Two Days After 'Doomsday Fish' Appears In California, Earthquake Hits Los Angeles

Paddle-boarders found an oarfish, known as a 'doomsday' fish, off the coast of California on August 10. The origin of this nickname is because there is a belief that the oarfish has the ability to predict natural disasters. This fish was found two days before Los Angeles got a 4.4-magnitude earthquake. It has been taken to a US scientific and regulatory agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) facility, where scientists are looking into the cause of death.

According to a release by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, on August 16, a team of scientists from California State University Fullerton and NOAA Fisheries' Southwest Fisheries Science Centre were able to examine the rare short-crested oarfish (Regalecus russellii), performing a necropsy, or animal autopsy, to learn more about this unique organism.

Gyotaku artist Dwight Hwang makes a print of the oarfish for archiving.
Photo Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography

"Rare encounters like this provide an amazing opportunity to learn more about this species and how it lives," said Ben Frable, ichthyologist and manager of the Marine Vertebrate Collection at Scripps, who was part of the necropsy team. "We are fortunate to have a large community of researchers and a world-class collection that mobilised quickly to examine and preserve this fish."

The fish was an adult male, measuring 12.25 feet (3.735 meters) in length, 1.14 feet in depth (0.348 meters), and weighing 74.3 pounds (33.7 kilograms). This unusual deep-water fish has a scaleless, long, ribbon-like silvery body with dark spots. A long red dorsal fin crest, measuring 2.17 feet in length (0.662 meters), extended from the top of the head. The fish was in good condition, and it is not clear why the fish died.