450-pound sunfish washes ashore on NC beach

A sunfish weighing almost 500 pounds washed ashore in North Carolina earlier this week.

Posted 4:05 p.m. Dec 2, 2022 — Updated 12:44 a.m. Dec 3, 2022

Jessica Patrick

, WRAL senior multiplatform producer

RALEIGH, N.C. — A sunfish weighing almost 500 pounds washed ashore in North Carolina earlier this week.

According to a spokesperson from the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, the fish was so large staff at the N.C. State Veterinary School had to use a horse scale to weigh it.

Th fish weighs 450 pounds and will be kept in the lab at the science museum until staff decide what to do with it.

In October, researchers in Portugal said a sunfish believed to be the largest in the world was found dead, floating near Faial Island in the central North Atlantic in December. That fish weighed 3 tons, and a forklift was used to weigh it.

According to National Geographic, the sunfish is the largest bony fish in existence. A sunfish can be 11 feet long and weigh up to 2.5 tons. The average life span of a sunfish is 10 years.

WRAL News is working with the museum to learn more about the fish, including where it was found.

Suggest A Correction