Re: [californiadisasters] Do Beached Oarfish Prophesy SoCal Earthquake?

I am curious were these types of fish normally located at? are they throughout the worlds oceans? or they in certain areas like on the west coast?
I dont think they are a sign for a big quake....oh wait where are all the ants go? Ha

Julie D.
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On 10/23/2013 1:46 PM, Kim Noyes wrote:

 

Do beached oarfish prophesy SoCal earthquake?

By Matthew T. Hall | San Diego Union-Tribune
11:21 a.m.Oct. 21, 2013

Japanese legend foretells that oarfish are omens of earthquakes.

So should Southern California residents be nervous after two of the massive sea serpents washed ashore last week?

This oarfish was found washed ashore near the south jetty in Oceanside around 5 p.m. Friday. An 18-foot-long oarfish was found near Catalina earlier in the week. — Photo courtesy of Mark Bussey

Fueling the chatter, there was even a 6.4-magnitude earthquake in the Gulf of California Saturday, a day after the beaching of the second oarfish.

Let's let recent history be our guide. Three years ago, concerns were raised in Japan with sightings of the rare fish (which can grow to be 50 feet long and swim at depths of 3,000 feet) until an official with the Kobe Earthquake Centre debunked the myth.

Here's what the Daily Telegraph reported in 2010 after more than 16 oarfish washed ashore in — or were caught in nets off the coast of — Japan:

According to traditional Japanese lore, the fish rise to the surface and beach themselves to warn of an impending earthquake - and there are scientific theories that bottom-dwelling fish may very well be susceptible to movements in seismic fault lines and act in uncharacteristic ways in advance of an earthquake - but experts here [in Japan] are placing more faith in their constant high-tech monitoring of the tectonic plates beneath the surface.

"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.

"But these are just old superstitions and there is no scientific relationship between these sightings and an earthquake," he said.

Try telling the skittish that it's science, though. It may not entirely reassure them.

Consider these comments from our story on the oarfish carcass that beached itself in Oceanside.

Readers of a similar story in LA Weekly headlined "Oarfish & Earthquakes: Creatures Wash Up & Superstition Arises" seemed less nervous about the prospect.

I posed this question on Twitter and Facebook Monday morning and watched answers roll in: Anyone out there beside my wife fear these washed-ashore oarfish are a sign of a pending earthquake?

You bracing for the Big One? Let us know below.

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