Footage of a rare deep-sea fish off the coast of Mexico is going viral, as it's known as a "doomsday fish."
The fish was spotted at Playa El Quemado in Baja California Sur on Sunday, Feb. 9, and a video captured by Robert Hayes shows a long and bright-colored fish flailing in the water. Someone off-camera can be heard saying, "That's an oarfish. Holy s**, they've almost never been seen live."
Another man says, "Nobody's gonna believe this. The first one I saw was 24 feet long. They've been found up to 30 feet."
Hayes detailed the encounter with Storyful, explaining that the oarfish "swam straight at us, lifting its head above the water about two inches." He added, "We redirected it three times out to the water, but it came back each time."
The Ocean Conservancy states on its website that if oarfish are seen on the surface, they're likely "sick, dying, or at least disoriented." The Conservancy added that there is a legend of the fish being a "doomsday fish" because it may be "a warning sign from higher powers that disasters such as earthquakes are soon to occur."
Some believe there might be truth to the theory, as two days after an August 2024 sighting, a 4.4-magnitude earthquake occurred in Los Angeles. In 2011, 20 oarfish appeared on a Japanese beach months before its most devastating earthquake on record.
Source: New York Times
