A 12-foot-long harbinger of doom washed ashore in San Diego
LA TimesA rare deep-sea oarfish was discovered floating in the waters off San Diego. The giant oarfish, the largest bony fish in the world, was spotted floating — dead — just off San Diego, only the 20th such fish to wash up along the California coast since the early 1900s, according to Ben Frable, manager of the Marine Vertebrate Collection at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “It’s always been a fish of interest, this long, beautiful silver fish,” Frable said, mentioning its large eyes and red, mane-like crest above its head. “It definitely looks fanciful; it evokes the sea serpent mythology.” The oarfish has long been referred to as a doomsday fish, a reference that likely stems from Japenese folklore, which considered spotting such a fish a precursor to natural disasters, especially earthquakes. Frable pointed to a 2019 study that found there was no correlation between an oarfish or other deep-sea fish washing ashore and an ensuing disaster, calling the link a “typical illusory correlation.” Still, the oarfish, which can reach up to 30 feet long, continues to draw much interest.
History of this topic
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