The recent discoveries of two rare deep-sea dwelling oarfish have sparked fears of a looming natural disaster.
The fish were discovered in separate incidents in India and Tasmania within the last week.
In the first incident, fishermen in Tamil Nadu, India, pulled a 30-foot oarfish from the water. The massive fish required seven men to hold it for the video.
On June 2, a dogwalker named Sybil Robertson encountered a dead nine-foot specimen washed up on a Tasmanian beach and posted photos to a citizen scientist group on social media.
“I just knew it was something unusual and weird,” Sybil Robertson told The Daily Mail, describing the oarfish’s markings as “fabulous”.
A ‘Doomsday’ Fish?
Oarfish are sometimes known as “doomsday fish”—a reputation that stems from interpretations of the oarfish in Japanese folklore.
As per Forbes, at least a dozen oarfish washed up onto Japan’s coastline in the year before the 2011 Fukushima earthquake and tsunami, which brought the deep-sea creatures back to the forefront of the imagination.
Doomsday fish have been found in Tamil Nadu, India. pic.twitter.com/MQWurkE9ZN
— ಸನಾತನ (@sanatan_kannada) May 31, 2025
Ben Fraber, an ichthyologist and the marine vertebrate collection manager at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, told Newsweek in a phone interview that the mythology was “compelling enough” to capture the public’s attention.
“You do see when there’s a big change in pressure on land, birds and other animals will move out of the way,” Fraber said.
However, researchers in Japan took a closer look at the phenomenon, bringing in data points that included beached whales and anglerfish, as well as known natural disasters and earthquakes dating back to the early 1900s.
“They found almost no correlation whatsoever,” Fraber noted. “It’s really interesting to think about, but it doesn’t seem to have a statistical link that we can find.”
A Rare Find
Fraber has seen oarfish in person—last year, two oarfish were discovered by employees of Scripps Institution of Oceanography who were out snorkeling for the day.
The employees notified lifeguards, and the institute was able to work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to bring the oarfish in.
Fraber preserved the fish in formaldehyde and alcohol, and members of the public can see one of them currently in the Birch Aquarium at Scripps in San Diego.
Fraber said oarfish sightings are relatively rare in Southern California—the two his team encountered were only the 21st and 22nd discovered since 1901.
“Having the samples in person instead of just a video allows us to look at their stomach contents, look at their genetics, we’ll get nitrogen and carbon isotopes that can tell us where they are in the open ocean food web,” Fraber said.
“And we preserve them so people in the future can continue asking questions from them.”
According to Fraber, oarfish are filter feeders whose jaws are modified so they can push them forward and vacuum water in, creating suction that traps food similar to bass or large whales.
Oarfish primarily eat krill and small fish, which may be confused by the oarfish’s silvery body that refracts light.
“You’re a little school of fish, you’re swimming around, you see this thing, but it kind of just looks like a big jelly or gelatinous organism, something you’re not too concerned about because a jellyfish is not going to try to eat you,” Fraber said.
“So you swim up and it’s actually not that. It’s this big fish that has a highly modified mouth that can protrude and create a kind of vacuum cleaner. It slurps up all these fish.”
A “Wow” Reaction
Having handled and seen oarfish in person, Fraber understands the hype.
“I think part of it is the size,” he said. “Part of it is the look, they have this beautiful bright red fin, big silvery body, large eyes.
“And part of it is the scale. We’re not used to seeing animals that big—with the exception of sharks, dolphins and whales—so it elicits this kind of ‘wow’ reaction.”
Fraber noted that the mythology of sea serpents is probably related to misidentified oarfish long ago.
“It’s like actually getting to see this semi-mythological thing in person, it’s not a myth, it’s a real animal that’s living with us on our planet, I think that makes it really amazing,” he said.
“Even though I’ve worked on fish for almost 20 years, and have handled many oarfish specimens, these two last year were the first time I actually got to see them fresh and unpreserved in person, and it was pretty magical.”
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