A deep sea fish has made a very rare appearance off the Southern California coast and has raised the eyebrows of the superstitious. Found near La Jolla Shores by science kayakers and snorkelers out exploring Saturday afternoon, August 10, the deceased oarfish was spotted floating on the surface of the water. Excited by the discovery, a group of volunteers towed the 12-foot-long fish to shore on a paddleboat and loaded their find onto the back of a truck. It was later turned over to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
The Unusual Oarfish
Most likely named after its resemblance to an oar, the deep sea fish is described as a “strikingly large, odd-looking fish” by the Ocean Conservatory. The oarfish has a very long, flat silver body that resembles a ribbon. The unusual fish can grow to thirty feet in length and has what resembles red spine-like whiskers spouting from its face. Its appearance is not the only strange thing about the fish. It swims vertically in the water, its silver body nearly invisible from above and below.
The oarfish’s natural habitat is deep beneath the ocean waves, which is why their appearances are few and far between. They are known to exist in temperate and tropical waters at 650 to 3,000 feet below the surface. Scientists rarely venture down to where the oarfish live, so not much is known about them. That is why finding the oarfish carcass found along the California coast is so exciting.
In a statement to The Hill, Brittany Hook, assistant director of communications for Scripps, said, “Thanks to the work from these locals, scientists will be able to further study this mysterious species as it will become part of the Marine Vertebrate Collection at Scripps, one of the largest collections of deep-sea fish in the world.”
A necropsy was performed on Friday by scientists from NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center and Scripps to determine the cause of death. The results are currently unknown.
The Mythology of the Oarfish
Over 120 years, there have been less than two dozen sightings of the rare oarfish along the coast of California, including the most recent one. This particular sighting took place before California was rocked by a 4.4 earthquake on the Richter Scale, shaking Los Angeles. Was the oarfish’s appearance a harbinger?
According to legends in some parts of the world, the oarfish is considered the “doomsday fish”. The nickname’s origins came about because their scarce appearances have been linked to natural disasters, specifically earthquakes and tsunamis.
Earlier in April of this year, fishermen in the Philippines caught an oarfish 30 hours before Taiwan experienced a 7.4 earthquake, its largest in 25 years. Brenjeng Caayon, the man whose fishing crew caught the fish, had them bring it ashore. Once he identified it as an oarfish, he regarded it as a portent.
“This is a bad omen, according to superstition,” Caayon said.
The legend of the oarfish being a doomsday fish gained even more power when 20 of the fish appeared just before one of Japan’s worst disasters. In 2011, the fish washed ashore before the island was rocked by the most powerful recorded earthquake in Japanese history. It was followed by a massive tsunami that caused widespread devastation on the island.
Since the Japanese disaster, the appearance of the oarfish has become a reason for alarm worldwide.
In the Japan Times, ecological seismologist Kiyoshi Wadatsumi explained how the fish could be connected to seismic activity. “Deep-sea fish living near the sea bottom are more sensitive to the movements of active faults than those near the surface of the sea.”
As for the La Jolla Shores oarfish, there are plans to display it in the Scripps Marine Vertebrate Collection. It is the largest deep-sea fish collection in the world and a suitable place for the doomsday fish to reside.
