this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2024
127 points (93.2% liked)

News

23406 readers
3651 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Kayakers and snorkelers exploring the Southern California coast spotted an extremely rare oarfish, nicknamed a "doomsday fish" since they are seen in some parts of the world as harbingers of imminent disasters. It's one of less than two dozen confirmed sightings of an oarfish in the state in over 120 years, according to UC  San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography

The oarfish is a "strikingly large, odd-looking fish" with a long, silvery, ribbon-shaped body, according to the Ocean Conservatory. The fish can grow to more than 30 feet long, and have large eyes and "foreboding" red spines in a crown-like cluster. Typically, these fish are deep-sea dwellers and thrive in waters that are the least explored by scientists.

top 24 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] flicker@lemmy.world 56 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I understand that this is an extremely rare fish sighting, but seeing all these smiling people touching a dead fish they're currently in the water with is so weird and creepy. Don't touch dead things! You don't know why they're dead!

[–] SarcasticMan@lemmy.world 21 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Damn it, now we have Doomsday fish AIDS. I hope you're happy now oceangoers.

[–] 11111one11111@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Stop getting fancy with it. Everyone knows diseases are named animal name-pox so it'd be doomsdaypox lol /s

[–] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Doomsdaids-pox, got it.

[–] YungOnions@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 months ago

Yeah, likewise. There's a shot of the mangled, rotting fish corpse on the sand surrounded in flies and people are just prodding it. Putting aside how bad it must smell, why the fuck would you want to touch it at all?!

[–] MossyFeathers@pawb.social 49 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I wonder if their tendency to appearance before an earthquake is just coincidence, or if there are signs, like changes in water temperature, changes in current, bursts of electromagnetic energy, etc, that can indicate that an earthquake is going to occur several days in advance; and oarfish are sensitive to it, resulting in them surfacing and dying from depressurization.

[–] Leeks@lemmy.world 34 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Considering other animals have been known to leave areas, there seems to be something we are missing or currently unable to detect/measure.

[–] leisesprecher@feddit.org 60 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's clearly the other way around. These animals leave, causing plates to slip because of reduced weight.

[–] dhtseany@lemmy.ml 12 points 3 months ago

I don't know enough about oarfish to refute this claim so I'll assume it's likely accurate.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This one was dead, so I don't think it was any kind of reaction.

[–] Leeks@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It could be. Maybe it surfaced because of some detection, then the depressurization killed it.

[–] 11111one11111@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I'd say that would be evolutionary retardation if that's an actual thing lol

[–] Balex@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Evolution isn't some sentient force striving for perfection. There is a lot of retarded stuff that we have evolution to thank for. This could just be a side effect of some other trait that normally helps the fish survive. Plus, earthquakes don't happen often enough to affect evolution in the long run.

[–] Scubus@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Nah that's teeth. You get two sets for your entire life and they suck. You have the ability to grow more as evidenced by your second set, but fuck you.

[–] 11111one11111@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Lol I've been banking on all the news about new teeth regrowing technology. Been banking on it for 20 years before the tech even broke ground 😂

[–] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

My understanding was that fault lines create low pressure waves that animals can detect before an earthquake occurs. I think these days we have equipment that can generally detect them before animals do.

[–] MerchantsOfMisery@lemmy.ml 39 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I caught one of these in 2020 during the height of the pandemic (in Animal Crossing).

[–] __init__@programming.dev 14 points 3 months ago

I hope I catch morefish!

[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 27 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I had no idea what a "doomsday fish" was, making it a pretty confusing headline, I nearly skipped the story. If on the other hand it had just said "oarfish" I would have known exactly what they were talking about and found the headline more interesting.

[–] scytale@lemm.ee 5 points 3 months ago

The term is more familiar in Asia on countries along the pacific ring of fire, where fishermen and people living on the coasts see the surfacing of deep sea creatures as omens of a big disaster coming, usually an earthquake.

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

Catching these in Animal Crossing is such a thrill

[–] seedoubleyou@infosec.pub 1 points 3 months ago

it looks like a beebee f'ing whale Jay, wtf is that thing? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n2cIeIpzLA