'Doomsday fish' found dead in California days before earthquake struck Los Angeles

While kayaking and snorkeling in La Jolla, California, a group spotted a very rare deep-sea fish that had died.

The oarfish, also known as a "doomsday fish," stretched 12 feet in length.

Only 20 oarfish have been reported in California since 1901, according to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego.

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Doomsday fish have long, slender bodies that can reach lengths of up to 36 feet, about the size of a school bus. 

The oarfish is commonly referred to as the "doomsday fish," as some believe it "foreshadows natural disasters, such as earthquakes or tsunamis," according to the Ocean Conservancy.

Kayakers and snorkelers discovered a rare oarfish in La Jolla, California.  (Michael Wang/The Scripps Institution of Oceanography via AP)

The fish has been observed around Japan during major earthquakes, but scientists report that they have yet to establish a link between its appearances and events such as quakes and subsequent tsunamis, as FOX Weather reported.

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Two days after the fish was discovered, Los Angeles was struck by a 4.6-magnitude earthquake on Aug. 12, according to the USGS.

A team of researchers and science-minded snorkelers worked together to recover a dead oarfish from waters in La Jolla Cove in San Diego, California. (Michael Wang/The Scripps Institution of Oceanography via AP)

Oarfish feed on plankton, crustaceans and squid by straining them from the water column using specially evolved gill rakes located in the mouth, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History located in Gainesville, Florida.

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"With help from NOAA Fisheries Service and California Sea Grant team members, the group was able to coordinate with lifeguards to transport the fish to the NOAA facility," experts at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, said. 

"Scientists from NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center and Scripps Oceanography will perform a necropsy to see if they can determine a cause of death."

Scientists in California will perform a necropsy on the oarfish to see if they can determine the fish's cause of death. (Michael Wang/The Scripps Institution of Oceanography via AP)

After the necropsy, the fish will move to the Scripps Marine Vertebrate Collection at the University of California San Diego.

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The collection maintains approximately two million alcohol-preserved specimens in over 120,000 lots, representing more than 5,600 species of fish.

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