Oarfish Mystery: Why Are They Washing Ashore?: LAist

Oarfish Mystery: Why Are They Washing Ashore?: LAist
According to traditional Japanese lore, the Daily Telegraph wrote in 2010, the fish rise to the surface and beach themselves to warn of an impending quake.
Shortly before the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, about 20 oarfish stranded themselves on Japanese beaches, suggesting the fish could possibly have known that the temblor was coming, Mark Benfield, a researcher at Louisiana State University who's remotely videotaped the mysterious creature, he told Live Science earlier this year. Or of course, as he added, it could just be a coincidence.
However, Japanese folkore has long connected the two. "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. He dismissed the connection as "older superstitions," saying, "there is no scientific relationship between these sightings and an earthquake."
Earlier this year, sea lions were beaching themselves in record numbers along California beaches, which experts speculated might be due to a lack of food fish.
A rare 15-foot Stejneger's beaked whale washed ashore in Venice Beach on October 15, but no one knows whether that's related to the oarfish strandings.
So, either we're all doomed or it's just been a banner week for weird fish photo ops.