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‘Doomsday fish’ returns to Southern California shores for the third time this year
The elusive deep-water oarfish – considered to be a harbinger of bad news – was spotted yet again on the shores of Encinitas, California. It was the state’s third spotting of the species in the last three months, and only the 22nd over the past century.
The 9-foot oarfish was found on the shores of Grandview Beach on Nov. 6 by Alison Laferriere of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego, according to a Facebook Post from Scripps. The deceased specimen was then recovered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service and transported to the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, according to the post.
“We took samples and froze the specimen awaiting further study and final preservation in the Marine Vertebrate Collection,” Ben Frable, manager of the Scripps Oceanography Marine Vertebrate Collection, said in the post.
Japanese mythology attributes shallow-water appearances of the deep-sea oarfish as precursors to earthquakes and tsunamis, according to Atlas Obscura.
In 2010, at least a dozen were reported on Japan’s coastline just before Japan experienced its largest recorded earthquake in March 2011, according to Ocean Conservancy.
Theories have emerged that the tectonic movement preceding earthquakes kill the species, causing them to wash up on beaches just before an earthquake hits, according to Natural World Facts. However, a 2019 study found no correlation between oarfish sightings and the occurrence of earthquakes in Japan, according to GeoScience.
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