Divers Encounter Giant 'doomsday Fish' Riddled With Shark Bites

Strange but true

By Ben Cost

July 14, 2023 | 12:06 p.m

Hole-y Diver.

Have you ever danced with a “harbinger of doom”?

Divers off Taiwan were mesmerized when they encountered a giant oarfish – said to be a sign of impending earthquakes – that had mysterious holes in its body, according to a video that caused a stir on Instagram.

In the enchanting footage, captured off the coast of Ruifang, divers can be seen circling the shimmering silver creature as it hovers near the surface.

At one point, one of the divers reaches out and touches the supposedly ominous denizen of the deep.

Divers estimated the “earthquake fish” measured about 6.5 feet in length, which while large is not comparable to its maximum length of 56 feet — the longest of any bony fish.

Unfortunately, the oarfish’s journey into the shallows, while cool to watch, may not bode well for the animal.

“It must have been dying, so it swam to shallower waters,” instructor Wang Cheng-Ru told Jam Press of the snake-like sea creature, which was the first animal he encountered in all his years as a diver.

Divers off Taiwan were mesmerized when they encountered a giant oarfish — said to be a sign of impending earthquakes — that had mysterious holes in its body, according to a video that caused a stir on Instagram.Jam Press/@ chengruwang “That must have been it. When it died, it swam to shallower water,” said diving instructor Wang Cheng-Ru.Jam Press/@chengruwang

The creature also had mysterious craters all over its body, which experts believe were the work of a cookie cutter shark. This hilariously large predator is known for poking chunks out of large fish, whales, and even nuclear submarines—although the latter is likely a mix-up.

The Oarfish’s surface excursion may also bode badly for us, as some locals believe these residents — who live at depths between 656 and 3,200 feet below the sea’s surface — are a sign that an earthquake is on the horizon.

This seismic superstition is based on Japanese mythology, which has it that the slender plankton eater deliberately rises to the surface and beaches itself ahead of an impending tremor.

Those fears were heightened during the 2011 Fukushima earthquake and tsunami, when dozens of these alleged marine seismometers washed ashore in the two years leading up to the disaster.

However, experts claim that this earthquake predictability theory is unfounded.

“There is no scientific evidence of a link, so I don’t think people need to worry,” said Hiroyuki Motomura, professor of ichthyology at Kagoshima University. “I believe these fish tend to surface when their physical condition is poor and climb onto the water currents, which is why they are so often dead when found.”

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