June 1, 2026
The Cold Water Fish That Looks Dead, But Isn’t
Ocean sunfish are one of the strangest fish on Earth. They can look like a giant floating dinner plate, drift sideways at the surface, and appear almost lifeless, but their strange behaviour is part of an incredible survival strategy.
In this episode of How to Protect the Ocean, Andrew Lewin explores why the mola mola, also known as the ocean sunfish, spends time in cold Canadian waters. These waters may not look tropical or crystal clear, but they are packed with plankton, jellyfish, nutrients, and life. That productivity attracts whales, turtles, seabirds, sharks, and even one of the heaviest bony fish on the planet.
This episode is a reminder that cold water oceans are not boring. They are full of surprises, strange animals, and signs of healthy food webs hiding in plain sight.
Transcript
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Imagine seeing something the size of a
car floating on its side in the ocean.
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00:00:05,361 --> 00:00:06,171
It looks dead.
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00:00:06,841 --> 00:00:08,301
It looks broken even.
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00:00:08,441 --> 00:00:11,301
And somehow it's one of
the largest fish on Earth.
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00:00:11,931 --> 00:00:15,001
This is the How to Protect the Ocean
podcast, your weekday ocean news update.
6
00:00:15,041 --> 00:00:19,259
If you care about staying informed
on the ocean every single weekday,
7
00:00:19,289 --> 00:00:21,909
hit that follow button right now
on your favorite podcast app so
8
00:00:22,029 --> 00:00:24,069
you do not miss tomorrow's story.
9
00:00:24,149 --> 00:00:28,359
This week, we are gonna be talking
about all the wonderful things
10
00:00:28,489 --> 00:00:31,892
that cold water brings, especially
when we talk about species.
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00:00:32,113 --> 00:00:36,333
Today, we are gonna be focusing in
on the fascinating species called the
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00:00:36,353 --> 00:00:38,609
mola mola, or, uh, the ocean sunfish.
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00:00:38,834 --> 00:00:41,986
Tomorrow, we're gonna be talking
about one of my favorite types of
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00:00:42,046 --> 00:00:43,471
sharks that's involved in Canada.
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00:00:43,511 --> 00:00:44,888
We're going to focus a
lot on Canadian waters.
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00:00:45,218 --> 00:00:47,893
And of course, we're gonna talk
about leatherback sea turtle, which
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00:00:47,893 --> 00:00:50,091
we get here every once in a while.
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00:00:50,413 --> 00:00:53,386
And then we're gonna be talking about
some fun things that I like to do.
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One of the best things I like to
do is jumping from tide pool to
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00:00:56,526 --> 00:00:57,826
tide pool to see what's in them.
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00:00:57,966 --> 00:00:59,926
That's all gonna be on
this week's episode.
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00:00:59,926 --> 00:01:03,447
And then we interview Kirsty
Burnett, who's a coworker of mine
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00:01:03,447 --> 00:01:07,023
at Pisces Oceans, which is the
sponsor of this episode, by the way.
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00:01:07,299 --> 00:01:11,455
We're gonna be talking about her love for
the ocean, and especially in temperate,
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colder waters, and how she grew up
around it, how she did studies around
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it, and how she loves being in it.
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Whether you're under it or above it,
you can still enjoy cold water species.
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And we're doing this as a part
of celebrating Oceans Day,
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which is, technically June 8th.
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It'll be a week from today, but
we're gonna be talking about cold
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water for the next two weeks.
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It's going to be a lot of fun.
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This is the first time in a while
that I'm celebrating Oceans Day
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working with an oceans team,
and it's gonna be a lot of fun.
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But let's get into today, 'cause
today we're gonna be answering the
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question that perfectly captures why
cold water oceans are so fascinating.
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Why does one of the strangest
fish on Earth spend part of its
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life in Canadian cold waters?
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And of course, what can this bizarre
animal teach us about the ocean?
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So if you've never seen a
sunfish before, you're not alone.
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Marine biologist Kirsty Burnett,
who I talked to on Friday, says it's
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one of those animals that people
simply don't believe it exists
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until they see a picture of it.
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And to be honest, she's right.
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The ocean sunfish, also known as the mola
mola, looked like someone designed a fish
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and forgot to finish it, to be honest.
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It has this giant flattened body,
this tiny, tiny little mouth.
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In fact, it looks kinda like a
baby if you really look at it.
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No obvious tail, and it often
floats sideways on ocean surface,
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which is kind of interesting.
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The first time I saw one,
I was in Nova Scotia.
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I honestly thought
something was wrong with it.
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I thought it was a dead animal.
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And so when I went to the surface, like
we were in a boat, we went over there just
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to see what it was, it started to move.
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And I realized I was looking at one
of the weirdest animals I'd ever seen,
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the ocean sunfish, or the Mola mola.
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And what's even stranger is
how successful these fish are.
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The ocean sunfish can
weigh more than a ton.
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They are among the heaviest
bony fish on the planet.
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And despite looking awkward, they're
found throughout the oceans around
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the world, including cold temperate
waters like those off of Atlantic
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Canada, where I first spotted one.
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Now, here's where things
get a little interesting.
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For years, scientists wondered why sunfish
spend so much time at the surface.
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Are they trying to get a tan?
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Are they sunbathing?
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Are they warming up?
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Like, why would a fish that can
dive hundreds of meters deep
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suddenly lie sideways in the sun.
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A 2019 study led by Professor Takashi
Nakamura used advanced tracking tags
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to follow ocean sunfish movements
and discovered that these fish
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regularly dive into colder, darker
waters while searching for food.
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After those dives, they often return
to the surface, likely helping
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them warm up again before they
dive their next excursion, I guess.
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In other words, that strange
floating behavior isn't random.
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It's part of their survival strategy.
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The fish is essentially recharging.
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It's like almost like a battery.
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And suddenly what looks bizarre
actually makes perfect sense.
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But that still doesn't
answer the big question.
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Why come to cold water at all?
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Really, the answer is food.
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Cold water oceans may not have
coral reefs, they may not have
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clear crystal tropical water, but
they are incredibly productive.
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I think sometimes that gets missed
a lot with how important they are.
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Nutrients from deeper
water fuel plankton blooms.
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Those plankton support jellyfish,
and jellyfish happen to be one of the
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favorite foods of the ocean sunfish.
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That's why cold oceans can
attract so many animals.
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Whales come here, leatherback sea
turtles come here, sea birds come
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here, and sunfish come here too.
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They're all following the food.
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A 2001 study led by Dr. Marianne
Nyegaard found that ocean sunfish often
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concentrate in highly productive feeding
areas where prey is abundant, reinforcing
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the idea that these giant fish are
closely linked to productive systems.
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That means when you see a sunfish
off Nova Scotia, you're not just
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seeing a weird fish, you're seeing
evidence of a healthy food web.
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Imagine that, seeing this massive
animal just like almost look
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like it's dead at the surface
thinking, " No, that's a dead fish.
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No, actually, that's not a dead fish.
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That's a fish that's alive,
that's recharging to go back
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down in these productive waters
so it can be even healthier."
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That's a healthy system
we're seeing there.
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So you're seeing a result of
plankton, currents, nutrients,
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and countless ecological
connections all working together.
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Now, it's productive.
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That's what we love about
cold water, it's productive.
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You may not get the clear crystal
waters because there's so much
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plankton, and because it just
has all these different colors.
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Like, whether it be a really,
really dark blue, sometimes a little
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brown, sometimes a little green.
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It all depends on what's in the water.
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And, you know, this is something
that's really productive.
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It's really good, just like this
episode and just like this podcast that
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we bring you each and every weekday.
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00:05:51,369 --> 00:05:54,889
And if you find that you're getting
value from this podcast, I want you
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00:05:54,930 --> 00:05:58,142
to hit that follow button so you don't
miss tomorrow's episode, where we're
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00:05:58,162 --> 00:06:02,905
gonna be talking about one of the most
favorite sharks that people have in
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00:06:02,946 --> 00:06:06,705
the temperate waters, and I think that's
something that you should check out.
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So hit that follow button right now.
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00:06:08,229 --> 00:06:12,167
Now, one of my favorite things about
ocean sunfish is that they challenge
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our assumptions about the ocean.
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People often think the most exciting
marine life lives in tropical reefs.
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Like, everybody who wants to go diving
will go diving in tropical reefs.
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And tropical reefs are incredible,
don't get me wrong, but cold water
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oceans have their own magic.
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Where else can you find a fish that
looks like a floating dinner plate,
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weighs more than a car, dives hundreds
of meters into the darkness, and then
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comes back to the surface to sunbathe?
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The answer is right here in
cold Canadian waters.
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And that's why Oceans Week
is such a great reminder.
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A reminder that the ocean isn't
amazing only in the places that,
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you know, have travel brochures.
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It's amazing everywhere
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especially in the places people
often overlook, like Nova Scotia.
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You don't have to go diving in
Nova Scotian waters to see
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all these wonderful things.
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You can just see it on the surface,
a mola mola just sunbathing.
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It's pretty cool.
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That ocean sunfish is proof that cold
water oceans are anything but boring.
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So the next time, you know, you
think about these oceans, think
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about they're full of surprises.
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They're full of life, and full of
animals that seem almost impossible
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until you see them for yourself.
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So if you ever have a chance to go
to the Atlantic Ocean, whether you're
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in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, PEI,
or Prince Edward Island for those who
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don't know, New Brunswick, even Quebec,
you're seeing the Atlantic Ocean.
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If you're in Canada, I highly
recommend that you go there.
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Even if you're in the northeast of
the United States, highly recommend
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that you go to the Atlantic and
be able to see the whales, the
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dolphins, the porpoises, the seals.
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You're gonna see mola molas.
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You're gonna see potentially like,
leatherback sea turtles, sharks, all
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these different animals that are there
in these wonderfully productive waters.
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So that's the episode for today.
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If you enjoyed this episode, I
want you to thank Pisces Oceans.
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00:07:58,742 --> 00:08:02,376
They have been helpful not only in
sponsoring this episode and being a
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part of this episode, but helping
so many companies, so many non-profit
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00:08:05,928 --> 00:08:11,637
organizations, so many Indigenous
groups to be able to manage grants,
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00:08:11,641 --> 00:08:15,678
to be able to strategize for different
projects, to be able to help them
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00:08:15,788 --> 00:08:18,543
communicate their message, so they
can not only get more funding, but
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they can just spread their message
and scale up their message to make you
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understand how important the ocean is.
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And I think that's something that is
fun for all of us that work at Pisces
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Oceans, including myself and Kirsty and
Natalie and Melissa, who are our co-CEOs.
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These are some amazing times
that we get to work in.
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We need ocean people to work in it and
the group that I'm a part of now is,
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they're fantastic, and we love to work
on ocean projects and help them scale
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and help them get funding and help
them manage their grants and help them
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communicate and help them strategize.
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00:08:47,821 --> 00:08:50,713
So if you wanna go and check it
out, if you have an ocean project
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that needs a little bit of help
communicating, or you need help in
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managing grants, go to piscesoceans.ca.
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Check it out there, or you can contact
me in my socials in the show notes.
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00:09:00,847 --> 00:09:02,487
All of it, all that stuff
will be in the show notes.
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I wanna thank you so much for
joining me on today's episode of the
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00:09:05,700 --> 00:09:07,120
How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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Have a great day.
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00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:11,116
We'll talk to you tomorrow when we're
talking about probably one of the most
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00:09:11,156 --> 00:09:13,377
popular sharks in the Atlantic right now.
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00:09:13,748 --> 00:09:17,748
Always, I guess, and probably not the one
that you think, but it's still popular.
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00:09:18,008 --> 00:09:20,788
We're gonna talk about that
tomorrow, so don't forget to join us.
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Thank you again.
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My name is Andrew Lewin, your
host of this episode of the How
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to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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Have a great day.
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We'll talk to you tomorrow,
and happy conservation.
00:00:00,049 --> 00:00:04,989
Imagine seeing something the size of a
car floating on its side in the ocean.
2
00:00:05,361 --> 00:00:06,171
It looks dead.
3
00:00:06,841 --> 00:00:08,301
It looks broken even.
4
00:00:08,441 --> 00:00:11,301
And somehow it's one of
the largest fish on Earth.
5
00:00:11,931 --> 00:00:15,001
This is the How to Protect the Ocean
podcast, your weekday ocean news update.
6
00:00:15,041 --> 00:00:19,259
If you care about staying informed
on the ocean every single weekday,
7
00:00:19,289 --> 00:00:21,909
hit that follow button right now
on your favorite podcast app so
8
00:00:22,029 --> 00:00:24,069
you do not miss tomorrow's story.
9
00:00:24,149 --> 00:00:28,359
This week, we are gonna be talking
about all the wonderful things
10
00:00:28,489 --> 00:00:31,892
that cold water brings, especially
when we talk about species.
11
00:00:32,113 --> 00:00:36,333
Today, we are gonna be focusing in
on the fascinating species called the
12
00:00:36,353 --> 00:00:38,609
mola mola, or, uh, the ocean sunfish.
13
00:00:38,834 --> 00:00:41,986
Tomorrow, we're gonna be talking
about one of my favorite types of
14
00:00:42,046 --> 00:00:43,471
sharks that's involved in Canada.
15
00:00:43,511 --> 00:00:44,888
We're going to focus a
lot on Canadian waters.
16
00:00:45,218 --> 00:00:47,893
And of course, we're gonna talk
about leatherback sea turtle, which
17
00:00:47,893 --> 00:00:50,091
we get here every once in a while.
18
00:00:50,413 --> 00:00:53,386
And then we're gonna be talking about
some fun things that I like to do.
19
00:00:53,446 --> 00:00:56,486
One of the best things I like to
do is jumping from tide pool to
20
00:00:56,526 --> 00:00:57,826
tide pool to see what's in them.
21
00:00:57,966 --> 00:00:59,926
That's all gonna be on
this week's episode.
22
00:00:59,926 --> 00:01:03,447
And then we interview Kirsty
Burnett, who's a coworker of mine
23
00:01:03,447 --> 00:01:07,023
at Pisces Oceans, which is the
sponsor of this episode, by the way.
24
00:01:07,299 --> 00:01:11,455
We're gonna be talking about her love for
the ocean, and especially in temperate,
25
00:01:11,575 --> 00:01:15,155
colder waters, and how she grew up
around it, how she did studies around
26
00:01:15,175 --> 00:01:16,415
it, and how she loves being in it.
27
00:01:16,475 --> 00:01:20,030
Whether you're under it or above it,
you can still enjoy cold water species.
28
00:01:20,050 --> 00:01:23,970
And we're doing this as a part
of celebrating Oceans Day,
29
00:01:24,050 --> 00:01:25,830
which is, technically June 8th.
30
00:01:25,950 --> 00:01:28,070
It'll be a week from today, but
we're gonna be talking about cold
31
00:01:28,130 --> 00:01:29,945
water for the next two weeks.
32
00:01:29,985 --> 00:01:31,545
It's going to be a lot of fun.
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This is the first time in a while
that I'm celebrating Oceans Day
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working with an oceans team,
and it's gonna be a lot of fun.
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But let's get into today, 'cause
today we're gonna be answering the
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question that perfectly captures why
cold water oceans are so fascinating.
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Why does one of the strangest
fish on Earth spend part of its
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life in Canadian cold waters?
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And of course, what can this bizarre
animal teach us about the ocean?
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So if you've never seen a
sunfish before, you're not alone.
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Marine biologist Kirsty Burnett,
who I talked to on Friday, says it's
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one of those animals that people
simply don't believe it exists
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until they see a picture of it.
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And to be honest, she's right.
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The ocean sunfish, also known as the mola
mola, looked like someone designed a fish
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and forgot to finish it, to be honest.
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It has this giant flattened body,
this tiny, tiny little mouth.
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In fact, it looks kinda like a
baby if you really look at it.
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No obvious tail, and it often
floats sideways on ocean surface,
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which is kind of interesting.
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The first time I saw one,
I was in Nova Scotia.
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I honestly thought
something was wrong with it.
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I thought it was a dead animal.
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And so when I went to the surface, like
we were in a boat, we went over there just
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to see what it was, it started to move.
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And I realized I was looking at one
of the weirdest animals I'd ever seen,
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the ocean sunfish, or the Mola mola.
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And what's even stranger is
how successful these fish are.
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The ocean sunfish can
weigh more than a ton.
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They are among the heaviest
bony fish on the planet.
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And despite looking awkward, they're
found throughout the oceans around
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the world, including cold temperate
waters like those off of Atlantic
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Canada, where I first spotted one.
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Now, here's where things
get a little interesting.
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For years, scientists wondered why sunfish
spend so much time at the surface.
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Are they trying to get a tan?
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Are they sunbathing?
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Are they warming up?
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Like, why would a fish that can
dive hundreds of meters deep
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suddenly lie sideways in the sun.
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00:03:25,582 --> 00:03:31,330
A 2019 study led by Professor Takashi
Nakamura used advanced tracking tags
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to follow ocean sunfish movements
and discovered that these fish
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regularly dive into colder, darker
waters while searching for food.
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After those dives, they often return
to the surface, likely helping
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00:03:42,276 --> 00:03:45,985
them warm up again before they
dive their next excursion, I guess.
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In other words, that strange
floating behavior isn't random.
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It's part of their survival strategy.
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The fish is essentially recharging.
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It's like almost like a battery.
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And suddenly what looks bizarre
actually makes perfect sense.
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But that still doesn't
answer the big question.
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Why come to cold water at all?
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Really, the answer is food.
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Cold water oceans may not have
coral reefs, they may not have
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clear crystal tropical water, but
they are incredibly productive.
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I think sometimes that gets missed
a lot with how important they are.
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Nutrients from deeper
water fuel plankton blooms.
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Those plankton support jellyfish,
and jellyfish happen to be one of the
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favorite foods of the ocean sunfish.
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That's why cold oceans can
attract so many animals.
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Whales come here, leatherback sea
turtles come here, sea birds come
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00:04:36,445 --> 00:04:38,905
here, and sunfish come here too.
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They're all following the food.
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A 2001 study led by Dr. Marianne
Nyegaard found that ocean sunfish often
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concentrate in highly productive feeding
areas where prey is abundant, reinforcing
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the idea that these giant fish are
closely linked to productive systems.
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That means when you see a sunfish
off Nova Scotia, you're not just
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seeing a weird fish, you're seeing
evidence of a healthy food web.
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Imagine that, seeing this massive
animal just like almost look
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like it's dead at the surface
thinking, " No, that's a dead fish.
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No, actually, that's not a dead fish.
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That's a fish that's alive,
that's recharging to go back
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down in these productive waters
so it can be even healthier."
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That's a healthy system
we're seeing there.
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So you're seeing a result of
plankton, currents, nutrients,
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and countless ecological
connections all working together.
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Now, it's productive.
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That's what we love about
cold water, it's productive.
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You may not get the clear crystal
waters because there's so much
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plankton, and because it just
has all these different colors.
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Like, whether it be a really,
really dark blue, sometimes a little
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brown, sometimes a little green.
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It all depends on what's in the water.
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And, you know, this is something
that's really productive.
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It's really good, just like this
episode and just like this podcast that
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00:05:48,850 --> 00:05:51,249
we bring you each and every weekday.
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00:05:51,369 --> 00:05:54,889
And if you find that you're getting
value from this podcast, I want you
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00:05:54,930 --> 00:05:58,142
to hit that follow button so you don't
miss tomorrow's episode, where we're
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00:05:58,162 --> 00:06:02,905
gonna be talking about one of the most
favorite sharks that people have in
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00:06:02,946 --> 00:06:06,705
the temperate waters, and I think that's
something that you should check out.
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00:06:06,745 --> 00:06:08,085
So hit that follow button right now.
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00:06:08,229 --> 00:06:12,167
Now, one of my favorite things about
ocean sunfish is that they challenge
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our assumptions about the ocean.
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People often think the most exciting
marine life lives in tropical reefs.
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00:06:17,678 --> 00:06:21,179
Like, everybody who wants to go diving
will go diving in tropical reefs.
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00:06:21,387 --> 00:06:23,951
And tropical reefs are incredible,
don't get me wrong, but cold water
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00:06:24,031 --> 00:06:26,075
oceans have their own magic.
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Where else can you find a fish that
looks like a floating dinner plate,
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weighs more than a car, dives hundreds
of meters into the darkness, and then
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00:06:33,322 --> 00:06:35,222
comes back to the surface to sunbathe?
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The answer is right here in
cold Canadian waters.
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And that's why Oceans Week
is such a great reminder.
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A reminder that the ocean isn't
amazing only in the places that,
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you know, have travel brochures.
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It's amazing everywhere
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especially in the places people
often overlook, like Nova Scotia.
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You don't have to go diving in
Nova Scotian waters to see
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00:06:57,614 --> 00:06:58,414
all these wonderful things.
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You can just see it on the surface,
a mola mola just sunbathing.
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00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:01,690
It's pretty cool.
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That ocean sunfish is proof that cold
water oceans are anything but boring.
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00:07:07,385 --> 00:07:10,605
So the next time, you know, you
think about these oceans, think
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00:07:10,645 --> 00:07:12,105
about they're full of surprises.
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00:07:12,125 --> 00:07:15,788
They're full of life, and full of
animals that seem almost impossible
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00:07:15,888 --> 00:07:17,756
until you see them for yourself.
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00:07:17,988 --> 00:07:23,313
So if you ever have a chance to go
to the Atlantic Ocean, whether you're
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in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, PEI,
or Prince Edward Island for those who
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00:07:28,195 --> 00:07:32,219
don't know, New Brunswick, even Quebec,
you're seeing the Atlantic Ocean.
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If you're in Canada, I highly
recommend that you go there.
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Even if you're in the northeast of
the United States, highly recommend
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00:07:37,734 --> 00:07:41,102
that you go to the Atlantic and
be able to see the whales, the
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00:07:41,142 --> 00:07:43,282
dolphins, the porpoises, the seals.
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You're gonna see mola molas.
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00:07:45,634 --> 00:07:49,018
You're gonna see potentially like,
leatherback sea turtles, sharks, all
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00:07:49,028 --> 00:07:52,805
these different animals that are there
in these wonderfully productive waters.
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So that's the episode for today.
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00:07:54,990 --> 00:07:58,502
If you enjoyed this episode, I
want you to thank Pisces Oceans.
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00:07:58,742 --> 00:08:02,376
They have been helpful not only in
sponsoring this episode and being a
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00:08:02,416 --> 00:08:05,908
part of this episode, but helping
so many companies, so many non-profit
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00:08:05,928 --> 00:08:11,637
organizations, so many Indigenous
groups to be able to manage grants,
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00:08:11,641 --> 00:08:15,678
to be able to strategize for different
projects, to be able to help them
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00:08:15,788 --> 00:08:18,543
communicate their message, so they
can not only get more funding, but
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00:08:18,543 --> 00:08:22,315
they can just spread their message
and scale up their message to make you
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understand how important the ocean is.
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And I think that's something that is
fun for all of us that work at Pisces
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00:08:28,559 --> 00:08:32,901
Oceans, including myself and Kirsty and
Natalie and Melissa, who are our co-CEOs.
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These are some amazing times
that we get to work in.
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We need ocean people to work in it and
the group that I'm a part of now is,
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they're fantastic, and we love to work
on ocean projects and help them scale
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and help them get funding and help
them manage their grants and help them
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00:08:46,165 --> 00:08:47,761
communicate and help them strategize.
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00:08:47,821 --> 00:08:50,713
So if you wanna go and check it
out, if you have an ocean project
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that needs a little bit of help
communicating, or you need help in
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00:08:53,452 --> 00:08:56,444
managing grants, go to piscesoceans.ca.
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00:08:56,576 --> 00:09:00,767
Check it out there, or you can contact
me in my socials in the show notes.
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00:09:00,847 --> 00:09:02,487
All of it, all that stuff
will be in the show notes.
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I wanna thank you so much for
joining me on today's episode of the
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00:09:05,700 --> 00:09:07,120
How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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Have a great day.
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We'll talk to you tomorrow when we're
talking about probably one of the most
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popular sharks in the Atlantic right now.
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00:09:13,748 --> 00:09:17,748
Always, I guess, and probably not the one
that you think, but it's still popular.
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We're gonna talk about that
tomorrow, so don't forget to join us.
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Thank you again.
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My name is Andrew Lewin, your
host of this episode of the How
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to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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Have a great day.
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We'll talk to you tomorrow,
and happy conservation.
