The rescue of the ocean sunfish came during a seasonal spike in often-fatal strandings for the species. The incidents occur during low tides throughout smaller bodies of water off Buzzards Bay, Cape Cod Bay, and around the Cape.

“Great effort by one and all. After all the stranding[s] we have responded to, it is nice to get one out alive!” the alliance said in a Facebook post Tuesday.

A team of volunteers rescued a stranded Mola mola , an ocean sunfish, from a bay off the Cape Cod Canal on Monday, one day after another of the heavy tropical fish died during low tide, the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance said.


A team of NECWA volunteers was first able to keep one of the unfortunate ocean sunfish from stranding in such a trap after it was located Sunday in Buttermilk Bay. And after it was found back in Little Buttermilk Bay early Monday, the crew returned to try and rescue it for good, NECWA president Carol “Krill” Carlson said in a telephone interview.

“It was high and dry” around 15 feet from water, she said. “We raced over there in our kayaks, and I just jumped out and grabbed it.”

“This poor thing didn’t know what was happening to it, you should have seen the look on its face,” she said.

Carlson said the rescue team, which also included a Wareham animal control officer and harbormaster, was eventually able to attach a strap to the fish, which Carlson estimated to weigh more than 600 pounds and resembled “a big pancake.”

The fish was then attached to the harbormaster’s boat, and towed to freedom in the Cape Cod Canal by 3 p.m.

The successful Monday rescue was preceded by a less fortunate incident Sunday, when another sunfish became trapped in Little Buttermilk Bay. While five NECWA volunteers worked throughout the day to save it, the fish died before the tide came up. NECWA staff and AmeriCorps students later performed a necropsy on the sunfish, an 885-pound female.


In addition to those two strandings, the NECWA also responded to and necropsied a dead ocean sunfish in Blackfish Creek in Wellfleet last Wednesday.

An uptick in strandings by the large tropical fish is not uncommon this time of year. Carlson said the fish can become trapped in the fall and winter in the shallow harbors and inlets around Cape Cod, then strand and die — a trend that has continued this week.

“Once they get into these shallow harbors and coves, they just can’t figure out how to get out, and then the tide goes out and they get stuck on a sandbar or shore, and that’s it,” she said. “We’re dealing with healthy fish that should be migrating south to warmer waters,” Carlson said. “As they’re continuing to be trapped, eventually they’re just going to wash up somewhere.”

She estimated that the NECWA has responded to around 30 ocean sunfish strandings this year alone, most of which proved deadly for the molas involved.

In cases where stranded sunfish are spotted in time, Carlson said the opportunity to help is rewarding. But in cases where a rescue isn’t successful, or if a NECWA team arrives to find a carcass, Carlson said valuable information can still be gained.

“No one knows anything really about these fish,” Carlson said. “Because they’re not threatened, they’re not endangered, they’re a healthy population, there’s no money out there for research.”


When sunfish do die, she said, samples can be taken for study by the NECWA and its partners at Bridgewater State University, which may help scientists learn more about the fish and their habits that lead to the dangerous strandings.

Still, the NECWA’s goal is always to try and get the fish back into the ocean alive, and safe.

“You see the fish struggling and you just have to help,” Carlson said. “They’re so big, and they’re so gentle, and they’re so curious.”

Ben Thompson can be reached at ben.thompson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @Globe_Thompson.