The elusive oarfish, a creature nicknamed the “doomsday fish” because of its place in folklore as a precursor to disaster, was captured on video this month after it was seen in shallow water in Baja California Sur, along Mexico’s Pacific Coast.

A group of people who were visiting the area spotted the fish swimming near a beach on February 9.

Oarfish have an eel-like slender body and gaping mouth, but the sea-monster-like creatures have been rarely seen by people.

As of August, only 20 oarfish had been recorded after they washed up along the coast of California since 1901, according to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, though one was seen in Californiain November.

In Japanese mythology, oarfish are viewed as harbingers of doom, signalling impending earthquakes. But researchers in Japan debunked any significant link in a paper published in 2019.

Oarfish typically dwell at depths of around 198 metres, but have been found living much deeper, up to 1,000 km, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Many have even wondered if reports of a dozen oarfish washing up on various parts of Japan’s coast were perhaps a harbinger of the catastrophic 2011 earthquake. Still, the eerie mythology returns with every sighting of the oarfish — hence its nickname as the “doomsday fish”.

New York Times News Service