Dead oarfish appears “incredibly rarely” in San Diego waters
Japanese folklore says that the oarfish is an omen of an impending earthquake. In Japan it is known as the “messenger from the palace of the sea god”, but there is no scientific evidence to support this.
Nothing is a sure sign of impending doom like the appearance of the elusive oarfish, as Japanese folklore has it. Hopefully this is just a myth, because recently one was found swimming in Southern California waters for only the 20th time in nearly 125 years.
According to Lauren Fimbres Wood, a spokeswoman for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, a team of “scientifically minded” kayakers and snorkelers found the dead sea serpent while swimming in La Jolla Cove in San Diego over the weekend.
A number of people, including a team of scientists and lifeguards, worked together to move the oarfish from the beach to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration facility, Fimbres Wood told USA TODAY on Friday.
Since 1901, only 20 oarfish have been found washed ashore in the state, making sightings of these deep-sea fish “incredibly rare,” according to Ben Frable, a Scripps fish expert.
A “mysterious” autopsy was performed on Friday afternoon, with scientists working to determine the cause of death.
According to Japanese folklore, oarfish are an omen of impending disasters
The belief that seeing an oarfish in shallow waters was an omen of an impending earthquake originated in 17th-century Japan, according to a report in Atlas Obscura.
The fish, also known as “Ryugu no Tsukai”, were considered servants of the sea god Ryūjin according to Japanese folklore.
“Ryugu no tsukai,” which translates to “messenger from the palace of the sea god,” are believed to have been sent from the palace to the surface to warn people of earthquakes, USA TODAY reported.
Several sightings of the fish were reported before the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear disaster, but there is no scientific evidence that the two events are related, Hiroyuki Motomura, a professor of ichthyology at Kagoshima University, told the New York Post.
“I think these fish tend to rise to the surface when they are physically unwell and are swept away by the current. That’s why they are so often dead when they are found,” Motomura told the Post.
The “connection” between the two may have something to do with the fact that the shimmering creature normally lives in the deep sea, at depths between 700 and 3,300 feet, USA TODAY reports, and rarely comes to the surface.
These majestic creatures have been spotted in waters all over the world, with sightings reported from California, Maine, New Jersey, Taiwan and of course Japan.
Cause for washing up of oarfish unclear
The scientists cannot explain why the oarfish washed up on the California coast over the weekend, but they say that each specimen collected offers a unique opportunity to learn more about the species.
The unique creature will be preserved for future study and will become part of the Scripps’ Marine Vertebrate Collection, one of the world’s largest collections of deep-sea fish, said Fimbres Wood.
If you come across a unique creature on a California beach, you should alert lifeguards and contact the Institute at (858) 534-3624 or [email protected]. Taking any creature home is prohibited.
Contributors: James Powell; USA TODAY
