In less than a week, a second rare oarfish was found off the coast of California and marine experts don’t know why. In fact, they are surprised this has even happened as most can’t remember an occurrence like this in their lifetimes.
“It may have happened some place on Earth before but it certainly doesn’t happen very often,” said Milton Love, a research biologist at the University of California in Santa Barbara.
The oarfish generally lives in deep water – roughly 3,000 meters below – and are rarely seen by humans. They are long (this one was 14 feet, the one found before 18 feet), are eel like with a face like a pug dog, have a skeleton and are as thick as a human torso. Scientists believe the stories of giant serpents in the sea are actually sightings of oarfish.
Very little is known about the oarfish and DNA tests are being done to learn more and to determine what killed these two. One theory is they were caught in an undercurrent and bashed among rocks. There could also be the issue of leaked radioactive water from the Fukishima plant in Japan, which many are saying is making the Pacific Ocean toxic… but that’s a theory that is still being tested. [Source]
