An oarfish was seen floating near La Jolla Shores in California over the weekend, an unusual and possibly worrisome discovery.
Rare Deep Sea Fish Found:
According to a representative for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, a team of research kayakers and snorkelers discovered the dead oarfish in La Jolla Cove Saturday afternoon. Several people then collaborated to transport the sea monster from the ocean to the bed of a truck using a paddleboard. The oarfish was subsequently handed over to professionals at the institute. “Thanks to the work of these locals, scientists will be able to further study this mysterious species as it becomes part of the Marine Vertebrate Collection at Scripps, one of the world’s largest collections of deep-sea fish,” said Brittany Hook, Scripps’ assistant director of communications.
On Friday, scientists from NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center and Scripps will conduct a necropsy to identify the cause of death. While most oarfish range in length from 10 to 30 feet, Hook determined that this one was exactly 12 feet long. In some parts of the world, this type of fish is seen as a forerunner of bad news or a natural calamity, such as an earthquake or tsunami. Hook added that this association has not been confirmed, despite accounts of their washing ashore before such occurrences.
In 2011, for example, more than 20 oarfish were reported to have washed ashore in Japan, just a few months before a 9.1 earthquake. Just a few days after the oarfish encounter at La Jolla, an earthquake of a magnitude of 4.4 hit Southern California around 2.5 miles south, southeast of Highland Park in Los Angeles. It is unclear whether these incidents are related, but they definitely pique people’s interest. “Experts don’t have any evidence to theorize why these fish are washing ashore in Southern California, but learn more from each specimen that is collected,” Hook said the audience. According to the Ocean Conservancy, this sea monster is also known as the “Doomsday Fish,” and people rarely encounter them because they live in the deep oceans. Is this a bad omen, or is the oarfish sick? Only time and science can tell.