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Japan is once more bracing itself after dozens of rare giant oarfish have been recently caught in fishermen’s nets, or washed ashore. The flurry of tectonic plate movement around the Pacific may be the cause.
The fish began appearing not long after the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile and the 7.0 magnitude tremours in Haiti in January. A quake registering 6.4 recently hit Taiwan.
The Solomon Islands were hit by a 7.2 earthquake in January, followed by a 7.1 earthquake on April 12th. A 7.1 earthquake shook the Qinghai province of China on May 14th.
The rarely seen, apparently solitary oarfish are found in all temperate to tropical seas. However, in the past few weeks, 10 specimens have been found either washed ashore, or caught in fishing nets, off Ishikawa Prefecture. Half-a-dozen have been caught in nets off Toyama Prefecture and others have been reported in Kyoto, Shimane and Nagasaki prefectures, all on the northern coast of Japan.
At least 19 specimens have been confirmed by experts at aquariums and public fisheries centers in eight prefectures along western shores since November. The sightings total nearly 40.
“In ancient times Japanese people believed that fish warned of coming earthquakes, particularly catfish,” deputy director of the Kobe Earthquake Centre, Hiroshi Tajihi, told the Daily Telegraph. “But these are just old superstitions and there is no scientific relationship between these sightings and an earthquake.”
According to the Tokai University Marine Museum in Japan, an oarfish was caught two days before a major earthquake on Niijima island, near Tokyo, in 1963. When shock waves hit Uwajima Bay in 1968, the same type of rare fish was caught only a few days before.
The Regalecidae (oarfish) contain only four species. One of these, the King of Herrings, is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest bony fish alive, at up to 17 metres (56 feet) in length. They are usually found at depths of around 1000 metres and very rarely seen above 200 metres from the surface of the ocean.
When fishermen happen to find them caught in their nets, they normally put them back, because their meat is not very edible. The fish have a very distinctive ribbon-shaped silver body. They have a long tasseled dorsal fin that is bright scarlet and rays out into long streamers.
About Japan Holds Breath For Major Earthquake
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