Mola in Bunaken? YES!
Mola Mola, it is something that is not often sighted in Bunaken but very special. At the moment they are only seen randomly about once a year and you are very lucky when you catch a glimpse. They have usually only ever been seen on a steep sloping reefs on the southwest of Bunaken.
2 years ago there were two Mola Mola in Bunaken at our Fukui dive site. They stayed there for a week so almost everyone that visited got to see them. They would come to the shallow sandy patch and surface giving both divers and snorkelers a chance to see them. It was an amazing week!
Last year a migrating Orca attacked a Mola Mola in Bunaken and since then, Mola Mola haven’t been sighted again – until now.
Only last week Becky and Mike were visiting from New Zealand and fun diving with Dive Manager Colin in front of Two Fish Bunaken Resort at our dive site called Muka Dua. Mike happened to glance off into the blue seeing a large shape swimming past. He got Becky and then Colins attention just as the Mola Mola turned and swam into the deep blue.
What is a Mola?
Mola Mola are one of the heaviest known bony fishes and usually spend most of their lives at depths greater than 200m. They come to the surface and ‘sun’ themselves before diving into deeper colder water again to feed and this is how they got their name ‘Sun Fish’.
The other name we know them by is Mola which is Latin for ‘millstone’ which the fish resembles. Other languages translated names include moonfish (looks like the moon), lumpfish (looks like a lump), head alone fish (has no tail) and the toppled wheel fish. All of these names describe how weird this fish looks!!
They are very generalist predators eating everything from small fish, squid, crustaceans, jellyfish, and salps and grow up 4.2m in size (fin to fin). Average sized adults can reach up to 3.5m from fin to fin.
Although Mola in Bunaken are a rare sight, we do see them occasionally so hopefully, you are just as lucky as Mike, Becky and Colin and get to see one of our hidden treasures!
Would you like to join us for diving in Bunaken? Fill in the contact form below and we will get right back to you – we hope to be diving in Bunaken with you soon!
