October 15, 2013 — Catalina Island Marine Institute science instructor Jasmine Santana was diving off the shores of Catalina Island, just south of Los Angeles, when she discovered a real-life 'sea monster' floating near the floor of Toyon Bay.
"I was thinking, 'What could this be?' It's so big! We usually don't have anything that long in our bay. … We snorkel here almost daily, so it's crazy to find this," she said to the New York Daily News.
It wasn't actually a sea monster, though, and Santana quickly figured out what it really was — a five and a half metre-long oarfish.
This rare creature, which can grow up to 17 metres long and is extremely thin (thus the reason for its name), is apparently responsible for most of the sea serpent and sea monster myths throughout history. They live far beneath the ocean's surface, and although they've been found washed up on shores around the world from time to time, apparently only one has ever been seen alive, in the wild. Despite the fearsome legends, they are considered harmless to humans, feeding mostly on microscopic plankton and tiny crustaceans like krill and shrimp.
Read the full story at Yahoo News
Read an earlier story about the oarfish from Yahoo News
Watch a YouTube video of the oarfish in the wild