The huge snake like oarfish was found last Sunday afternoon dead but nearly completely intact and appeared to have died from natural causes.
Marine science instructor Jasmine Santana was shocked to confront the rare oarfish;
it was the “discovery of a lifetime,” according to a news release from the Catalina Island Marine Institute.
“It took 15 or 16 of us to pick it up,” said Jeff Chace, a program director with C.I.M.I., which runs a camp out of Toyon Bay. the fish was long more than 18 feet - 5.5 metres and 400 lb of weight.
Instructors from C.I.M.I. were unloading gear from a trip to Santa Barbara Island when they spotted the oarfish ashore.
The oarfish, seems that can grow to more than 50 feet, and it is a deepwater pelagic predator fish and also seems to be very rare in the California waters.
A couple of yeas ago in Baja California in city of Cabo San Lucas, a 16-foot live oarfish washed ashore on a popular beach, unfortunately this strange fish died soon after its discovery.
The modern discovery of oarfish may date to 1809, when a giant 56 foot oarfish washed ashore in Scotland (Europe).
The oarfish is believed to dive more than 2,500 feet (900 metres). See more about this fish at Big Fishes of the World web site.
