Someone Found A Washed-Up 100lb Opah Fish On The Beach

In the morning of July 15, 2021, a 100-pound tropical fish was found washed ashore on Sunset Beach, Oregon. The three and a half foot long fish looked unfamiliar so the people who discovered it have to take photos of it and report it to the Seaside Aquarium. When the aquarium staff arrived to recover the fish, they find out that the large fish is an opah, also commonly known as moonfish. This particular species is unheard of in the area and is not native to Oregon.

Can You Fish for Opah? Moonfish are not a popular target for sport nor commercial fishermen, which is one of the reasons that so little is known about them. That said, they can be caught—though targeting them is extremely difficult. Commercial anglers occasionally catch opah while long-lining for bigeye tuna off Hawaii. NOAA studies also suggest that a good-size population of opah exists off the coast of Southern California and Mexico's Baja Peninsula. If you're set on catching an opah, try one of these regions.