Rare Sunfish Spotted Off Gökçeada (Imbros)

A fisherman who set out to catch swordfish off the coast of Gökçeada (Imbros) in Çanakkale captured a rare sunfish on his mobile phone camera.

İlker Özdemir set sail from Gökçeada on his boat "Kızılelma" with his son Efe Özdemir and two friends to fish for swordfish.

After dropping the longline gear into the sea, Özdemir noticed the fin of a sunfish a little way off from their boat.

The sunfish soon surfaced and began swimming, and İlker Özdemir recorded it with his mobile phone camera.

In a statement, Özdemir said they came across the sunfish while fishing at sea.

Noting that catching the rare sunfish is also prohibited, Özdemir said, "Its presence in this geography, in the Northern Aegean, off Gökçeada, is especially beautiful. Because it's an animal that shows the richness of our seas. It's a very valuable and important link in the population. It's a creature that tells how clean our seas are. It can dive down to depths of 1500-2000 meters. We capture these images when we come across it here."