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A group of kayakers and snorkelers in La Jolla, California, discovered a very rare deep-sea fish dead.
The oarfish, also known as the “doomsday fish,” reached lengths of up to 12 feet.
According to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, only 20 oarfish have been reported in California since 1901.
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Doomsdayfish have elongated bodies and can reach lengths of up to 36 feet, roughly the size of a school bus.
Marine conservation groups say oarfish are commonly known as “doomsday fish” and are believed by some to be harbingers of natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis.
Kayakers and snorkelers spotted a rare oarfish in La Jolla, California. (Michael Wang/Scripps Institution of Oceanography via The Associated Press)
The fish has been spotted around Japan during major earthquakes, but as Fox Weather reports, scientists have yet to determine the connection between the fish's appearance and events like the earthquake and subsequent tsunamis.
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On August 12, two days after the fish was discovered, Los Angeles was hit by a magnitude 4.6 earthquake, according to the USGS.
A team of researchers and science-minded snorkelers worked together to retrieve a dead oarfish from the waters of La Jolla Bay in San Diego, California. (Michael Wang/Scripps Institution of Oceanography via The Associated Press)
According to the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, Florida, oarfish feed by filtering plankton, crustaceans, and squid from the water column using specially evolved gill rakes in their mouths.
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“With the help of NOAA Fisheries and California Marine Authority team members, the group was able to coordinate with lifeguards to transport the fish to a NOAA facility,” said experts from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.
“Scientists from NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center and Scripps Institution of Oceanography will be performing a necropsy to see if they can determine the cause of death.”
Scientists in California will perform a necropsy to determine the cause of the oarfish's death. (Michael Wang/Scripps Institution of Oceanography via The Associated Press)
After dissection, the fish will be transported to the Scripps Marine Vertebrate Collection at the University of California, San Diego.
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The collection holds approximately 2 million alcohol-preserved specimens across more than 120,000 lots, representing over 5,600 species of fish.
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