BUSSELTON local Rhys Assan has become a YouTube sensation after clocking up almost 200,000 views of a bizarre encounter he filmed with a Mahi Mahi fish at Wonnerup Beach last Tuesday.
It was a normal morning beach walk for Rhys’s girlfriend Leah Reitinger and her mum when they noticed what appeared to be a dark shadow in the water.
“We saw a huge dolphin in the water and next to it what we believed was a baby dolphin,” she said.
“But then we noticed it wasn’t a dolphin at all and I took a photo of it and called Rhys and he came down straight away.”
When Mr Assan arrived the frenzied fish made its way up the beach and appeared to continuously beach itself.
“It was a bit over 1.2 metres in length and weighed about eight kilos,” he said.
“It was such a rare and strange thing to see in the South West - you just don’t see them at all down here,” he said.
Mr Assan tried to save the fish by swimming it out to deeper waters but was unsuccessful.
Mahi Mahi, commonly known as Dolphinfish, are a popular recreational game fish that can be found in most open tropical waters worldwide and grow at fast rates and are short-lived.
“We thought it was a special fish but didn’t know how rare,” he said.
“I filmed it because I knew my mates wouldn’t believe me so I uploaded the video to YouTube but didn’t think it would take off like it has,” he said.
“It certainly was a long way from home,” he said.
