A team of kayakers and snorkelers in La Jolla Cove found an incredibly rare deep sea fish dead in the water over the weekend.
The oarfish has a history as unique as its unusual ribbon-like body that can stretch up to 36 feet. In Japanese legend, the fish is known as an omen of earthquakes, leading to its moniker as a “doomsday fish.” Both of these factors have led to sea monster legends over time.
Despite observations suggesting their distribution from the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean to Topanga Beach in Southern California, this specimen marks only the 20th oarfish to have washed up in California since 1901, according to Scripps Institution of Oceanography fish expert Ben Frable.
The last sighting of an oarfish in Oceanside was in 2013, and it left locals and scientists equally amazed and baffled.
This time, the specimen in La Jolla’s waters was 12 feet long.
Thanks to the find by Natalia Erazo, Alejandro Cano-Lasso Carretero, and Gabriella Costa Machado da Cruz, as well as Emily Miller of California Sea Grant, scientists will be able to further study the mysterious species.
According to a post shared on X, the specimen will become part of the Marine Vertebrate Collection at Scripps, one of the largest collections of deep-sea fish in the world.
On Friday, August 16 scientists from NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center and Scripps will perform a necropsy to see if they can determine a cause of death and the reason the oarfish washed ashore.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography is asking locals who encounter unique creatures like this oarfish while at the beach to alert lifeguards and notify the institute at scrippsnews@ucsd.edu or (858) 534-3624.
