The Official Magazine of The

OceTHE OFFICIALa MAGAZINEnog OF THE OCEANOGRAPHYra SOCIETYphy

CITATION Dybas, C.L. 2014. Ripple marks—The story behind the story.Oceanography 27(2):10–13, http:// dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2014.55.

USAGE Permission is granted to copy this article for use in teaching and research. Republication, systematic reproduction, or collective redistribution of any portion of this article by photocopy machine, reposting, or other means is permitted only with the approval of The Oceanography Society. Send all correspondence to: [email protected] or The Oceanography Society, PO Box 1931, Rockville, MD 20849-1931, USA.

DOWNLOADED FROM HTTP://WWW.TOS.ORG/OCEANOGRAPHY Ripple Marks The Story Behind the Story BY CHERYL LYN DYBAS

Here Be Oarfish—Sea Serpents Are Among Us

Davy Jones’ Locker, it might be called, open sesame. Within, a three-meter-long fish this final resting place of an oarfish. In a with iridescent fins lies in repose, floating darkened back room in preservative. at the Smithsonian The oarfishRegalecus ( glesne) washed Institution’s Museum up near St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, on Support Center in Suitland, Maryland, April 6, 1967. According to a report in ichthyologists Jeff Williams and Kris Murphy the next day’s St. Petersburg Times, retired prepare to break the seal of a time capsule, a Rear Admiral Edward Ellsberg found the faded jar the color of yellow-green sea glass. fish floating in the Gulf surf and dragged it A container that is a coffin. ashore. Ellsberg hauled it to the Bureau of Williams and Murphy lift the lead- Commercial Fisheries Laboratory in St. Pete weight jar from the uppermost shelf at Beach. Scientists there donated the oarfish the end of a row in the support center’s to the Smithsonian. fish collection, place it on a steel cart, and Little but a 2.5-centimeter-long silver tag wheel it to a lab where fluorescent lights reading USNM (US National Museum of illuminate the contents. And where there Natural History) 201458, a long-lost catalog are instruments to pry open the number buried with the fish, marks its tightly shut, one-meter-high by existence. The oarfish’s 30-centimeter-wide jar. grave hadn’t been Once through the lab’s disturbed in 47 years. double-door entrance, Williams tries to free the jar’s top. “That lid is wedged in almost like it was superglued shut,” he says. Finally, after several twists of a wrench,

Illustration by E. Paul Oberlander 10 Oceanography | Vol. 27, No. 2 ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The fish’s half-dollar-sized silver eyes seem wonder the oarfish has long been mistaken to register our presence. I reach out to touch for a sea serpent. The sea monster tales of its scales. They’re firm and far from cold. Aristotle, Pliny, and other classical observers Shimmering flecks soon cover my hand. are likely accounts of oarfish. “Even the Although I know it’s too late for this famous Sea Serpent, measuring fifty-six feet Here Be Oarfish—Sea Serpents Are Among Us oarfish, every instinct wants to return the in length, cast up on the shore of Orkney beautiful fish to the sea. in 1808 was almost certainly this fish,” maintains J.R. Norman in A History of Fishes. SEA SERPENTS AMONG US Called “king of the palace under the sea” by More than 50 years ago, Carole Richards of Japanese fishermen, the oarfish is the longest Malibu, California, might have had similar— teleost (bony, rather than cartilaginous, if slightly more terrified—thoughts. fish) in the ocean. A member of the family Sometime after nightfall on September 24, Regalecidae, it may reach lengths of more 1963, a 5.5-meter-long sea creature than six meters. The serpentine fish is found washed ashore on a Malibu beach. Around in temperate waters, usually at depths from midnight, Richards took her poodle for 18 to 500 meters. a walk, happened upon the huge body, An oarfish sports a long, red dorsal fin and screamed in fright. Phyllis Huggins, a that rises to a mane-like crest atop its neighbor, heard her cry, and within minutes, head. This “sea monster with fiery red hair” lights flashed on in houses throughout the was reported in Monterey Bay in a 1925 city as word spread that a “sea serpent” lay edition of the Monterey Peninsula Herald. dead just outside. The flaming hair of the “freak of Father According to a police report of the Neptune” was thought to be seaweed incident, a passerby named North Young the monster became entangled in while bravely dragged the monster off the beach surfacing from the bay’s depths. The oarfish and laid it across the top of his car, intending also has brilliant red pelvic rays that rotate to take it to local authorities. Young had like the oars of a rowboat when it swims, driven only about 1.5 kilometers from the hence its common name. beach when two police deputies spotted his The fish’s red fins come from the pigment vehicle, did a double-take, turned their squad of the krill it eats. Oarfish eggs are also red. car around, and directed its headlights at Regalecus glesne (oarfish), US National Museum of “a gigantic creature draped across a car roof.” AN UNLIKELY FISH Natural History record number 201458, collected They quickly decided to call in the experts. Oarfish and their relatives—which have April 6, 1967, on St. Petersburg Beach, Florida. The tag says that the specimen measures 11 feet, 2 inches “And that’s how I came to be at the common names as fanciful as unicornfish, (see next page). Photo credit: Sandra Raredon scene,” remembered the late Boyd Walker, inkfish, and tube-eyes—make up the order a zoologist at the University of California, Lampridiformes. The oarfish’s closest relative, Los Angeles. “Vlad Walters, another zoologist known as the streamerfish, orAgrostichthys , was described in the scientific literature by at the university, and I jumped into a truck, is not as large and spectacular, but is also Morton Brunnich, a Danish naturalist. He roared out to Malibu, and brought the dead very secretive: few streamerfish have found the fish washed up on a beach near a ‘sea serpent’ back to the lab for analysis. No ever been found. coastal farm in Norway. fearsome monster of the deeps, it turned out All lampridiforms have evolved a novel A few encounters with this seldom-seen to be one of the rarest and most beautiful mechanism for capturing their prey (usually creature have occurred at sea, but despite fish in the sea—an oarfish.” small invertebrates): the fish move their attempts to lure it close enough to a ship The oarfish went on display at the upper jaws forward when feeding, making to be caught, none has succeeded. A 1906 Los Angeles County Museum of Natural their open mouths some 40 times larger. encounter may be the nearest scientists have History. It was a complete animal except for Despite such facts, ichthyologists know come to capturing a live adult Regalecus. about a meter of its tail. little more about the oarfish today than Marine biologist F. Wood Jones published With its eerie, sinuous silhouette, it’s little they did in 1771, when the first specimen an account of the sighting in The Fishes of the

Oceanography | June 2014 11 Indo-Australian Archipelago. On October 28, of unusual ocean fish, so she soon recognized are almost totally separate. The only place 1906, some 50 kilometers south of the Island her find as an oarfish. She and co-workers they are known to occur together is off the of Sumbawa, a “long and very beautiful dragged the 5.5-meter-long fish ashore coast of South Africa. fish came to the surface at the ship’s bow. and placed it in a low-lying swale. There it One population of Regalecus glesne lives Baited rigs were thrown to it, but it took no stayed until Jeff Chace, an institute biologist, primarily in the North Atlantic, while notice of them.” brought the fish to a freezer. He kept it in another exists in the Mediterranean. Although the vessel’s crew wasn’t able to cold storage until it could be examined. A third population of Regalecus glesne is entice the oarfish onto a hook, Jones writes The oarfish, however, wasn’t alone. found in the South Pacific; its range may that the fish was a wondrous sight. “With Five days later, another oarfish washed up extend far afield—uninterrupted across its vivid red crest and dorsal fin, scarlet 80 kilometers away in Oceanside, California. the South Atlantic. streamers on its sides, and blue of its head This one, which measured 4.3 meters The North AtlanticRegalecus glesne and intense shine of silver on its body, it from head to tail, carried something extra: population reproduces in the western was probably the most beautiful creature hundreds of thousands of eggs in 1.8-meter- Atlantic; oarfish in the Mediterranean I’ve ever seen.” long ovaries. Its stomach was almost empty. spawn in the Straits of Messina. “Oarfish Naturalist C.F. Holder was one of the few A strong current, perhaps the northeastward- in the eastern North Atlantic are likely other scientists of the early 1900s to see an flowing Kuroshio Current, may have carried it non-reproductive waifs or ‘ex-pats,’” adult oarfish alive. In 1925, Holder chanced and the first fish, a male, far from “home.” Roberts believes. upon an oarfish swimming in shallow Regalecus russellii occurs mostly in North waters along the beach of Avalon Bay on FOR AN OARFISH, WHERE IS HOME? Pacific waters off Japan, Korea, and China. Santa Catalina Island, off southern California. Long considered denizens of the “Oarfish found along the coast of California “The opportunity to observe this radiant deep sea, oarfish are in fact fish of the and Mexico—the eastern Pacific—are creature was one I’ll never forget,” he wrote mid-water depths. probably Regalecus russellii that drifted in Fishes. “The fish was a fragile and delicate “Earlier ichthyologists tended to consider across the ocean,” Roberts says. “They are creature, a very ghost of a fish, which swam Regalecus a deep-sea fish,” writes Tyson always large, six feet or longer, with the along just beyond where the water gently Roberts in Systematics, Biology, and females usually full of eggs, but as far as we lapped the sands. It was a striking creature, Distribution of the Species of the Oceanic know they don’t reproduce in the eastern showing naught but a vivid red mass of Oarfish Genus Regalecus (University of Pacific, only in the western.” seeming plumes and a silver sheen where it Chicago Press, 2012). “The notion perhaps The reason oarfish spawn where they do, undulated through the water.” was due to the unusual appearance of he says, is unknown. Sporadic sightings of the fish have been Regalecus, including its large eyes [typical of Four years ago, in 2010, “there was an recorded since, most of them similar to the deep-sea fish], its rarity, and the observation unprecedented sighting of 20 large oarfish dead 1963 Malibu oarfish. What little we that it was occasionally taken in fishing gear in Japanese waters,” Roberts relates. “I’m know about oarfish is mostly from research at considerable depths. guessing that this was the result of an on their washed-ashore bodies. “Such gear, however, was not of the closing unusually successful oarfish spawning variety, and so it could have caught Regalecus somewhere in the western Pacific.” SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S COAST: at any depth on up to the surface.” If history repeats itself, he believes, we can A MAGNET FOR OARFISH? Regalecus, Roberts maintains, is a genus expect more oarfish in California waters in To wit, last September, Jasmine Santana, made up of at least two species, Regalecus the next few years. “The two oarfish there a marine science instructor at California’s glesne and Regalecus russellii. Both species last fall were almost certainly from an earlier Catalina Island Marine Institute, decided have two crests in front of their dorsal fins. major spawning event.” to go snorkeling on her day off. While In Regalecus glesne, five or ten rays adorn the In the distant Indian Ocean, so little is splashing in the shallows, she spotted an second crest, while in Regalecus russellii the known about oarfish “that not even the unidentified floating object. second crest has just one long ray. species has been identified,” Roberts says, Santana’s colleagues had shown her photos The two species’ geographic distributions “although it’s probably Regalecus russellii.”

12 Oceanography | Vol. 27, No. 2 FINALLY, A LIVE OARFISH Would marine scientists ever observe an oarfish alive—for more than a fleeting glimpse? Oarfish photographed in the It finally happened in 2008, and is Gulf of Mexico in August 2011 in the waters over Mississippi documented in a video recorded in the Canyon. Photo credit: BP/Trustees depths of the Gulf of Mexico. The fish was of the Deepwater Horizon/ one of five seen between 2008 and 2011; Louisiana State the oarfish were spotted at depths of up to University 500 meters. According to biologist Mark Benfield of Louisiana State University, the observations, through the eye of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), are the first time an oarfish with its body oarfish has been filmed in its natural habitat. inclined toward the Benfield and colleagues published the results vehicle. As the ROV inched last year in the Journal of Fish Biology. closer, “the oarfish gradually retreated The research was conducted through down and away, propelling itself with “The oarfish has a partnership between academia and undulations of its dorsal fin,” Benfield says. blundered into the hands of man the oil and gas industry called the Gulf “The fish’s swimming behavior is in the past,” said the late Romeo Mansuetti, SERPENT Project. fascinating. It moved backward and a fisheries scientist at the University of “Access to the deep sea is a challenge downward not head first but tail first, and Maryland Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. for oceanographers,” writes Benfield in his at quite a good speed. It was a big fish, “As he plies the ocean in ever greater journal paper, “but increasing demands for somewhere between 16 and 32 feet long.” numbers, man’s encounters with the oarfish hydrocarbons have resulted in a sustained That was the third of five such Gulf may—or may not—increase. May it be deep-sea presence by the oil and gas industry. SERPENT Project sightings of oarfish in the remembered that the fish has no commercial Hundreds of rigs, drillships, and other Gulf of Mexico. value, nor any potential as a game fish.” platforms equipped with ROVs now routinely “These Gulf oarfish—alive in their mid- In spite of increasing exploration and operate in deep waters.” water realm—are changing what we know exploitation of the ocean, many researchers With this large fleet of eyes, he says, comes about such ‘sea serpents,’” says Benfield. believe that because of the oarfish’s seeming an opportunity to learn more about the rarity, the secrets of its life may never species that inhabit the largest ecosystem on MESSAGE FROM THE OARFISH be fully revealed. Earth: the depths of the open seas. Oarfish from sea serpent encounters If such a fish can even exist, however, On the morning of July 10, 2008, an ROV along the coast of California rest in the ocean’s depths may be teeming with operated by Saipem-America conducted peace in the fish collection of the Scripps creatures we know nothing about. a survey on behalf of the Gulf SERPENT Institution of Oceanography. Oarfish are Project. The ROV floated just below a also at the LA County Museum of Natural semisubmersible drilling rig, the Thunder History; California Academy of Sciences CHERYL LYN DYBAS ([email protected]), Horse. As scientists watched from a in San Francisco; and Florida Museum of winner of a National Magazine Award-Canada, control room aboard Thunder Horse, the Natural History in Gainesville, among others. is a contributing writer for Oceanography and a marine ecologist and policy analyst by training. ROV met up with something “oriented One of the specimens at Scripps was She also writes about science and the environment vertically in the water, with its head pointing trapped in a fisherman’s driftnet near for Natural History, Canadian Geographic, Africa upward,” says Benfield. the San Juan Seamount in the Eastern Geographic, BioScience, National Wildlife, Scientific The submersible approached, and the Pacific; a warning, perhaps, of more such American, and many other publications. wraithlike image slowly resolved into an catches to come.

Jar specimen from page 11 laid out on a table at the Smithsonian Institution. Photo credit: Sandra Raredon

Oceanography | June 2014 13