Some creatures in this world are simply unbelievable
and you will be amazed when you see them. A
marine science instructor's late-afternoon snorkel off the Southern California
coast last Sunday was first met with shock and soon excitement when she
discovered a gigantic oarfish, a deep-sea creature that remains little known to
the science world and people outside.
Jasmine Santana was about 15 feet underwater when she found
the 18-foot-long, silvery fish with reddish fins and eyes the size of a
half-dollar staring at her from the sandy bottom. Realizing it was dead, she
snatched the fish's tail, and using buoyancy and low tides, powered her way
back on shore.
"I was first a little scared," said the
still-thrilled Santana, who has been working for Catalina Island Marine
Institute since January. "But when I realized it was an oarfish, I knew it
was harmless."After a 15-minute swim dragging the 400-pound carcass, she
needed help from 14 others to lift the fish out of the water at Toyon Bay,
California.
"I was really amazed. It was like seeing something in a
dream," said Mark Waddington, the senior captain of CIMI's sailing school
vessel the "Tole Mour" who gave Santana a hand. "It's the first
time I ever witnessed an oarfish this big."
"Oarfish are found in all temperate to tropical waters,
but are rarely seen, dead or alive," CIMI, a non-profit marine science
education group, said in a release. "It is believed that oarfish dive over
3,000 feet deep, which leaves them largely unstudied. and little is known about
their behavior or population."
Waddington, who has been with CIMI since 1994, said it
remains unclear why the oarfish was found in shallow water this time, but it
appeared to have died naturally.
Waddington said while the oarfish's carcass is still being
preserved in ice, CIMI has been sending some of its tissues and other samples
to marine scientists, including Dr. Milton Love, a fish expert from University
of California at Santa Barbara, to study its DNA and diet habits.
Waddington said CIMI will likely to keep the fish's skeleton
for educational purposes. Its program attracts more than 30,000 school-age
children each year.
Source:CNN
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