Terrifying-looking "doomsday fish" have come ashore one after another. Is the great disaster coming? Don't be silly...

One day in early November, in Encinitas, California, USA, Allison, a doctor of oceanography, was walking her dog on the beach. The blue sky, waves and beach were beautiful that day, except for a strip of "plastic garbage" reflecting the sunlight in the distance.

When she got closer, Allison found that this was not garbage, but a dead fish with a terrifying appearance: its ribbon-like body was about 3 meters long, its biscuit-sized eyes were "wide open", and the red mane on its head formed a strange contrast with its smooth silver skin.

Image credit: Alison Laferriere

Alison immediately recognized that it was an oarfish!

Due to its terrifying size and appearance, the oarfish has long been regarded as a symbol of bad luck. In Japan, people believe that an oarfish washed up on the coast means an earthquake is about to occur. In the United States, some people are used to calling it the "doomsday fish."

What panicked the locals was that in August, a 3.7-meter-long oarfish was washed ashore. Since 1901, only 21 stranded oarfish have been recorded in California. In recent months, two oarfish have "come ashore" one after another, which is indeed a bit abnormal.

In August, local residents found a dead oarfish while kayaking in La Jolla Bay, 30 kilometers away from where the oarfish was stranded in November. Source: Scripps Oceanography

However, before we delve into these anomalies, let's first talk about another question that everyone should be interested in: Can oarfish be eaten?

Although the oarfish and cutlassfish look similar, they are actually two different species. The cutlassfish we usually eat belongs to the family Ovaltidae in the order Perciformes, while the oarfish belongs to the family Ovaltidae in the order Opanae.

The oarfish is the longest bony fish in the world . Its most notable feature is the multiple red bristle-like fins on its head, which gives it a Shamatte style. Its pelvic fins are also long and look like two oars, so it is called oarfish in English.

Scientists currently believe that there are two species of oarfish: Regalecus Glesne and Regalecus Russelii. The biggest difference between them is the number of fins on their heads.

Although the oarfish is large in size, its taste is hard to describe. A Norwegian once ate a small piece of its meat and said, "It tastes very bad." He said that the fish meat was gelatinous and tasted bitter . He wanted to feed the remaining meat to his dog, but the dog refused to eat it .

Unlike the disappointment of foodies and the panic of the public, oceanographers are very excited about these carcasses. After all, oarfish are so rare that the records of their living bodies can be counted on two hands. Because of this, scientists still don't know even some of the most basic information, such as their lifespan and population size.

In October 2013, a 5.5-meter-long oarfish (above) and a 4.3-meter-long oarfish were stranded one after another | Source: Catalina Island Marine Institute

After dissecting these bodies, oceanographers may be able to solve mysteries such as how deep in the ocean they lived.

At present, it is generally believed that oarfish mainly live in waters 150 to 300 meters deep, where the environment is relatively calm and the light is dim. Some scholars also believe that oarfish mainly live near the sea surface, where they usually float vertically with their heads up and their tails down , and when prey passes by, they suck in the surrounding seawater to see if they can catch some food randomly.

In future dissections, scientists will examine whether the oarfish's eyes have the ability to navigate in the dark, thereby inferring at what depth of the sea water they usually move | Source: Saint Thomas Productions

Another mystery surrounding oarfish is whether they are capable of self-amputation.

In previous limited observations, scientists found that many individuals, whether alive or dead, had broken tails. Tyson Roberts, an ichthyologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute who has dissected many oarfish, believes that these breaks should be caused by the oarfish themselves , just like a gecko breaking its tail.

At present, humans have not found any known predators of oarfish, so the purpose of spontaneous amputation is probably not survival. Some opinions speculate that oarfish may do this to make their movements more efficient . After all, there are no important organs in the body behind the abdomen. After losing half of itself, the whole fish becomes lighter.

An oarfish without the back half of its body swims in the sea | Source: Saint Thomas Productions

Even the sex of oarfish is still a matter of debate. Roberts once made a bold hypothesis that the fish is hermaphroditic, becoming male at one point in their lives and female at another.

So why have so many oarfish been washed ashore recently, and do their appearances really mean that a disaster is about to happen?

Scientists deny this.

In 1996, a 7-meter-long oarfish was discovered in California, USA. It is reported that the longest oarfish can reach 9 meters.

Oceanographers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said that if crustal movement was the cause of the death of the oarfish, then other species living in the same waters should have suffered the same fate, but this was not the case. Japanese researchers have also studied earthquakes and deep-sea fish washing onto the coast and found no correlation between the two.

Considering that oarfish have poor swimming ability and barely move their bodies when moving, relying mainly on their dorsal fins for propulsion, scientists believe that these oarfish are likely to have died in a violent environment such as a storm and then drifted to the shore with the waves.

The oarfish gains momentum by swinging its dorsal fin | Source: Saint Thomas Productions

In addition, El Niño and La Niña phenomena have occurred frequently in recent years, and Santa Ana winds prevail in Southern California every winter. These factors may also bring oarfish closer to the coast, increasing the chance of stranding.

So, if we are lucky enough to see an oarfish, we don't need to panic , but try to appreciate this creature like an oceanographer. These creatures from the deep sea also remind humans from time to time that there are many unknown lives sharing this blue planet with us.

Hello!!! | Source: Saint ThomasProductions

References

[1]https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/21/us/doomsday-fish-california-oarfish.html

[2]https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/science/earth/oarfish-offer-chance-to-study-an-elusive-animal-long-thought-a-monster.html

[3]https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/fish-experts-study-rare-deep-sea-oarfish-lab

[4]https://laist.com/podcasts/off-ramp/oarfish-fascinating-rare-mythical-but-really-bad-eating

[5]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecH-fY7a5IQ

Planning and production

Source: Bring Science Home (ID: steamforkids)

Editor: He Tong

Proofread by Xu Lai and Lin Lin