Oarfish, the Real Sea Serpent

[Music] hanging near vertically in the sunless depths of the ocean the oarfish undulates his crest like dorsal fin to steady itself a clever trick that makes the fish quite hard for predators to spot from above or below the unnatural light shimmers silver on his scale this body and highlights the full length of its seemingly endless tail and its long tendrils that sense for movement in the water rarely cited in its natural habitat like this or fish are a true mystery of the deep the largest variety the giant oarfish and exceed 56 feet in length longer than any other known species of fish and they can weigh up to 600 pounds but despite their leviathan size a small toothless mouths allow them to only feed on small fish and squid as well as plankton they are harmless to humans it's something about their unparalleled size can inspire a feeling of terror most oarfish that have been encountered by humans are those that have washed up dead on beaches around the world the reasons as of yet unknown they come to shallow waters at the end of their life to die or a beached by strong tides and currents what's peculiar however is the fact that almost all of these beached individuals were found to be missing their tail section a study of a 12-foot giant oarfish that had washed up in 2010 in Sweden found that there were no teeth marks in the snapped off section and the wound was all the fish had possibly lived for years after losing the tail section and in all cases of studied or fish the tails had all been severed in the last third of the body in the exact same place it is believed to be evidence that all fish are able to perform an act of autonomy being the ability to willingly detach a body part much like how lizards lose their tails when threatened why the office do this however remains a mystery another theory that has arisen from the repeated itching of this fish is that they give warning of imminent earthquakes tectonic movement underwater the precursor to many earthquakes is thought to kill these weak swimmers which soon wash up on beaches before the tremors head however when researchers from two Japanese universities studied meteorological records and matched the data to oarfish beachings they found no correlation with earthquakes with these fish appearing so mysterious and otherworldly it's no wonder they inspire a sense of superstition in those who see them you

Channel: Natural World Facts

Views: 181,585

Rating: 4.9495535 out of 5

Keywords: oarfish, sea serpent, sea monster, giant fish, fish, river monsters, rare oarfish, oarfish caught on tape, oarfish swimming, oarfish video, giant oarfish, natural world facts, deep sea wonders, giant oarfish (organism classification), regalecus glesne, rare footage, rare sea creature, mysterious sea creature, oarfish alive, oarfish california, oarfish mexico, oarfish filmed, amazing sea creature, deep sea creature, 15 foot oarfish, rare oarfish sighting, animal crossing

Id: Baxnlt61jYc

Length: 3min 37sec (217 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 30 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/sansboi11]

ah yes, the long boi

[u/BuildingABap]

What an incredible fish.

[u/KIRBJ]

Wow