STRAHAN, Australia, June 5: A rare oarfish, often referred to as the “doomsday fish” in Japanese folklore, has washed ashore on Ocean Beach near Strahan in Tasmania, prompting a wave of speculation and fascination on social media.
The three-metre-long deep-sea creature was discovered on Monday by local resident Sybil Robertson during a walk along the beach. “I’m five foot nine, and I’ve got a reasonable stride – [it was] a good three-and-a-bit paces. It was fantastic. I just knew it was something unusual and weird,” Robertson told local media.
Photos of the fish, posted to the Citizen Scientists of Tasmania Facebook group, quickly spread online, with Reddit users dubbing it a harbinger of disaster. “The ocean is very unhappy with humanity’s disdain for it,” one user commented. Others linked the sighting to recent seismic activity, reviving an old Japanese belief that oarfish surface before major earthquakes or tsunamis.
The oarfish, also known as the “king of herrings,” is one of the longest bony fish in the world, capable of growing up to eight metres and weighing over 400 kilograms. It typically inhabits deep ocean waters at depths of 150 to 500 metres and is rarely seen near the surface.
Neville Barrett, a marine ecologist at the University of Tasmania, said the sighting was “exceptionally unusual.”
“We’re just not out there. We’re not looking, we’re not diving, we’re not even fishing in that part of the ocean,” Barrett said, noting the oarfish’s elusive nature. He described the species as slow-moving, with little muscle, often floating vertically while feeding on plankton.
In Japan, the oarfish is steeped in myth and believed to rise to the surface ahead of undersea earthquakes. While there is no scientific consensus supporting this, sightings of the fish have coincided with seismic events in the past, adding to its mystique.
Karachi, Pakistan, for instance, has been rattled by a series of mild earthquakes this week, though there is no direct connection to the Tasmania sighting.
Despite the folklore, scientists stress that the appearance of an oarfish is more likely due to environmental factors or illness than any impending natural disaster. Nonetheless, the rare event has captured public attention. “The world DOES seem to be ending more frequently lately,” one commenter quipped online.
