Rare fish and ominous prophecies are appearing in California this week. Kayakers in San Diego's La Jolla Cove encountered something unexpected on their last excursion. A 12-foot oarfish carcass was found floating near the water's surface. Besides being odd-looking and massively large, the oarfish has a bad reputation. It is said to be "the harbinger of doom."
Rare Fish Brings Bad Luck To California
Screenshot from Facebook
The NY Post explains how the oarfish is rumored to be a sign of impending earthquakes. While this wouldn't be the first time someone has found an end-of-world sign, this omen seemed to get something right. Just two days after kayakers encountered this fish, an earthquake rocked Los Angeles.
A separate NY Post article shares how the "4.4 magnitude earthquake was strongly felt Monday afternoon from the Los Angeles area all the way to San Diego." Although its earthquake-predicting powers proved true, the kayakers that posed with the rare fish for a photo seemed unfazed by its apparent bad luck.
Institution of Oceanography Takes A Look
The individuals who found the rare fish reported it to the UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Scientists from the facility will "perform a necropsy to see if they can determine a cause of death." The Facebook post that shares this continued on to say, "After the necropsy, the specimen will find a home in the Scripps Marine Vertebrate Collection — one of the largest collections of deep-sea fish in the world — where scientists will be able to further study this mysterious species."
Humans rarely see these rare fish because of where they live. The Ocean Conservancy states that giant oarfish "frequent depths down to 3,300 feet below the surface." They also mention that they are "the longest known species of bony fish...reaching up to 600 pounds and 56 feet in length." These crazy facts about this rare fish make this sighting even more special.
