The exhibit takes a dive into the science and the folklore of these sea serpents, or so-called doomsday fish, reports NBC 7’s Brooke Martell.
A rare deep-sea oarfish discovered last year at Grandview Beach in Encinitas is now on display at the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla. It’s one of two of the creatures that were once thought of as sea serpents that washed ashore last year in San Diego.
“Oh, it’s spooky looking”: That’s what Rachel Ice-Crespo told NBC 7 as she looked at the 11-foot, 7-inch long oarfish encased in a long rectangular display case at a new exhibit at the aquarium.
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SIGN UP ”I dive and I surf, and if I just saw this in the water, I’d be like, ‘That’s insane’,” Ice-Crespo said.
Perhaps that’s what a Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD Ph.D. student thought when they discovered the fish at Grandview Beach last year.
“This fish washed up last November,” Robert Raad, the designer of the exhibit, told NBC7. “It was collected and preserved in the Scripps Oceanographic Collections."
According to Scripps, the Marine Vertebrate Collection has more than 2 million alcohol-preserved specimens on its shelves. After being on display through next year, the oarfish on display will become part of the collection and can be studied for years to come.
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Before November’s discovery, kayakers found another oarfish in August 2024 off the coast of La Jolla. But why have two been at or near the San Diego coastline? Perhaps illness or injury, but Scripps researcher Ben Frable, who is also the collection manager, has said underwater canyons at La Jolla Shores that funnel deep water close to shore could be a reason why they end up there.
According to Raad, the oarfish in the exhibit is the 22nd oarfish known to have washed up in California. The exhibit takes a dive into the science and the folklore of these sea serpents, or so-called doomsday fish.
”The most common one is that the idea that it’s an earthquake fish," Raad said. "The idea that when one washes up, it will soon be followed by an earthquake."
According to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a 2019 study showed no correlation between oarfish washing ashore and earthquakes, despite a few coincidences.
Aside from the stories surrounding the deep-sea creatures, for every oarfish that washes ashore for researchers, it means more opportunities to try and understand how and why they’re ending up here in the first place.
