The muddled folklore about oarfish washing ashore : NPR

A deep-sea creature steeped in folklore has as soon as once more washed ashore in California.

On Nov. 6, a researcher on an Encinitas seaside noticed an oarfish, measuring 9 to 10 ft lengthy. The fish sometimes swim at depths of 300 to three,000 ft and are not often seen on the floor. But it was the third time one has appeared in Southern California since August.

They’ve been related to dangerous omens, based on English-language accounts of Japanese folklore.

The fish, which might develop to 30 ft in size and feed on krill, have sometimes washed up on seashores when injured or disoriented, based on scientists.

The present group of oarfish washing ashore “may have to do with changes in ocean conditions and increased numbers of oarfish off our coast,” Ben Frable, supervisor of the Scripps Oceanography Marine Vertebrate Assortment at UC San Diego, mentioned in an announcement. “Many researchers have suggested this as to why deep-water fish strand on beaches. Sometimes it may be linked to broader shifts such as the El Niño and La Niña cycle but this is not always the case,” he mentioned, including that many variables could possibly be the trigger.

The earlier fish had been found in Huntington Seaside in September and in La Jolla in August, based on Scripps. Earlier than August’s discovery, scientists had solely recorded 19 oarfish that had washed up on the California coast since 1901, the oceanography researchers mentioned.

Fish and muddled folklore

Oarfish have been discovered across the globe, however one specific nation’s historical past with the fish has gathered probably the most consideration: Japan.

Based on some media reviews, oarfish have been related in Japanese folklore with prophesies of doom — specifically, earthquakes.

Researchers in Japan seemed into this in 2019: “In Japan, folklore says that uncommon appearances of deep‐sea fish are an earthquake precursor. If this folklore is proved to be true, the appearance of deep‐sea fish could be useful information for disaster mitigation,” a bunch from Tokai College and the College of Shizuoka wrote. However they scoured information reviews of deep-sea fish washing up and decided that there wasn’t a lot of a relationship between these sightings and earthquakes.

Some accounts say the oarfish had been identified in centuries previous as ryugu no tsukai, roughly translating to a “messenger from the Dragon Palace.”

Yoshiko Okuyama, a professor of Japanese research on the College of Hawaii at Hilo, pointed to a Japanese fairy story with supply textual content relationship again to the eighth century. It tells the story of a fisherman named Urashima Taro who, in return for saving a turtle, is taken to the underwater palace of the Dragon King, Ryugu-jo.

“In Japan several different sea creatures have been called the Messenger of the Dragon Palace. The list includes eels and turtles,” she mentioned in an e-mail. Including oarfish to that listing was “plausible — anything mysterious from the sea can be imagined as such, right?” however she mentioned she was unable to instantly confirm it with supply materials.

A database of Japanese folklore describes ryugu no tsukai as “large fish with human heads, horns, long hair, and sometimes beards.” In a retelling of a legend on the folklore database, the creatures had been a little bit of a combined bag. They foretold of demise and illness, however mentioned individuals can be saved as long as they “hear my message.”