Can you tell what is yet? Six stone exotic fish washes up on beach

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A dogwalker was stunned when he found this rare six-stone fish washed up on a British beach.

Matt Hyde and his pet pooch Jimmy were walking along Sandilands beach near Sutton-on-Sea, Lincolnshire, last week when they found the dead Mola mola sunfish.

The creature is the world's largest bony fish and is rarely seen on British shores.

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They are usually found thousands of miles away in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and are native to tropical and temperate waters.

This particular Mola mola is actually relatively small, as they can grow to be 14ft (4.2 metres) vertically and 10ft (3.1 metres) horizontally. A fully-grown sunfish can also weigh up to 5,000lbs (357 stone).

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According to the Daily Mail, Mr Hyde said: "Whilst taking Jimmy for a walk on the beach, he was tugging at something on the shoreline. When I went up to see what he had found, I couldn't believe my eyes.

"At first I thought it was a dead seal and nearly tripped over it, but as soon I realised it was a fish I knew it was something I have never seen before."

They had been spotted along the west coast of Britain before, but it is very rare to find one on the east coast.

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Andy Horton, director of the British Marine Life Study Society, said: 'It is rare and unusual to get sunfish in the North Sea.

"I have heard of sightings in Irish and Welsh waters but on an English beach on the east coast is rare."

Adult sunfish live on a diet that mainly consists of jellyfish, and are vulnerable to few predators themselves; although they can find themselves becoming dinner to the likes of sea lions, orcas and sharks, and humans in some parts of the world, including Taiwan and Japan. However, EU regulations ban the sale of fish from the Molidae family.

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