A rescue at Crescent Beach: Rare creature is saved by quick thinking

A visitor, seldom if ever seen on Shelter Island, arrived by water recently, got into a life-and-death struggle and was rescued by calm and collected Islanders.

Fishing off Crescent Beach near the Perlman Music Program’s dock on Thursday morning, Mark Mobius spotted something that made him look twice. And then again. An enormous flat fish was struggling in the shallows.

It was a mola mola, or ocean sunfish. Mola, in Latin means “millstone,” which describes the large size and shape of the fish. They can grow, according to National Geographic, up to 14 feet vertically and 10 feet horizontally and weigh nearly 5,000 pounds. The one spotted at Crescent Beach was not nearly that size, but everyone who saw it said it was a giant.

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Mr. Mobius did the right thing. He called Shelter Island’s Animal Control Officer (ACO) Jenny Zahler. “I got in touch with the DEC [State Department of Environmental Conservation] and they put me on to their Marine Bureau, who said to just push the fish as far out as I could,” the ACO said.

Officer Zahler described the fish stuck in the shallows as, “So big. Like a giant pancake.” She noted that one of the reasons the mola mola was stuck is that it swims vertically like a blade, and lying horizontally had trouble moving.

National Geographic reports that the fish “are found in temperate and tropical oceans around the world. They are frequently seen basking in the sun near the surface and are often mistaken for sharks when their huge dorsal fins emerge above the water.”

And according to the Monterey Aquarium, a mola mola is “clearly not built for life in the fast lane. But it holds its own against faster and flashier fishes and is able to live in almost all of the world’s oceans. It’s known to spend time near the surface, but tagging shows [it’s] also a prolific diver and migrates long distances at depth.”

At the beach on Thursday, Officer Zahler donned her waders and began an attempt to push the fish out to deeper waters. “I pushed as hard as I could, but the fish had to weigh 300 or 400 pounds,” she said. And, she added, you can’t go too far in waders pushing that kind of weight.

At this point the fish was stuck under the Perlman dock, the ACO said. To the rescue came James Cummings in his rowboat. They attached a rope to the boat and Mr. Cummings held on to the mola mola at the side as Officer Zahler pulled the boat, walking along the dock. Once in deeper water, the fish turned vertically and sailed away in the depths.

The ACO, who has had many memorable experiences with Island wildlife in her time, counts this rescue as one she’ll treasure. 

“It was in some way a religious experience,” she said, describing the feel of the mola mola, like sandpaper on her skin. “And this one huge eye, looking at me the whole time. I like to think we connected.”