SAN DIEGO (KSWB/KUSI) – In a rare and perhaps ominous sighting, an oarfish was found floating near California’s La Jolla Shores over the weekend.
According to a spokesperson from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, a team of science kayakers and snorkelers were out in La Jolla Cove Saturday afternoon and found the dead oarfish.
Several people then worked together to carry the sea creature from the ocean to the bed of a truck using a paddleboard. The oarfish was then turned over to professionals at the institute.
“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,” said Brittany Hook, assistant director of communications for Scripps.
On Friday, scientists from NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center and Scripps will perform a necropsy to see if they can determine a cause of death.
While most oarfish measure anywhere from 10 to 30 feet long, Hook confirmed that this one was right at 12 feet long.
In some areas of the world, this species of fish is considered a preview of bad news or a natural disaster, like an earthquake or tsunami. As explained by Hook, this correlation has not been proven, though there have been reports of them washing up before such events.
In 2011 for instance, more than 20 oarfish reportedly washed ashore in Japan, just a few months before a 9.1 earthquake struck.
Just a couple days after the oarfish sighting in La Jolla, an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.4 shook Southern California about 2.5 miles south, southeast of Highland Park near Los Angeles. Whether or not these events are connected is questionable, though it does spark some curiosity.
“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,” said Hook.
According to Ocean Conservancy, this sea creature has also been nicknamed the “Doomsday Fish” and it’s unusual for humans to encounter them as they primarily reside within the deep sea.
Is this sighting a bad omen or was this oarfish sick? Only time and science will tell.