Karmactive Staff
When Robert Hayes went for a beach walk in Mexico this February, he didn’t expect to meet a mysterious visitor from the deep sea. But there it was – a long, silvery fish with bright orange fins, swimming right up to the shore at Playa El Quemado beach.
“The fish swam straight at us,” Hayes said. “We tried to send it back to deeper water three times, but it kept coming back.”
What Hayes saw was an oarfish – a deep-sea creature that usually lives between 660 and 3,280 feet under the ocean’s surface. These fish can grow up to 36 feet long, though the one Hayes saw was smaller. They almost never come up to shallow waters unless something’s wrong.
The Mexico sighting wasn’t alone. Just a day later, another oarfish showed up in Spain’s Canary Islands. Before that, one appeared on a California beach last November, and a month later, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake shook the area.
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This pattern has caught scientists’ attention. Back in 2011, about 20 oarfish appeared on beaches in Japan before a major earthquake hit. While this might sound like just an old story, scientists have found some interesting connections.
“When earthquakes are building up, they can release electrostatic charges and electrically-charged ions into the water,” explains Dr. Rachel Grant, who studies animal behavior. “These changes in the water might force deep-sea fish to swim up to the surface.”
What makes these sightings extra special is how rare they are. In California, people have only seen 20 oarfish since 1901. These sightings happen irregularly, making each appearance significant.
Ben Frable, who works at Scripps Oceanography studying ocean animals, thinks changing ocean conditions might explain these visits. When ocean patterns shift – like during El Niño weather events – they can affect even deep-sea creatures.
The Ocean Conservancy, a group that studies ocean life, reminds us that while these sightings are fascinating, they shouldn’t cause panic. There’s no solid proof that seeing an oarfish means disaster is coming.
But these appearances do tell us something important – there’s still a lot we don’t know about our oceans. Each time one of these mysterious fish appears, scientists get a chance to learn more about deep-sea life and what brings these creatures to our shores.
