As soon as he saw the hulking, bone-white carcass of an ocean sunfish sloshing in the waves offshore of the Azores archipelago, José Nuno Gomes-Pereira suspected the animal might be a record-breaker.

It was December 9, 2021, and Gomes-Pereira was responding to a call as part of his marine biology work with the Azores' marine strandings network and the Atlantic Naturalist Association, a nongovernmental organization focused on ocean monitoring.

Massive, rotting carcasses pose a threat to human health, says Gomes-Pereira. They are also a danger to passing ship traffic, which is why the network keeps close tabs on any large remains that drift near shore.

Likewise, human vessels frequently injure or kill big ocean