Overview

• Fishermen in Tamil Nadu hauled in a nearly 30-foot oarfish in late May, marking the first sighting of the year off India’s southeast coast.
• A three-meter oarfish washed up on Tasmania’s west coast on June 2, fueling speculation about seismic links despite no earthquakes occurring nearby.
• Early in June, two oarfish were found on New Zealand’s South Island—one near Dunedin and another headless specimen at Birdlings Flat.
• Known in Japanese folklore as “ryugu no tsukai” or “messenger from the sea god’s palace,” oarfish appearances have no confirmed correlation with natural disasters.
• Researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, CSIRO and NOAA are collecting tissue and environmental data to pinpoint what is prompting the fish to surface.