An oarfish, a rare creature considered a symbol of impending doom in Japanese folklore, washed up on a California beach last week.
Just 21 oarfish have been recorded on California's shores since 1901, including two this year.
Ben Frable, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography in-house fish expert and a museum scientist, said the fish will undergo a necropsy to determine its cause of death.
"We took samples and froze the specimen awaiting further study and final preservation in the Marine Vertebrate Collection," Frable said in a statement.
"Like with the previous oarfish, this specimen and the samples taken from it will be able to tell us much about the biology, anatomy, genomics and life history of oarfishes."
The fish, measuring roughly 9 to 10 feet long, washed up on Grandview Beach in Encinitas and was spotted by a Scripps Oceanography Ph.D. candidate.
Frable said the fish may have washed up on California's shores due to a change in oceanic conditions "and increased numbers of oarfish off our coast."
"Many researchers have suggested this as to why deep-water fish strand on beaches. Sometimes it may be linked to broader shifts such as the El Niño and La Niña cycle but this is not always the case. There was a weak El Niño earlier this year. This wash-up coincided with the recent red tide and Santa Ana winds last week but many variables could lead to these strandings."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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