Page 16 - IAV Digital Magazine #608
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iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Oarfish Keep Washing Ashore In California. Some Say That Could Be A Bad Omen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHzWkJjT_fU
By James Doubek
A deep-sea crea- ture steeped in folk- lore has once
again washed ashore in California.
On Nov. 6, a researcher on an Encinitas beach spot- ted an oarfish, meas- uring 9 to 10 feet long. The fish typical- ly swim at depths of 300 to 3,000 feet and are rarely seen on the surface. Yet it
was the third time one has appeared in Southern California since August.
They have been associated with bad omens, according to some English-lan- guage accounts of Japanese folklore — though there's dis- agreement on this.
The fish, which can grow to 30 feet in length and feed on krill, have typically
washed up on beach- es when injured or disoriented, accord- ing to scientists.
The current group of oarfish washing ashore "may have to do with changes in ocean conditions and increased numbers of oarfish off our coast," Ben Frable, manager of the Scripps Oceanography Marine Vertebrate Collection at UC San Diego, said in a
statement. "Many researchers have suggested this as to why deep-water fish strand on beaches. Sometimes it may be linked to broader shifts such as the El Niño and La Niña cycle but this is not always the case," he said, adding that many variables could be the cause.
The previous fish were discovered in Huntington Beach in September and in La Jolla in August, according to Scripps. Before August's dis- covery, scientists had only recorded 19 oarfish that had washed up on the California coast since 1901, the oceanogra- phy researchers said.
Oarfish have
been found around the globe, but one particular country's history with the fish has gathered the most attention:
Japan.
According
to some media report s, oarfish have been associated in Japanese folklore with prophesies of doom — in particular, earthquakes.
Researchers in Japan looked into this in 2019: "In Japan, folklore says that uncommon appearances of deep‐sea fish are an earthquake precur- sor. If this folklore is proved to be true, the appearance of deep‐sea fish could be useful information for disaster mitiga- tion," a group from Tokai University and the University of Shizuoka wrote. But they scoured news reports of deep-sea fish washing up and determined that there wasn't much of a relationship between those sightings and earthquakes.
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