Two doomsday fish spotted on Mexican beach in extremely rare sighting
Two extremely rare deep-sea creatures, known colloquially as ‘doomsday fish’, have washed up on the shore of a beach in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
These creatures are usually found at chilling ocean depths of at least 1,000 feet, and are rarely spotted near the water’s surface.
Folklore suggests that the serpentine fish serve as an omen for bad tidings. Japanese folklore suggests that the fish appear before natural disasters like tsunamis or earthquakes, though this is not supported by any scientific evidence.
Beachgoer Monica Pittenger made the shocking discovery. She first posted the unbelievable video clip to Instagram in collaboration with We Love Animals, sharing with almost 700,000 people the alarming event on March 4th.
“I didn’t believe my eyes. It was something out of a fiction movie. I had never seen anything like it before; I just remember thinking, is this real?” Pittenger recounted of the discovery, which was made after she saw something “flashing” in the distance due to the iridescent scales catching the sunlight.
While one of the fish can be seen floundering on the sand, a second was caught in the undulating tide as the water hit the sand.
Eventually, onlookers help Pittenger and her sister push the creatures back into the ocean. Other onlookers were concerned and hesitant to touch the creatures, Pittenger recalls, because “nobody really knew what it was. It’s not every day that you see that. And I mean, I don’t blame them.”
The oarfish can grow up to 30 feet in length. They are likely at the centre of many historical sea serpent tales, as they have a habit of lingering close to the surface of the ocean when they are sick or dying.
One of the species, named the giant oarfish, is the longest bony fish alive, though it is very rarely seen by the human eye. The internet has since speculated that we are closer to doomsday than ever before.
