They look terrifying and are considered harbingers of the end of the world: oarfish. The enormous deep-sea creatures rarely emerge from the depths of the dark ocean. The third such fish has now been spotted in the US in just a few months.
It is very exciting to meet these “quite mysterious” animals, explains scientist Ben Frable of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego (California) in an interview with dpa. All three oarfish (Regalecidae) washed up dead in California. Recently, a Scripps graduate student came across a 10-foot specimen on Encinitas beach in early November.
To be confused with sea snakes
The bony fish, which can grow up to nine meters long, look like sea snakes at first glance, Frable says. They have silver, scaleless skin, large eyes and an unusually shaped mouth. A bright red dorsal fin extends from the head to the tip of the tail.
The Scripps researchers hope the rare finds will provide more information about the mysterious fish. They took samples, froze them and ran tests.
Mysterious inhabitants of the deep
Little is known about oarfish. They live at depths of up to 900 meters, feed mainly on krill (shrimp-like crustaceans, take note) and are found worldwide in tropical and temperate waters, including the Mediterranean. But how big is the population? What dangers are they exposed to? How do they behave in their habitat? Very little is known about this.
Only filmed live for the first time in 2008
Sightings of oars are very rare – and when they do, the animals are usually already dead. According to the Scripps Institute, only 22 oars have been recorded washing up in California since 1901. There are a few sightings every year on beaches around the world, Frable says. In 2008, a research team succeeded for the first time in filming a live oarfish using a submarine.
Video: In 2023, YouTuber and biologist Jeremy Wade came across a rare oarfish while diving
The researchers cannot provide a clear answer to the question of why three fish washed up in California in a short period of time. For example, this could have something to do with changing ocean currents, climatic events or simply a growing population of oarfish off the coast of California, Frable says. The cause of death is also still a mystery.
Research shows no connection with earthquakes
The snake-like fish, also called doomsday fish, has had seafaring legends for centuries. In Japan, the old stories were retold after more than a dozen oarfish were found on beaches in the years before the massive 2011 earthquake.
So could the fish really be a harbinger of natural disasters? “No connection whatsoever,” says Frable. He points to a study conducted in Japan a few years ago. Researchers compared the occurrence of earthquakes with observations of stranded deep-sea fish between 1928 and 2011. They found no connection. “This Japanese folklore can be considered superstition,” they write.
But the myths about oar fishing are probably not so easy to debunk. For Frable, the reputation of animals also has something good. “People are talking about these fish and learning more about the diversity of marine animals in the oceans,” says the fish specialist happily.
Source: Krone
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