The UK's heatwave has been attracting some rather unusual fans - giant ocean sunfish, so called because of their habit of 'sunbathing' on the surface of the ocean.
It emerged today that marine researchers spotted 19 of the species - the world's largest bony fish - during a two hour survey off the south-west tip of Cornwall last week.
Sunfish are curious, oval-shaped creatures that can grow up to 11 feet in length and have a penchant for lying on the sea surface on their sides, as if sunbathing. They can weigh more than two tonnes and have unusual short tail fins.
The fish are generally thought to prefer warm and temperate waters in the eastern Pacific and western Atlantic. The increasing number of sightings of sunfish, or Mola mola, in the UK in recent years has been interpreted by some as further evidence of the rising temperatures of British waters.
Sunfish are believed to be mostly solitary and feed mainly on jellyfish, so scientists were interested to find so many together. Younger sunfish are more likely to form groups.
Researchers from the University of Exeter's School of Biosciences, the Marine Conservation Society and Cornwall Wildlife Trust spotted the sunfish while surveying the Cornish coast.
"This sudden influx of these beautiful, giant fish was a fantastic surprise," Dr Brendan Godley, senior lecturer at the University of Exeter Cornwall Campus, told the Press Association.
"We only spotted the sunfish lying on their side at the surface so there may have been more below the waves.
"This is the first time we have spotted them during our surveys, and we think they have arrived here in order to take advantage of anticipated jellyfish blooms as the summer sea temperatures rise."
It is not completely understood why the sunfish appear to sunbathe but one explanation is that they come to the surface to allow birds, such as gulls, to pick parasites from their rough skin.
The sunfish can leap out of the water, like sharks, which they are sometimes confused with because of their dorsal fins.
A four-year-old boy was flattened by a sunfish in August last year, off the coast of Little Haven, Pembrokeshire, when it leapt from the sea into his dad's boat. The boy and his brother managed to roll the creature off and back into the sea.
Last Thursday's survey off the Cornish coast also detected basking sharks, porpoises, seals and jellyfish. Previous surveys have also recorded bottlenose and common dolphins.
The monthly aerial surveys, which are funded by the European Social Fund with additional support from the MCS, began in January. They aim to monitor the different species of marine wildlife visiting Cornwall's waters.