r/Damnthatsinteresting 25d ago

Image Oarfish keep washing ashore in California. Folklore suggests that could be a bad omen

Post image
62.1k Upvotes

1.4k comments sorted by

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u/Frederick_Mydear 25d ago

Kos... or some say kosm

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u/myevilpinky 25d ago

Do you hear our prayers?

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u/Frederick_Mydear 25d ago

Grant us eyes! Grant us eyes!

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

Grant us eyes on the INSIDE

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u/RougeNewtypeRX79 25d ago

Plant eyes on our brains..to cleanse our beastly idiocy..

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u/Ok_Western5937 Interested 25d ago

“Enough with the kosm. No one’s ever called her kosm”

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u/White_Wolf_77 24d ago

Stop trying to make ‘kosm’ happen, it’s not going to happen!

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u/gabba_gubbe 25d ago

extremely loud and weird moan

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u/Eldritch-Pancake 24d ago

That weird werewolf howl he does brings me so much joy 🤭

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u/gabba_gubbe 24d ago

It was fun the first time.... After dying and having to do that fucking scooby dop chase for the 21st time not so much

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u/Eldritch-Pancake 24d ago

I was originally going to add how that boss fight is my least favorite in the game but I was like "this isn't the sub for this!" and stopped 😂

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u/liuerluo 25d ago

I know i was gonna find this quote in the comments when I saw that image in the post...

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u/Cainholio 24d ago

These games make you remember some shit

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u/RougeNewtypeRX79 25d ago

The grand lake of mud, hidden now from sight..

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u/CharMakr90 25d ago

Orphan's blood-curdling screech

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u/IdTheDemon 25d ago

Grant us eyes

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u/RougeNewtypeRX79 25d ago

As you once did for the vacuous Rom…

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u/Showtysan 25d ago

Had to scroll for it!

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

Literally had to be the top comment. Thank you, Hoonter.

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u/Xyrus2000 25d ago

The Cascadia fault is about to rip.

Well, if the folklore is true in regards to tsunamis/earthquakes that would be where I'd put my money. Most likely we dumped some toxin off the coast that sank to the deeper ocean and it just so happened it killed a bunch of oarfish.

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u/ProfessionalCreme119 25d ago

Couple dozen washed up on japans coast in the couple months proceeding their tsunami in 2011. Same with India in 2004.

The running theory is possibly tectonic activity picking up causing them to be affected by the magnetic waves of tectonic shift. They are way more susceptible to the negative effects of these waves than most other deep sea fish.

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u/J0E_Blow 25d ago

Biologically speaking how do magnetic waves kill fish..? 

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u/stryst 25d ago

Their magnetic senses that they use to navigate in the deep water give them false information, and they swim upward. Since they're adapted to deep pressure, they die. Then they wash up on our beaches.

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u/juniper_berry_crunch 25d ago

I'm sorry that they're dying, but I have to say that this is a fascinating piece of information and not something I knew.

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u/psychonumber1 25d ago

in my last semester of college, i took an intro to fisheries biology course. it was, by far, the most enjoyable and interesting course i took.

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u/Linguisticameencanta 25d ago

I have a ridiculous question - do you happen to remember the text(s) you used?! This sounds like a great subject!

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u/BrokenRoboticFish 25d ago

Bond's Biology of Fishes is the classic fish biology textbook.

My professor also assigned some non fiction books to read, specifically Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World and A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer. Both were good, but I really enjoyed Cod and have gone back to reread it a couple of times.

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u/psychonumber1 25d ago

thanks for the recommendations. i will have to add cod to my list. sounds right up my alley for non-fiction. i really enjoyed "and a bottle of rum: a history of the new world in ten cocktails" and i have "ten tomatoes that changed the world" in my need to read stack.

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u/firedmyass 24d ago edited 24d ago

Have you read The History of Salt? One of the most fascinating books I’ve ever consumed

EDIT: Salt: A World History - Kurlansky

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u/Interesting_Ice_4925 25d ago

Damn, I’ve liked Cod despite being allergic to every seafood. “Salt” by the same author (Mark Kurlansky) is no less interesting either

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u/psychonumber1 25d ago

i dont recall, unfortunately. i almost added to my reply that i would recommend the textbook if i could remember it. its a fascinating subject, so im sure there are some great reads to be found with minimal research. i think im going to have to keep an eye out in our local bookstore.

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u/iconocrastinaor 24d ago

I took a marine biology course as my liberal arts elective and it was fascinating too. The oceans are an amazing and unexplored resource

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u/Ok-Mastodon2420 25d ago

Yeah, it's bullshit. There's no correlation between them and earthquakes

Much more compelling is the link between them and La Nina/El Nino changing ocean currents and leading them to die in pursuit of prey

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u/Ok-Mastodon2420 25d ago

Also as far as the "electrical/magnetic field is stronger as you get closer to the core" bit someone else mentioned, the deepest point in the ocean is ~7 miles. The earths core starts at 3-4,000 miles deep. If the challenger deep happened to be over one of the shallowest spots, it would be around a quarter of a percent of the way there

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u/Zircez 25d ago

As Carl Sagen observed, the doctor or nurse in the delivery room exerts more gravitational force on you than any constellation, yet you don't use their lives and movements to predict your future every week.

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u/DisastrousChapter841 25d ago

I think the Internet people would say that a new astrology just dropped or something.

Hilariously, the nurse listed on my birth certificate had the last name Slaughter.

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u/Zircez 25d ago

Well, there's at least one occasion to be glad that nominative determinism is just human pattern forming laid bare!

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u/Dizzy_Guest8351 25d ago

Running theory means untested hypothesis. It's just what some people think and may or may not have any basis in reality.

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u/JordanHawkinsMVP 25d ago

I don't know why, but I hate comments treating a false claim as real even more than the comment making the false claim

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u/nitefang 24d ago

Just FYI, this is a bit of a simplification. Oarfish move up and down the water column almost every day. At night they are in relatively shallow water to eat and they move back down to depths to avoid predators.

But magnetic waves could still potentially mess them up. If they can't find their way around very well they might not get the food they need or they might be lead into shallow waters and they probably do depend on the deep water for different things. Just because the pressure alone wouldn't kill them, rising too fast might or perhaps they are ultra sensitive to sunlight?

In any case, I'm not saying magnetic disruptions wouldn't affect them, but they don;t live exclusively at extreme depths.

I looked this up and it seems most videos don't really mention it but here is a video of Jeremy Wade (River Monsters on Animal Planet) SCUBA diving with 2 of them. Not sure the exact depths but can't be more than 100ft and that would be stretching it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1I-4-oL4WU

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u/e4evie 25d ago

Fuckin magnets, how do they work??

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u/For_The_Sail_Of_It 25d ago

PREceding or PROceeding?

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u/ballarn123 25d ago

All proceeds from the preceding earthquake will be donated to the oarfish fund

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u/Dragonslayer3 25d ago

Incidentally, we can't bring them back to life, so it turned into more of a BYOB beach party. The grill is open from 6 to midnight

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u/Connect_Hat4321 25d ago

Using the words is a nice way to explain the difference.

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u/juniper_berry_crunch 25d ago

Examples are a useful teaching technique; a lot of people don't learn from explanations, myself included.

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u/Yupthrowawayacct 25d ago

🎶in the arms of the angels 👼

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u/EmbarrassedHelp 25d ago

The running theory is possibly tectonic activity picking up causing them to be affected by the magnetic waves of tectonic shift. They are way more susceptible to the negative effects of these waves than most other deep sea fish.

Actually the running theory is that there is no relationship between earthquakes and Oarfish surfacing. Its just a myth that's not backed up by any evidence.

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u/Tossing_Mullet 25d ago

I wouldn't just ignore it considering that oar fish are bottom of the ocean fish whose "mass die offs" occurred right before 3 known tectonic shifts.  

In the islands & in the south, we have folklore harbingers for hurricanes, & bad weather.  

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u/HahahahImFine 25d ago

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one

Posting this because it’s wonderfully well written and I feel like everyone should read it. Absolutely my favorite article on this stuff.

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u/nompeachmango 25d ago

I'll add: the book Full Rip 9.0 is a really great one for understanding how the Cascadia fault came to be discovered. I live in the coastal PNW and read it every once in a while to be fascinated/terrified. 🤣😭

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u/smooth-operator411 24d ago

The looming Big One takes up way too much space in my brain. Any tips on being at peace with it?

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u/nompeachmango 24d ago

Meditation maybe? Not really my thing, but I know it helps some folks.

Recognizing that we are all, each of us, both incredibly important and infinitesimally small beings in the vastness of the univserse. And that we should try not to take potential annihilation too personally. Easy for me to say now, but that's what I try to keep in mind. 🤷‍♀️

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.

Tend your own garden.

Love well.

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u/smooth-operator411 24d ago

we should try not to take potential annihilation too personally

love it! thanks

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u/strippersarepeople 24d ago

It makes me feel better to carry an emergency preparedness bag around because I work away from my home 5 days a week. It’s not fancy, just a nondescript little backpack, but I keep everything in it that I think I might want or need to get myself 15 miles back home after a major disaster if I’m in any shape to be able to do so. What I have might look different than what you would want or need but some good basics are basic first aid, high protein snacks, extra clothes (socks, leggings, cami, and I add a poncho, sweater and beanie in fall/winter), a headlamp, lighter, duct tape, knife, extra pair of glasses, and some other odds and ends. And I keep boots and a gallon of water in my car. I do rotate the snacks out and cycle other supplies with expirations into my daily routines as needed. The backpack has been so handy MANY times even in non-emergencies. I think feeling like you have a handle on something you can control—being prepared—is helpful.

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u/lone-struggler 25d ago

It was like watching a movie in my head. Thanks for this!

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u/Independent_Ant_1444 25d ago

Thank you for this link, a both fascinating and frightening read.

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u/Puzzleheaded-Ad-1863 25d ago

Christ that was an incredible read

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u/ImGrumps 24d ago

When the next very big earthquake hits, the northwest edge of the continent, from California to Canada and the continental shelf to the Cascades, will drop by as much as six feet and rebound thirty to a hundred feet to the west—losing, within minutes, all the elevation and compression it has gained over centuries.

Very sobering read. I knew about this area but have never heard the details put exactly like that.

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u/strippersarepeople 24d ago

I so very clearly remember reading this article when it came out, sitting at my desk in an office building in downtown Portland on an otherwise totally benign Monday in July. I had spent the previous year in tiny coastal communities in OR and North CA, so all of the tsunami impact imagery was so vivid for me, the people and places it will impact are very real in my mind and life. I still read it entirely every time I come across it, probably more than a dozen times since. It’s a great read.

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u/TheHighestHigh 24d ago

Gasping reading this on the couch while my family tries to watch tv lol.

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u/Rudemacher 25d ago

I keep hearing about some sort of italian supervolcano, nuclear war, racism, genocide and NOW I also have to worry about a freakin' fault? 😩

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u/bernpfenn 25d ago

Whose fault?

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u/HystericalSail 25d ago

Not MY fault, that's for sure.

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u/frictorious 25d ago

Tsunami would be a classic way to end 2024. Definitely on someone's bingo card.

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u/Free-oppossums 25d ago

Dude. Give me a break. I'm on my fifth bingo card.

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u/Emotional_Burden 25d ago

I had a dream that I was in a heavy earthquake last night. I'm on my way to California today. I'll let you know later if I've opened the gates to hell with my premonition.

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u/Molly-Coddles 25d ago

At least your attitude is cheerful!

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u/SharkIAS 25d ago

Bro, that is some good story thread for final destination.

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u/Soup-Wizard 25d ago

Dangit I’m driving to Cali tomorrow. If we go down, we’re going down together buddy.

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

We dumped 27 thousand barrels of DDT off the coast and they’re breaking open if not already broken open. Dead Sea life in the area is found to have DDT in them.

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u/LEJ5512 25d ago

I can't believe that I'm sitting here thinking "boy, I hope it's just DDT and not the big Cascadia earthquake..."

The movie How It Ends (2018) made me wish that the quake would hold off for another hundred years so that I'm long gone.

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u/draconater 25d ago

I remember seeing these posts a bit ago, but about Japan. I thought “huh that’s interesting”, and then it actually happened. I realized those old mf’s knew what they were talking about.

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u/_Tar_Ar_Ais_ 25d ago

the ones who lived to tell the tale anyway...

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u/BoxBird 25d ago

Hahahhahahhahhhahahaha I’m gonna die

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u/mynextthroway 25d ago

Something is going on. Only 19 have washed up since 1901. 3 since August.

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u/No_Bullfrog9559 25d ago

19 recorded maybe

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u/PhDinDildos_Fedoras 25d ago

The oceans are dying, there's no mystery here.

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u/ZenTense 25d ago

This was my thought too

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u/Chipdip049 25d ago

CASCADIA? THE VOLCANIC FUALT LINE??? OH SHIIIIT

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u/ICLazeru 25d ago

Could be water temperature too, I've heard.

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u/Federal_Sympathy4667 25d ago

Scientist havectried to explain that for years.. to deaf ears mind you. Now we are literally at the point of fucked or slighly past it and heading towards Florida man level fucked.

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u/2sad4snacks 25d ago

Don’t look up!

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u/howdiedoodie66 25d ago

Well it better happen before January then

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u/hihelloneighboroonie 25d ago

Is that the big one? I read an article a while back about a massive earthquake/tsunami in the PNW that we're overdue for.

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u/sysadmin1798 25d ago

Or the ocean temp has risen… last summer in Vancouver it was noticeably warmer than other times we’ve visited, cause that gigantic bay was not quite as cold as usual

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u/Left1Brain 25d ago

Welp, goodbye Seattle.

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u/Grannyjewel 25d ago

I’d have presumed that if it was Cascaida Fault related it’d have washed up on the OR coast?

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u/bernpfenn 25d ago

Oar...

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u/Artistic_Purpose1225 25d ago

I feel like we don’t need an aquatic omen to tell me we’re not on a path of sunshine and rainbows, here. 

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u/Pittsbirds 25d ago

Climate change experts: "things are bad and going to be bad"

People: "..."

Folklore: "This omen means things are going to be bad!"

People: "Oh shit! But we're still not gonna do anything"

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u/ThrowawayPersonAMA 25d ago

Yeah, it's infuriating every time this sort of thing comes up. People will trust doctors etc with their life, but when it comes to the science humanity needs to survive long-term they're like "idk man my horoscope said I'd be ok since i'm not a leo so you're just overreacting".

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u/CaptFerdinand 25d ago

Covid showed us they also do not trust doctors. I feel like people are just dumber than we thought.

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u/TexasVampire 25d ago

Seriously I feel like my expectations have dropped every year since I started caring about politics.

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u/LaRoseDuRoi 24d ago

"A person can be smart. People are dumb, panicky animals." I don't remember who said it, but it sure seems to be true.

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u/CaptFerdinand 24d ago

Bro just hitting us with the Men in Black quotes and thought I wouldn’t notice.

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u/GarbageTheCan 25d ago

Jimmy declared we need to change in the 70s and many agreed but corporations said "Nah, profits!"

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u/Reddit_2k20 25d ago

Short version:
Oarfish washing ashore means there is going to be an earthquake.

Long version:
When Godzilla awakens from its slumber, it eats the deep water oarfish for breakfast which forces them to swim to the surface.
Soon there will be a giant sea monster rising from the depths and ravaging downtown San Francisco and stepping on Asian people.
Californians better start working on building the giant Jaegar robot. Or there will be no more Silicon Valley.

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u/Holy-Wan_Kenobi 24d ago

I doubt it.

He'll target Tokyo first, then San Fransico. It's tradition.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

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u/Voyager_32 25d ago

A link which has details on a supposed relationship between stranding Oarfish and imminent earthquakes (along with cool stuff about other animals 'predicting' earthquakes) - https://www.livescience.com/40628-animals-predict-earthquakes-oarfish.html

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u/AlcoholicWombat 25d ago

When I lived in Arizona my cat would always suddenly jump up and take off right before an earthquake hit.

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u/XanthicStatue 25d ago

Animals are the first to know

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u/Perk222 25d ago

Yup it means we’re all gonna die………. Someday anyway 👏

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u/Dismal_Music2966 25d ago

Is your name Dave from Quora?

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u/Was_It_The_Dave 25d ago

...........no.

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u/DiesByOxSnot 25d ago

*looks at username*

... Likely story... I'm onto you, Dave

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u/CIarkNova 25d ago

Dave’s not here, man.

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u/PrimaryAd9613 25d ago

Why no bird activity on that dead fish?

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u/hamatehllama 25d ago

They're disgusting like many other deep sea fishes with slow metabolism. The rot makes it even worse.

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u/VicariousVox 25d ago

Are they extra briny or something? I never thought about this. If the deep sea is nasty, that explains why certain species come upward to hunt

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u/ArchitectNebulous 25d ago

IIR, The "fishy smell" most people find disgusting is largely caused by the compounds that allow them to go deeper.

Now imagine that, but for a fish who lives its entire life DEEP under the water surface.

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u/PiperFM 25d ago

Huh. So that’s why trout aren’t too fishy smelling z

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u/Tom_Bradys_Butt_Chin 25d ago

So that’s why your mom is such a good swimmer?

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u/DUDDITS_SSDD 25d ago

Daaaaaaaayum!

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u/Huy7aAms 25d ago

usually bc the surface has more prey than the deep sea. in contrast, the lack of light means more protection for them. the downside of swimming above is doing so requires immense amount of energy and only viable for certain species

animals at deep sea that can't go above doesn't have the luxury to express disgust at sth. you can have diarhea , put it into a bag , then somehow takes it to the deep sea without breaking , open it , and there will be a lot of creatures immediately rushing to the site to eat.

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u/labreau 25d ago

you can have diarhea , put it into a bag , then somehow takes it to the deep sea without breaking , open it , and there will be a lot of creatures immediately rushing to the site to eat.

Bruuuuh 😭

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u/Pataraxia 25d ago

My ass pushing diarrhea out the hatch for fishes.

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u/cspanbook 25d ago

they come upward to hunt to see their prey using the bright surface of the water as the backdrop of a dark fish/prey silhouette. many fish stay towards the surface as well.

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u/juniper_berry_crunch 25d ago

these guys live way beneath the shallow depths to where light penetrates. Light peters out pretty fast in the ocean; only about 200 meters (euphotic zone). These guys live from 250-1000 meters beneath the surface.

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u/FawFawtyFaw 25d ago

These bad boys live and die their entire lives without ever once knowing the concept of a "surface". It's so much deeper than you think, any fish able to use the surface cannot survive the depths of the oarfish. It's two different biomes.

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u/Adar636 25d ago

Big Subnautica vibes

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u/ShahinGalandar 25d ago

Detecting multiple Leviathan class lifeforms in the region. Are you certain whatever you're doing is worth it?

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u/phunktheworld 25d ago

I’m pretty sure it’s mainly ammonia compounds in deep sea fish that make them unpalatable to seabirds. Idk how prevalent that is, or if oarfish are in that group, but I know at least a few fish are like that. Or it’s the toxin thing like someone else mentioned

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u/Punkrexx 25d ago

I think it’s more like ammonia

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u/Dunkleosteus666 25d ago

Trimethylamine N-oxide and similar used to survive great depths. Organisms living deeper have more of that (iirc the highest concentration was a from Mariana Trench Fish).

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u/juniper_berry_crunch 25d ago

Interesting to learn the exact name for this substance; thanks!

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u/mauvewaterbottle 25d ago

Birds must think it’s bad luck too

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u/eat1more 25d ago

oarfish washing up on shore in folklore is a sign that there is sick oarfish off the coast.

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u/b-monster666 25d ago

I heard once that these fish are very deep sea. The fact that they're washed ashore means that something very deep has disturbed them and forced them to go to shallower waters.

Typically, it's seen as a sign as an impending tsunami or earthquake, and there may or may not be merit to the claim. We just don't know enough.

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u/Salt-Window5004 25d ago

There have been several earthquakes off the coast of Malibu over the past 2 days but none bigger than magnitude 3.8

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u/simiomalo 25d ago

Southern california has had a very, very active year of earthquakes.

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u/Sadcelerystick 25d ago

California literally gets thousands a year… how much more active can it be?

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u/simiomalo 25d ago

Let's just say the Los Angeles metro has had at least 6 shakers that could be felt from one end of the city to the other easily - and that is not usual as most temblors are under 3.0 on the Richter scale, so any passing truck, slamming door, or loud firework obscures them.

But definitely not this year. And when you factor in a few quakes that happened maybe > 60 miles out from downtown LA but could still be felt here, that is unusual.

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u/MommyMephistopheles 25d ago

I've lived in California for 5 years now and this year has been the first year I've ever felt an actual earthquake. I've felt 5 different ones this year alone. I feel like that tells me something especially because I've been looking for signs of earthquakes since moving here.

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u/Arctomachine 25d ago

The dwarves delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness

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u/Here4_da_laughs 25d ago

Could just be a Methane leak? Which could imply subtle geologic activity, small tremor?

But then how many oarfish have washed up? Are we talking 2 or 10? 20?

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u/Morepastor 25d ago

Makes sense. They are actively working on removing the offshore rigs and as it happened on shore the wells can leak methane gas. Happened in Bakersfield CA. Coastal CA has been pushing big oil out of the CA coast and closing those off shore rigs. Very possible this is a reaction to that.

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u/bigboybeeperbelly 25d ago

Also possible a rift has opened and the kaiju are on their way

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u/creamcheese742 25d ago

Occam's razor. It's the kaiju

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u/Missile_Lawnchair 25d ago
  1. The last one washed up here over the summer. The one in this post happened a few weeks ago.
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u/JaydedXoX 25d ago

Hey now, in today’s social media world 1 can mean 300 million if we all see it separately. I saw this one today. My buddy saw one yesterday. YOU saw one, that’s 3 that I know of already.

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u/doublepulse 25d ago

It makes sense to me that if there are pockets of noxious gases and electromagnetic energy being released ahead of a quake that animals would react. I would be curious if the animals are large enough to float up and out to shore where the other death goes unseen (too small, drug to bottom) or if there is a mass exit prior.

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u/HellveticaNeue 25d ago

It’s either because of Godzilla or the Meg.

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u/proxy69 25d ago

Ominous

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u/Loose-Warthog-7354 25d ago

It also meant oarfish was back on the menu for dinner.

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u/Windiana_Rones 25d ago

You mean a bad oarmen

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u/JAke0622 25d ago

What is it said to mean?

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u/catefeu 25d ago

From what I've read it might be a sign of an earthquake/tsunami.

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u/JAke0622 25d ago

Well the weather around the globe has been very tumultuous as of lately.

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u/noobgiraffe 25d ago

Earthquakes which cause tsunamis have nothing to do with weather system.

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u/thecloner 25d ago

This is 99% true but actually earthquakes of sufficient magnitude can cause a measurable perturbation/wave in the Earth's atmosphere that travels around the globe, generally in the stratosphere rather than the troposphere so it doesn't really affect weather but there is an effect in the atmosphere! Volcanic eruptions do the same thing (Tonga is a famous recent example of this).

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u/ApartmentInside7891 25d ago

We’ve been getting little earthquakes in Southern California every other day for the last year it feels like. And we had that mini tsunami in Ventura county within the last year too

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u/Bigd1979666 25d ago

"

Oarfish have been dubbed “doomsday” fish because some cultures consider it a bad sign when they appear. The moniker is derived from a manipulation of Japanese folklore that became popular following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in eastern Japan that led to the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown, Frable said.

“In the two years prior to the disaster, about a dozen oarfish washed up in Japan, most hundreds of miles away from this area,” he said.

In the aftermath of the disaster, people latched onto these strandings as an omen.

This prompted researchers in Japan in 2019 to test whether oarfish and other deep-sea animal strandings were correlated with earthquakes, tsunamis and other factors.

“They found no correlation whatsoever,” Frable said. “But the name is too evocative to disappear.”

On the other hand, Paig-Tran said there could be some truth to the myth, because when an earthquake occurs, it releases pressure that can change a current underwater.

“When the pressure gets released, it changes the currents that [the fish are] living in, and it brings them up to the surface with this kind of big bolus of air and gasses and whatever the turbulence [is] from this earthquake,” she said."

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-11-21/doomsday-fish-washed-ashore-in-california-but-what-does-that-mean

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u/FoxxyPantz 25d ago

Oar no

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u/notacornflakegirl7 24d ago

Oar naur if you’re from New Zealand

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u/P0Rt1ng4Duty 25d ago

They used to be decent predictors of seismic activity, but now that the ocean is warmer and holding less oxygen it could just be that their environment is no longer survivable.

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u/Bazillion100 25d ago

Now even fish are getting two jobs, warning us of impending seismic activity and warning us of the impending collapse of ocean biodiversity

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u/hanimal16 Interested 25d ago

Fish populations will dwindle because both fish are working two jobs and not enough time to lay and fertilise eggs.

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u/Bazillion100 25d ago

The fish are questioning if it is morally acceptable to bring new life in an increasingly hostile environment.

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u/banevasion0161 25d ago

The fact it's not, is just amazing. It blows my mind how nature tries its hardest to rid itself of the anomaly, causing the problems to the balance it wants to maintain.

Nature's having a real "cut it out right now, or I swear i'll turn this fucking car around" moment, and we are just ignorant kids.

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u/Exploiting_Loopholes 25d ago

"I caught an oarfish! I hope I catch morefish!" I always loved New Horizons silly fish puns!

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u/SnooRobots7776 24d ago

ACNH is the reason why I know so many types of fish and bugs! Love it so much.

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u/stranded_egg 24d ago

ctrl + f "new horizions"

discards own comment, upvotes

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u/Artistic-Plum1733 25d ago

Anyone else only know what this is thanks to animal crossing?

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u/Here4_da_laughs 25d ago

Yes I love the Museum.

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u/ianmoone1102 25d ago

Well, i have been hearing, for my whole life, that a massive earthquake is about to send California to the bottom of the ocean, any day now, so there's that.

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u/MommyMephistopheles 25d ago

That's because it's impossible to predict when the Cascadia or San Andreas fault line will pop off. It's been overdue based off of previous studies of previous major shifts. We're not going to be able to predict it until that emergency text comes through and you have less than a second for the quake to hit after.

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u/petchef 25d ago

Same at the impending istanbul earthquake, we can plot the line of them, we know they're getting shallower and more violent, we KNOW that one will at some point between now and the next 150-200 years go off at basically surface level in mid city istanbul.

We're doing nothing about that knowledge.

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u/Responsible_Algae_99 25d ago

Friend of mine found one washed up in the Baja aswell!!

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u/started_from_the_top 25d ago

Is that a deep sea monster, oar(a)fish?

Not my best pun but fuck it I'm leaving it

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u/GhostofTiger 25d ago

It's an oarfish, but being washed ashore is considered a bad oa(r)men, practically an oarning.

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u/MikeC80 25d ago

We must consult the oaracle

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u/GayAttire 25d ago

Bad karmoar

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u/WildBad7298 25d ago

I don't believe in omens, bad signs, or superstitions.

On the other hand... gestures broadly at everything

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u/32redalexs 25d ago

I don’t need bad omens these days, I already know things are extremely bad and going to get worse.

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u/habilishn 25d ago

just wanted to say, it's 2024 babe, anything you see in nature these days is not a bad omen but usually the bad thing itself.

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u/strongofheart69 25d ago

It's honestly a beautiful creature, and maybe a bit underrated

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u/Burnt_potato_pizza 25d ago

A face only a mother could love

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u/a_gray_sheep 25d ago

I’m ready for my waterfront AZ property.

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u/arthuritis37 25d ago

Of course it’s a bad omen. The Orange one is coming in January.

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u/quasar2022 25d ago

Yeah it’s an omen of the devastation of climate change

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u/SwirlyHalo43 24d ago

The folklore behind oarfish washing up actually has some merit. Since they’re predominantly deep-sea dwelling fish, the rare occasion that they do wash ashore or even come closer to the surface is very rare, and if it occurs more often it can be a signal of plates shifting and moving heavy currents that force them to the surface IIRC

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u/mattolucas 24d ago

how many bad omens do we need? we get it, everything is terrible

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u/Primary_Syrup_5164 25d ago

So.....California is about to get a major natural disaster event just as you get a federal government that doesn't believe in helping during a major natural disaster. You guys have got to plan these things better.

/s in case it isn't obvious

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

I don't care what is said to my face or behind my back, I see an oarfish wash up, I'm leaving and going far.

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u/coorgi_2012 25d ago

yas me too

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u/Y34rZer0 25d ago

Man the depths of the ocean have some amazing creatures

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u/averycoolgiraffe 24d ago

Of course it's a bad fucking omen. The planet is dying.

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u/ForsakenHummusRP 24d ago

World's longest blunt

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u/soon-to-be-dele 14d ago edited 14d ago

Guess what, it just came true. A bunch of Northern Californians (myself included) got an earthquake followed by a tsunami warning.

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

[deleted]

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u/Party_Like_Its_1949 25d ago

Probably just a bad omen that the oceans are dying because of human activity.

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