Bizarre giant fish brushes past scuba diver in Galapagos Islands

One of the most bizarre fish in the ocean, giant Mola Mola, or ocean sunfish are often referred to as the creature that evolution forgot. Evolved from pufferfish, they have almost no tail. They resemble a giant head and body as they propel themselves slowly through the water with their anal and dorsal fins.Show more

Primitive in their design, they cannot close their mouth. They feed on squid, small fish, eggs and larvae, and even jellyfish. They move at a ridiculously slow speed, except in short bursts. They also lie flat on the surface of the water to sun themselves. They are a truly strange fish that is baffling to naturalists and biologists. They is a lot that scientists don't yet understand about these giants of the deep.

Known to lay the most eggs of any vertebrate in the world, they can produce up to 300,000,000 at a time. They are the world's largest bony fish, reaching an incredible 2200kg (4700lbs). At full size, they have no predators, but they are vulnerable to almost any shark, orca or sea lion when they are growing.

These fish often suspend themselves in an upright position to take advantage of cleaning stations, or areas where smaller wrasses rid larger animals of parasites on their bodies and around their mouths. Although they generally very shy and reclusive, they will sometimes allow a slow and cautious diver to approach them.

The scuba diver with the camera is experiencing something very rare as the giant fish swims past him so close that it almost bumped him. Possibly curious, it seemed to inspect him closely as it went past.