‘Doomsday serpent fish’ is spotted by snorkelers off California coast in stunning rare find

A rarely seen “doomsday serpent fish” was found dead on the surface of the water off the coast of San Diego on Wednesday and has been brought ashore for examination, marine experts said.

The silvery, 12-foot-long oarfish was found over the weekend by a group of snorkelers and kayakers in La Jolla Cove, north of downtown San Diego, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography said in a statement.

Legend has it that the fish are harbingers of earthquakes and other natural disasters, “although no connection has been proven,” Scripps says — even with the Earthquake with a magnitude of 4.4 struck on Monday centered near the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

That quake followed a magnitude 5.2 earthquake on Aug. 6 that was centered near Bakersfield and felt across most of Southern California. according to NBC San Diego.

According to the institution’s fish expert Ben Frable, it is only the 20th time an oarfish has washed up in California since 1901.

Oarfish can grow to over 6 metres in length and normally live in a deep part of the ocean, the mesopelagic zone, where light cannot reach, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Swimmers brought the oarfish from La Jolla Cove to shore on a paddleboard

Swimmers brought the La Jolla Cove oarfish to shore on a paddleboard, then transferred it to the back of a pickup truck.

“The work of these local residents will allow scientists to further study this mysterious species as it becomes part of the Marine Vertebrate Collection at Scripps, one of the largest collections of deep-sea fish in the world,” according to a UC San Diego press release.

Scientists on the scene, along with researchers from the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center, are planning a necropsy on Friday to determine the fish’s cause of death.