October 21, 2013 — Less than a week after an extremely rare, 18-foot oarfish was discovered near Catalina Island a second has washed ashore at nearby Oceanside.
Southern California's coastline is getting fishier and fishier.
Less than a week after an extremely rare, 18-foot oarfish was discovered near Catalina Island a second has washed ashore at nearby Oceanside.
The long, slippery fish, whose lore dates back to sightings of sea monsters and mermaids, was pulled from the water Friday before its carcass was measured at an astounding 13 1/2 feet long, UT San Diego reports.
“We are very intrigued,” Russ Vetter, director of Southwest Fisheries Science Center, told the Daily News. “This is an opportunity for… the scientific community to study different aspects of this fish that we know absolutely nothing about.”
Though a whopping length — with concerned beachgoers initially reporting it to police as a possible beached whale — the monstrosity of the fish was actually puny in comparison to the 50-foot size it can grow to, according to the Catalina Island Marine Institute.
As the area's marine biologists flocked to the scene Friday so did a reported crowd of 75 people hoping to bear witness to the spectacular creature, which is the largest and rarest bony fish in the world.
Read the full story and watch the video from the New York Daily News