Rare 17-foot-long oarfish found dead off Catalina Island, California

© Catalina Conservancy
A rarely-seen sea serpent was discovered Monday on a beach on the western end of Santa Catalina Island. The island harbor patrol found a 17-foot dead oarfish floating in the waters off Sandy Beach. Courtesy of Catalina Conservancy

    

A rarely-seen sea serpent was discovered Monday on a beach on the western end of Santa Catalina Island.

The island harbor patrol found a 17-foot dead oarfish floating in the waters off Sandy Beach.

Seagulls apparently had been eating parts of the body, said Annie MacAulay, a marine scientist who was at nearby Emerald Bay with 50 science camp students.

It was not known how the fish died and how it ended up near the beach. Their sightings are rare, so not much is known about the behavior of oarfish. Scientist do know they live in depths of 700 to 3,000 feet, and are capable of growing up to 50 feet long.

MacAulay, the founder of Mountain & Sea Adventures, an environmental education non-profit based on the island, said it was her second time seeing the snake-like fish in her 20 years working on the island.

"It was such a coincidence that I was here today," said MacAulay, who is usually handling other responsibilities for the group. "I'm doing a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff, so I'm not always at camp."

It took 16 people to pick up the fish, Mountain & Sea Adventures employee, Miranda Prado said. The fish was donated to several organizations for scientific research, she said.

The last sighting of an oarfish in the region occurred in 2013 when a dead 18-footer was found at Toyon Bay on Catalina Island. A 14-foot oarfish washed up in Oceanside five days later.

A study of the Oceanside fish revealed 6-foot-long ovaries where hundreds of thousands of eggs were found.

Cal State Fullerton marine biologist Misty Paig-Tran, who studied the Oceanside fish, told the Register last year that it appeared the 2013 Catalina Island and Oceanside oarfish had been mating and died when they somehow ended up in dangerous shallow water. Because of their unique skeletal structures, it's difficult for them to swim down to safe depth, she said.

Researches found three types of parasites during a study of the Catalina fish's intestines to determine what oarfish eat.

Other recent video recorded by remotely operated vehicles spotted several observations of healthy oarfish between 2008 and 2011 off Mexico. In 1996, Navy SEALs found a 23-foot oarfish dead off the shore of San Diego.