FOXSYLVANIA

– – Want a real life sea serpent?  Try the giant oarfish, a rarely-seen deep sea dweller of freakish size and appearance, and the world’s largest bony fish.  The oarfish is known to reach a length of up to 27 feet with unverified reports of specimens reaching 50 or more feet.  Although they rarely wash up due to usually staying in deep, open ocean habitats, two oarfish have recently been found along the San Diego coast in California, the most recent measuring nearly 14 feet and an earlier one discovered the same week measuring 18 feet.  The specimens were felt to have died of natural causes, and their weight was estimated at about 200 pounds.

As oarfish can dive more than 3,000 feet deep, sightings of them are rare and they are largely unstudied.  Tissue samples and video footage were sent to be studied by biologists at the University of California in Santa Barbera.    The serpentine creatures are largely thought to be responsible for sea serpent legends and sightings throughout the world…

This entry was posted on October 22, 2013 at 1:57 am and is filed under aquatic, discoveries, rare animal. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: oarfish beached