A group of people on the beach in Baja California Sur, Mexico, were shocked when a rare oarfish swam up to them in the shallow waters.
"The fish swam straight at us, lifting its head above the water about two inches," Robert Hayes, who shot the video, told Storyful. "We redirected it three times out to the water, but it came back each time."
These strange animals live hundreds of metres deep and are usually only seen in shallow waters when sick or dying. Although standings are rare, they do occur from time to time – the image above shows a previous occasion when an oarfish washed ashore in Mexico.
"They’ve almost never been seen alive,” a man says in the video. “They live a mile deep.”
After taking a couple of photos, the group try to release the fish back into the water.
Handling a fish with care is of the utmost importance – whether you caught it while fishing or it stranded accidentally.
“Simply letting a fish go does not guarantee it will live,” says NOAA on its web page about catch and release fishing best practices. “The actions you take before, during and after you land a fish can improve the chances of survival.”
They recommend that people “handle the fish as little as possible and only with wet hands,” as well as avoiding touching the animal’s eyes and gills and supporting the length of its bodyweight if you must take it out of the water. Keep any time out of the water as short as possible. "Less than 60 seconds is ideal,” they say.
When fish have been out of the water, they might struggle to swim straight off. "Resuscitate a sluggish fish by facing it into the current until it regains strength and can swim away on its own,” says NOAA.
At the end of the video, the man releases the oarfish and it appears to swim away. Whether the deep-sea creature survived is not clear.
It remains to be seen whether this so-called doomsday fish is warning of an upcoming natural disaster. Legend has it that an oarfish sighting means an earthquake might be on the way – but there is no scientific proof of this being true.
Main image: oarfish on beach in Mexico (not the individual discussed in this article)/Getty
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