RINGING IN THE NEW YEAR - Jamestown Press jamestownpress.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jamestownpress.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Dangerous Portuguese Men-Of-War Spotted At 3 Rhode Island Beaches patch.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from patch.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Bill George
Photo: Getty Images
FaceBook was buzzing all day on Tuesday with reports of a shark sighting off Narragansett. The TV stations even ran video from a beachgoer showing that ominous dorsal fin of Great White. Some boaters even confirmed the shark sighting. In fact, Roger Wheeler Beach and Salty Brine Beach banned swimming for about an hour.
BUT..It turns out the hysteria was for naught. What people really saw was an Ocean Sunfish, also known as a molo mola. The Ocean Sunfish looks nothing like those Sunfish you catch at local ponds. The mola mola can grow to 10 feet long and over 2,000 pounds. Apparently they are often confused for sharks. According to National Geographic, the Ocean Sunfish can be easily differentiated from a shark by the way it flops its dorsal fin from side to side. The fish is usually found in tropical water, but warming waters along the east coast have brought many new species to New England waters in recent years.