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Diving Bonaire: Mola Mola @ Eighteenth Palm 1st April 2011
Bonaire Talk: Diving Bonaire: Mola Mola @ Eighteenth Palm 1st April 2011
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Ashcroft (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #1) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 5:09 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hello All,

This may sound like a wind-up as I know this would be very rare......but myself and my dive buddy most definately saw a Mola Mola at Eighteenth Palm during our dive last week. It was a very noisy dive around 4.45pm as there was a cruise ship leaving, but towards the south end of the dive site, whilst at around 6m, we saw a young Mola Mola at about 3m. I would estimate it was about 50cm in diameter so just a young one.

Anyone else seen him?

Dave

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Ashcroft (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #2) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 5:10 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

ps...i just realised the date of the dive. This isnt a belated April fools post.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bas Noij -- www.vipdiving.com -- (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #653) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 7:09 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

JEALOUS

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By brenda (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1318) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 7:39 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Holy, I've seen 1 here but never around Bonaire.

Welcome to BT David, you really know to make an entrance!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tom Schamp (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #681) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 9:08 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Mola molas eat Lionfish, right?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Smits (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #983) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 11:46 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

I believe they eat mainly jellyfish
I ditto the JEALOUS

(Message edited by bpsmits on April 8, 2011)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Judy Workman (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #311) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 11:48 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

I want to see one too! 29 more days and a wakeup!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By KOB (LBR32) (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #570) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 12:25 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

David -- how cool. I have only seen one in an aquarium in Japan. How neat to see one in Bonaire !!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By T-Shirt Divers John and Sue (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #866) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 12:28 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

What does it look like?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Debbie B.~ Jersey Gal(*) (BonaireTalk Deity - Post #13131) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 12:37 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Here ya go ~ http://www.earthwindow.com/mola.html

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By KOB (LBR32) (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #571) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 12:39 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Molas are also known as ocean sunfish.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Roy - 'Rayman' (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #4083) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 12:41 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Did we not get a capture of one of these on the Reefcam last year?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tom Schamp (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #682) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 12:42 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hopefully they are NOT good to eat, so we won't have to worry about the locals bagging them.
Would be good to get more sighting reports...

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By brenda (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1324) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 2:22 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Heres an interesting brief article

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/mola/

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Leo Hoogenboom (www.bonphotobonaire.com) (BonaireTalker - Post #48) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 4:04 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

David, are you sure you haven't seen an ocean triggerfish? There's many sighting of those lately and I've personally seen two last week on 18th Palm. Ocean sunfish or Mola Mola's are usually not seen near reefs, but typically in offshore waters. I've seen Mola's in the Med, only in very deep offshore waters, but in the nearly five years that I live here, in the water almost every day, I've never seen one. If it was really a Mola, you've seen something that is more rare than a Whaleshark or Humpback in our waters.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mel Briscoe (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #877) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 7:46 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I'm with Leo on this one. The location and size make mola unlikely. David, what did its tail look like?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By kevin thornal (BonaireTalker - Post #48) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 8:27 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

trigger fish..i bet you a buck!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Peter Oliveira (LBR28) (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #107) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 8:44 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I have seen and dove with quite a few in New England, around here we call them sunfish. They can get quite big. Unfortunately they do not tolerate cold water, on occasion I've seen where some stuck around for too long as our water cooled and died.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Glen Reem (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3291) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 10:08 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Why always the doubt here???

Mola Mola and Triggers are hard to confuse except perhaps by the four blind men from the elephant. Big MM do come from little ones, after all. Not all animals stay in their proper 'native' habitat, especially juvies, however unlikely any individual occurrence may be.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Sparty (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #318) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 10:27 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

If I'm not mistaken, within the last year or so, someone posted pictures of what he called a Manta Ray but was actually a spotted eagle ray. I would consider them harder to confuse than a MM and an Ocean Trigger. That may be why some would question this ID as well.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Grunt (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1255) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 10:58 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I posted this in 09, thinking it was a manta

a

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Leo Hoogenboom (www.bonphotobonaire.com) (BonaireTalker - Post #49) on Friday, April 8, 2011 - 11:01 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Schooling sharks stalking people during their night dives at the Habitat house reef (that where confused for Tarpon), several manta rays feeding in the sand at Tori's reef and Invisibles (Eagle rays or Southern stingrays) and many frogfish about a foot long that where only observed when pectoral fins where opened during swimming.(scorpion fish)
Apart from the 'sharks' that are spotted daily on many reefs on Bonaire, the 'Mola' (ocean trigger) is the most common confusion in my experience.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Ashcroft (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #3) on Saturday, April 9, 2011 - 1:01 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks all for the comments.

I though long and hard about writing up this encounter with the Mola mola, and i actually deleted the "it wasnt an oceanic triggerfish" part of the comment before posting.

Im not a marine identification newbie. I've got over 2500 open water dives under my belt, trained and qualified approx 150 students over every (PADI) level from OW-DM and i've seen a huge variety of marinelife, including oceanic triggerfish and mola mola.

Admittedly the vast majority of this was in the malaysian borneo/phillipines/indonesia archipeligo triangle. This was my first trip to the caribbean.

The dorsal and anal fins, along with the rounded tail, and the overall shape of the beast as well as its basking behaviour makes me 100% sure it was the same (though younger and smaller) animal to that seen elsewhere.

I hope someone else gets the chance to see it. I know how frustrating it is to miss something amazing in the water....i once was showing off a scorpion leaf fish in about 10m of water to a group of 4 students whilst my colleague and his group were watching an adult whaleshark cruise about 5m behind us...........was a very very gutting experience.

Dave


 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Ashcroft (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #4) on Saturday, April 9, 2011 - 1:05 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

ps. i still tease my partner mercilessly after she and her group came back from Sipadan Island after seeing a manta (cough cough spotted eagle ray) cruise by them........and also the time i guided some japanese divers at Sipadan who were going crazy because they saw a massive school of hammerheads (actually bumphead parrotfish....they really didnt believe me that bumphead parrotfish were not sharks!)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By brenda (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1325) on Saturday, April 9, 2011 - 2:55 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I can understand alot of the mis-ids, but really.......Mola very unique. Can't think of anything else that looks like them (esp if one has seen them before)......

Here they come in very close to shore by times. Even into our working harbor.


 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jerry C Ligon (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #181) on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 - 6:51 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

I'll put my money with Leo and the Ocean Triggerfish. Really do look similar to Mola Mola, and without documented photo, I do not trust divers with identification.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By brenda (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1334) on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 - 7:42 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

I can see why you "don't trust divers with id" (vast generalization here, Stan, Marty, Paul, Anna, Dee, et all aren't divers?), if only looking at pics of the 2 fish species one can't tell the difference......a tail (the most obvious 1) then.....

The op has stated that he has seen mola before, and is not a casual, sport diver.

I have seen them here, there's nothing like them.


(Glen spot on post! haha).





 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mel Briscoe (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #886) on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 - 12:43 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Brenda, where is "here" that you've mentioned twice?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By brenda (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1336) on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 - 5:45 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Nova Scotia

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Patti and Jim (BonaireTalker - Post #13) on Friday, April 22, 2011 - 11:45 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Well, we were on island 1st week in January of this year. We've been diving in Bonaire for the past 20 years now. Husband is an instructor, and I'm an assistant instructor. We have dove with Bas numerous times, and knows we are "legitimate".

I saw what I thought was a small mola mola on a reef dive - I'm thinking it was on the south side.

It was not a triggerfish - it was unlike anything I've seen before. The fins on top and bottom were so unique, and it's movement through the water was what caught my eye. Unlike anything I've seen before.

My husband and I were both scratching our heads on this, but I swear it was a mola mola. and I couldn't figure out if there were two, or just one that kept coming in and out of hiding.

I think David may be correct in his sighting.
Patti

 


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