super duper thankful for any help locating this fish,” she pleaded online.

Some suggested that local swell conditions probably meant that the ocean has reclaimed the creature.

Others decided to make light of the situation, posting memes and missing photos on behalf of the sunfish’s family.

Today, May 26, her mission to find the fish has been reported to be a success. In a follow up post on the community page, Nyegaard shared: "Sooooo happy to report I finally found the fish yesterday!"

She thanked a local woman and her husband for spotting the sunfish after its repeated disappearance, along with members of the Birdlings Flat Community Facebook page for their comments, support, humour, and for sharing photos and sightings of sunfish strandings along Kaitorete Spit.

Nyegaard also acknowledged an man named Malcolm from Taumutu and his two dogs for driving her up and down the beach during the search.

She gave more thanks to Robin Wybrow (Wairewa Rūnanga), Te Taumutu Rūnanga, Peter Langlands, Jonathan Ridden and Paul Scofield (Canterbury Museum), plus Karen Middlemiss (Department of Conservation) for their support during what she described as an “epic adventure”.

"I will post a little info about the fish once I am back in Auckland and have recovered from this epic adventure. Until then - keep calm and love the ocean and follow Ocean Sunfish Research to hear news about my research," she added.