MORE PROOF THE END IS NEAR (but how near?)...
Rare, giant 'doomsday fish' washes ashore along Calif. coastline
Kayakers in the cool ocean waters off Southern California came across a rare sight over the weekend. According to San Diego news station KUSI, a large silver oarfish was spotted just off La Jolla Shores, south of Torrey Pines, on Saturday. The long fish, measuring in at 12 feet, had already died by the time it was spotted by the group, and was pulled into shore for further examination.

As luck would have it, this was no ordinary collection of kayakers. The group, which also included snorkelers, were scientists from the nearby Scripps Institution of Oceanography, part of UC San Diego, and the oarfish represents a unique opportunity. Calling the fish a “mysterious species,” a spokesperson for Scripps told KUSI that the surprising find will become part of a marine life collection at the institute.

It took a team of people to drag in the rare phenomenon from the water and transfer it to a truck so that researchers can further study it.

The primary questions to be asked are: Why this fish, and why now? The admittedly odd-looking fish, with red fins and bulging eyes, is known as a filter feeder with a preferred deep-sea habitat. Oarfish normally patrol the ink-black depths more than 3,000 feet down and rarely come up to the surface. Because of their deep-water tendencies, the oarfish is one of the ocean's lesser-studied beasts, though accounts of oarfish sightings do date as far back as the late 1700s. Full-sized adult oarfish can reach up to 30 feet in length, making them an even more surprising sight when they are seen at the surface.

Oarfish also have something of a negative reputation globally as harbingers of bad fortune or natural disasters. They are sometimes even called "doomsday fish," and National Geographic says that historically the fish has been known in Japanese culture as a “Messenger from the Sea God’s Palace.”

https://www.sfgate.com/la/article/rare-doomsday-oarfi..