'Doomsday fish' washed ashore in California, but what does that mean? [View all]

If one oarfish landing on a beach is a sign of a disaster to come, how bad will it be if three wash up in quick succession?

A silvery 10-foot-long creature, the oarfish has fueled fisherman’s tales of sea serpents — and in some cultures has been a portent of natural disasters.

It’s rare to see an oarfish up close in California; only 22 have washed ashore since 1901, according to UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. But in the last three months, three of them have surfaced on Southern California beaches.

The latest was on Nov. 6, when an oarfish was discovered at Grandview Beach by Alison Laferriere, a doctoral candidate at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The other two beached in La Jolla and Huntington Beach.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-11-21/doomsday-fish-washed-ashore-in-california-but-what-does-that-mean