Something amiss in the ocean

Something In The Water? Two Oarfish And Rare, Elusive Beaked Whale All Found Dead In California.

Oarfish Found Near Catalina

the la Jolla Cove,

9 October, 2013

Something fishy?

Just  a week ago a rare 18-foot oarfish carcass was found by a snorkeler in a bay at Santa Catalina Island. The Catalina discovery was made Sunday, by an instructor with the Catalina Island Marine Institute.

Long, slender oarfish, which are presumed to have spawned tales of sea serpents among ancient mariners, inhabit dark depths of the world’s oceans. They’re rarely encountered, dead or alive.

The picture below is from the Presstelegram.com

The Union Tribune reports that another large oarfish was found on the beach in Oceanside. This is just 35 miles away from where the first oarfish was located.

The Oceanside discovery was made Friday afternoon by elementary school students (see photo below, courtesy of ABC San Diego).

It remains unclear why two specimens have come ashore in Southern California in so short a period.

 Oarfish Found Near Oceanside

Oarfish Found Near Oceanside

Something “mammaly?”

Now, Pete Thomas reports that, “A mysterious type of whale that is rarely encountered by humans was discovered late Tuesday night on the sand at Venice Beach, California.

The odd-looking mammal, with a dolphin-shaped head, is either a female Stejneger’s beaked whale or an even rarer Ginkgo-toothed beaked whale.

It measured nearly 14 feet and weighed nearly 2,000 pounds. There’s a discrepancy as to whether it washed ashore alive, but it was dead by the time scientists began to inspect the carcass.”

Beaked Whale Washes Ashore

Facebook readers speculate a wide range of reasons: Japan radiation, Something is fishy, pollutants we put into the ocean ourselves, just a coincidence, this can’t be a coincidence, temperature rise at the bottom of the ocean, oar fish are a mythological sign of an incoming earthquake

Rare saber-tooth whale found dead on Venice Beach in Southern California

A rare whale that has a dolphin-shaped head and saber-like teeth has been found dead on Los Angeles' Venice Beach, even though it prefers frigid subarctic waters.

Fox News,

18 October, 2013

The roughly 15-foot-long female Stejneger's beaked whale washed ashore Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Times reported. A truck hauled away the mammal, which was being examined at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum to determine how it died.

The Stejneger's beaked whale is rarely seen in the wild. The species typically dives deep in subarctic waters to feed on squid and small fish. It is believed to migrate as far south as Northern California, and how the whale ended up so far south will probably remain a mystery.

"This is the best," said Nick Fash, an education specialist for the Santa Monica-based environmental group Heal the Bay. "(Previous finds) aren't anything like this. This is a treat."

Males are known for their saber teeth that stick up midway from each side of the lower jaw. However, the teeth of females and their offspring remain hidden beneath the gum tissue.

The whale was alive when it washed ashore, said Peter Wallerstein of Marine Animal Rescue. Its body was covered in bites from so-called cookie-cutter sharks that feed by gouging round pieces of flesh from larger animals.

Because the species isn't seen much anywhere, the autopsies of washed-up carcasses are the best source for scientists to gather information.

From the archives. This report dates back to before the earthquake/tsunami in Japan

Oarfish omen spells earthquake disaster for Japan

Japan is bracing itself after dozens of rare giant oarfish - traditionally the harbinger of a powerful earthquake - have been washed ashore or caught in fishermen's nets

The Telegraph,

4 March, 2010

The appearance of the fish follows Saturday's destructive 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile and the January 12 tremors in Haiti, which claimed an estimated 200,000 lives.

A quake with a magnitude of 6.4 has also struck southern Taiwan.

This rash of tectonic movements around the Pacific "Rim of Fire" is heightening concern that Japan - the most earthquake-prone country in the world - is next in line for a major earthquake.

Those concerns have been stoked by the unexplained appearance of a fish that is known traditionally as the Messenger from the Sea God's Palace.

The giant oarfish can grow up to five metres in length and is usually to be found at depths of 1,000 metres and very rarely above 200 metres from the surface. Long and slender with a dorsal fin the length of its body, the oarfish resembles a snake.

In recent weeks, 10 specimens have been found either washed ashore or in fishing nets off Ishikawa Prefecture, half-a-dozen have been caught in nets off Toyama Prefecture and others have been reported in Kyoto, Shimane and Nagasaki prefectures, all on the northern coast.

According to traditional Japanese lore, the fish rise to the surface and beach themselves to warn of an impending earthquake - and there are scientific theories that bottom-dwelling fish may very well be susceptible to movements in seismic fault lines and act in uncharacteristic ways in advance of an earthquake - but experts here are placing more faith in their constant high-tech monitoring of the tectonic plates beneath the surface.

"In ancient times Japanese people believed that fish warned of coming earthquakes, particularly catfish," Hiroshi Tajihi, deputy director of the Kobe Earthquake Centre, told the Daily Telegraph.

"But these are just old superstitions and there is no scientific relationship between these sightings and an earthquake," he said.