Looks like an oarfish. They're the source of a lot of sea serpent sightings.
They're known to swim with their heads out of the water on occasion, and big ones can get to 50 feet or more. It's the world's longest osteobranch, or true, bony fish.
To heck with the fins,
who are the hunks??? :)
Looks like an oarfish. They're the source of a lot of sea serpent sightings.
They're known to swim with their heads out of the water on occasion, and big ones can get to 50 feet or more. It's the world's longest osteobranch, or true, bony fish.
More on oarfish...
The scientific name is Regalecus glesne. The first oarfish found was in 1771 when a Danish man found one lying along the shore. Some people think that the tales of sea serpents were really oarfish.
The oarfish swims with its dorsal fin, not its entire body. We know this because one diver has actually seen the oarfish alive! Most oarfish are seen dead because they live so deep in the ocean and they only come to the surface when they are sick or injured or when there is seismic activity on the ocean floor. Like volcanoes. The oarfish floats to the top and the pressure is so strong that the oarfish cannot swim back down, so it dies.
The oarfish is found worldwide, in both tropical and warm climates. It lives between 700 and 3000 feet deep in the ocean. It can survive with only half of its body left! It eats shrimp off the ocean floor and scientists say it is harmless.
In 1996 Navy Seals found a 25-foot oarfish in California and a Colorado man, snorkeling in Baja, Mexico, ran in to an 18-foot oarfish!
Photos of Oarfish Coming Ashore in the Sea of Cortez
Underwater pic of Oarfish propulsion by means of an undulating dorsal fin
