- Messages
- 12,486
Fan of sea monsters? You gotta check this out!
A snorkeler off the coast of California made an alarming discovery this weekend while paddling around Catalina Island, south of Los Angeles: a recently deceased 18-foot oarfish, one of the creatures thought to be the "sea serpents" of nautical legend.
At 18 feet in length, the oarfish was too big for her to lift alone, even underwater — and it took 15 people to handle it on land (CIMI says it could weigh as much as 300 pounds). Yet for an oarfish, the largest of all bony fish, 18 feet is pretty shrimpy; they can grow to over 50 feet, according to NOAA.
Their great size and rarity have contributed to the opinion that they may be one of the creatures described as sea monsters or serpents by early sailors, to whom these exotic deep-dwelling oceanic animals would have been novel and probably quite alarming. Other animals implicated in the legends are unfamiliar whales, frilled sharks, and giant squid.
Click here for the complete article:
18-foot 'sea monster' terrorizes Internet — but is this oarfish a small fry? - NBC News.com
A snorkeler off the coast of California made an alarming discovery this weekend while paddling around Catalina Island, south of Los Angeles: a recently deceased 18-foot oarfish, one of the creatures thought to be the "sea serpents" of nautical legend.
At 18 feet in length, the oarfish was too big for her to lift alone, even underwater — and it took 15 people to handle it on land (CIMI says it could weigh as much as 300 pounds). Yet for an oarfish, the largest of all bony fish, 18 feet is pretty shrimpy; they can grow to over 50 feet, according to NOAA.
Their great size and rarity have contributed to the opinion that they may be one of the creatures described as sea monsters or serpents by early sailors, to whom these exotic deep-dwelling oceanic animals would have been novel and probably quite alarming. Other animals implicated in the legends are unfamiliar whales, frilled sharks, and giant squid.
Click here for the complete article:
18-foot 'sea monster' terrorizes Internet — but is this oarfish a small fry? - NBC News.com
