According to Japanese folklore, nothing portends impending doom like the appearance of the elusive oarfish. Hopefully, it’s just a myth, because one was recently discovered floating in the waters of Southern California for only the 20th time in nearly 125 years.
A team of kayakers and “scientific” divers found the dead sea serpent while swimming in La Jolla Cove in San Diego over the weekend, according to Lauren Fimbres Wood, a spokeswoman for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.
Several people, including the team of scientists and rescuers, worked together to transport the oarfish from the beach to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration facility, Fimbres Wood told USA TODAY Friday.
Only 20 oarfish have washed ashore in the state since 1901, making sightings of this deep-sea fish “incredibly rare,” according to Scripps fish expert Ben Frable.
An autopsy of the “mystery species” was underway Friday afternoon as scientists worked to determine the cause of death.
According to Japanese folklore, oarfish are an omen of impending disaster.
The belief that the sight of a goldfish in shallow water is an omen of an impending earthquake dates back to 17th-century Japan, according to a report by Atlas Obscura.
According to Japanese folklore, the fish, also known as “ryugu no tsukai”, were believed to be servants of the sea god Ryūjin.
The “Ryugu no tsukai,” which translates to “sea god palace messenger,” 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 Tohoku earthquake and the Fukishima nuclear disaster in 2011, but there is no scientific evidence to suggest the two events are linked, Hiroyuki Motomura, a professor of ichthyology at Kagoshima University, told the New York Post.
“I think these fish tend to come to the surface when their physical condition is poor, riding the ocean currents, which is why they are so often dead when found,” Motomura told the Post.
The “connection” between the two may be because the shimmering creature typically lives in the deep sea, between 700 and 3,300 feet (213 and 1,000 meters) deep, according to USA TODAY’s report. And it rarely comes to the surface.
These majestic creatures have been spotted in waters around the world, with sightings reported in California, Maine, New Jersey, Taiwan and Japan, of course.
The cause of oar sharks washing up on shore is unclear
Scientists are unable to determine why the oarfish washed ashore in California over the weekend, saying each specimen collected offers a unique opportunity to learn more about the species.
This unique creature will be preserved for future study and will become part of Scripps’ marine vertebrate collection, one of the largest collections of deep-sea fish in the world, according to Fimbres Wood.
If you encounter a unique creature on a California beach, we encourage you to alert lifeguards and contact the institute at (858) 534-3624 or scrippsnews@ucsd.edu. Taking any creatures home is prohibited.
Contributed by James Powell; USA TODAY
This article was originally published on USA TODAY: Dead oarfish makes ‘incredibly rare’ appearance in San Diego waters
