Bad omen, my ass!

USA: “Doomsday fish” inspire researchers

Researchers at the University of San Diego studied the creatures of the deep.(Bild: UC San Diego)

They look terrifying and are regarded as harbingers of the end of the world: oarfish. These giant deep-sea creatures rarely emerge from the dark depths of the sea. In the USA, the third such fish has now been spotted in just a few months.

It is very exciting to encounter these "quite mysterious" animals, explains scientist Ben Frable from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego (California) in an interview with dpa. All three oarfish (Regalecidae) were washed ashore dead in California. Most recently, a doctoral student from Scripps came across an approximately three-meter-long specimen on the beach in Encinitas at the beginning of November.

To be confused with sea snakes
At first glance, the up to nine-meter-long bony fish look like sea snakes, says Frable. They have silvery, scaleless skin, large eyes and an unusually shaped mouth. A bright red dorsal fin extends from the head to the tip of the tail.

At the beginning of November, a specimen about three meters long was found on the beach in Encinitas.(Bild: Alison Laferriere/Scripps Institution of Oceanography)

The Scripps researchers hope that the rare finds will provide further information about the mysterious fish. They have taken samples, frozen them and carried out investigations.

Mysterious inhabitants of the deep
Little is known about oarfish. They live at depths of up to 900 meters, feed mainly on krill (shrimp-like crustaceans, note) and are found in tropical and temperate waters worldwide, including the Mediterranean. But how large is the population? What dangers are they exposed to? How do they behave in their habitat? Very little is known about this.

First filmed alive in 2008
Sightings of oarfish are very rare - and when they are, the animals are usually already dead. According to the Scripps Institute, only 22 oarfish have been recorded washed ashore in California since 1901. There are a few sightings every year on beaches around the world, says Frable. In 2008, a research team succeeded for the first time in filming a live oarfish using a submersible.

Video: 2023 YouTuber and biologist Jeremy Wade encountered a rare oarfish during a dive

The researchers are unable to provide a clear answer as to why three fish have now washed up in California in a short space of time. It could have something to do with changing ocean currents, climatic events or simply a growing population of oarfish off the coast of California, says Frable. The cause of death is also still a mystery.

Study shows no connection with earthquakes
The snake-like fish, which are sometimes referred to as doomsday fish, have been the subject of seafaring legends for centuries. In Japan, the old stories were retold after more than a dozen oarfish were found on beaches in the years before the severe earthquake in 2011.

So could the fish really be a sign of natural disasters? "No connection whatsoever," says Frable. He refers to a study carried out in Japan a few years ago. Researchers compared the occurrence of earthquakes with the sighting of stranded deep-sea fish in the years 1928 to 2011. They found no correlation. "This Japanese folklore can be regarded as superstition," they write.

But the myths surrounding the oarfish are probably not that easy to dispel. For Frable, the animals' reputation also has a positive side. "People are talking about these fish and learning more about the diversity of marine animals in the oceans," says the fish specialist happily.