On Friday, January 11, 2019, a sunfish (Mola sp) was found dead at the mouth of the Waehaong River adjacent to the Islamic Center building. The sunfish was found when the sea was receding. The fish's large size and strange shape made residents around Waihaong start gathering and uploading pictures of the stranded sunfish on social media.

WWF-Indonesia team, Abdul Maskur Marabessy (Aqul) who got the information from Instagram, immediately went to the location to help with the handling. When they arrived at the location at 10:50 WIT, the community had begun to cut the fish into several parts to facilitate the disposal of carcasses into the sea. "However, before the residents continued cutting, I asked permission to take morphometric measurements first," said Aqul.

The total length of the fish was 250 cm with a width of 130 cm. If we follow the guidelines for handling stranded marine mammals, the condition of the sunfish is classified as code 2, which means that it has just died and there is no swelling (fresh dead). Previously, three residents of Waehaong, Ari Mahulette, Ojo and Sam had tried to pull the dead fish into the sea by tying a rope around its head. The large size and weight of the fish prevented them from pulling it out. In addition, the receding sea made the distance to the sea even longer, so the effort to sink the sunfish carcass could not be done.

"We tried to bury the fish carcass on the beach. But it turned out that this was also difficult to do because the weight of the fish was very heavy. There were also not many people who wanted to help, they just passed by to take photos and then left, "explained Ari Mahulette. Finally, they took the initiative to cut the fish into small pieces and throw them into the sea. They got information that the sunfish was caught in a fisherman's net.
A few minutes later, Syahril Wally, a fisherman came to the location, he had just bought a 2.5-inch net to replace his damaged net. Syahril said that at 5 a.m. he and his two colleagues were catching lema fish using a drift gill net around the Tantui fishing port. After the net had been set, something tried to jump out of the water. Syahril and his partner checked their net, and it turned out to be a cutlassfish (as local fishermen call sunfish) that got entangled in the net and pulled it into the sea.

The murky, deep waters of Tantui meant Syahril had to go shallower to release the sunfish from the net. He fired up his 5.5 GT Katinting boat and pulled the fish that was still caught in the net to the Wahaong area. After being pulled for approximately 2.8 km, they cut the net and released the fish. "The fish looked exhausted, its eyes became white and it did not want to swim to the sea," Syahril said.

They tried to herd the fish into the sea by hand. Feeling that the fish had managed to swim again, he went ashore to put in a new net. However, a few hours later Syahril heard people gathering on the beach because they had found a strange, large fish. It was only then that Syahril learned that the sunfish had finally died and been carried by the receding tide to shore.

The sunfish is a fish that lives in temperate and tropical climates. In Indonesia, one of its migration sites is the Nusa Penida region of Bali. They rid themselves of parasites with the help of reef fishes while basking in the sun, to adjust their body temperature after being in the depths for too long. Despite its flat body, this ancient filter feeder fish can weigh up to 1000 kg. Mola-Mola fish is one of the 20 priority species for protection in 2015-2019 by the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.