Giant Paddlefish is found in Southern California

A giant oarfish, also known as a sea snake, has been found in the waters of Santa Catalina Beach in Southern California. According to the Daily Mail, it took 15 people to drag it into the sand. The giant big fish measures 5.5 meters and weighs about 272 pounds.

The animal was found dead by a diver who was doing a relatively shallow dive nine meters deep a few meters off shore. Finding him, Jasmine Santana pulled him by the tail to take to his colleagues and prove that he knew this legendary species. She dragged the fish to the beach and then asked for help getting it out of the water.

The image above, released by the Catalina Island Marine Institute (CIMI), was taken last Sunday, October 13, and shows the crew of the school boat Tole Mour and the CIMI instructors holding the giant fish found. "We have never seen a fish this size. The last paddle we saw was not even a meter long, " said Mark Waddington, senior captain of Mour Tole, CIMI's sailing training vessel.

Rare species

The cause of so much surprise, besides the size of the beast, is because the paddlefish is a deep-water species of the ocean, and its habitat is in places that are 900 meters deep or more. Also, observations of these creatures are rare.

According to divers, the fish apparently died of natural causes. Tissue samples, as well as videos produced after carcass rescue, were sent for evaluation by University of California biologists.

Rowing fish can grow up to 15 meters, being considered the largest bone fish in the world. This is probably the species responsible for some alleged sea serpent legends told by fishermen and sailors. The giant paddlefish was first discovered in 1772 by Norwegian biologist Peter Ascanius.