, Oct. 18, 2013: Scientists puzzled as rare sea monsters wash ashore […] For the second time in a week, a sea animal that typically is nowhere near the surface, washed ashore in California. This time, a saber-toothed whale. […] Such a sighting of the whale up close in California “is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” [said Heather Doyle, director of the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium]. […] Just three days earlier, another rarely observed species — a sea-serpent-like animal called an oarfish — was discovered dead at Catalina Island off the Los Angeles coast. […] so little is known about the deep-water [whale] that lives in the north Pacific. Its strandings typically occur in Alaska or Japan. […]
Oct. 18, 2013: There’s a Japanese legend that oarfish beach themselves to warn of an impending earthquake. And, in fact, dozens of them did just that in Japan about a year before the devastating Fukushima quake and tsunami in 2011.
Later on Friday…
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 18, 2013: Oarfish washes up in Oceanside […] For the second time in a week, a rare serpent-like oarfish has surfaced in Southern California, this one on Friday at Oceanside Harbor. […] On Sunday an 18-foot-long oarfish was found near Catalina. […]
Pete Thomas Outdoors, Oct. 18, 2013: Another oarfish discovery in Southern California makes three rare sea creatures in less than a week; what is going on? […] Less than a week after an 18-foot oarfish carcass was found by a snorkeler in a bay at Santa Catalina Island, another large oarfish was found 35 miles across the channel on the beach in Oceanside. […] It remains unclear why two specimens have come ashore in Southern California in so short a period. One reader on the ABC San Diego Facebook page commented, “Japan radiation.” […]
Radiation? 3 Rare ‘Sea Monsters’ Wash Up In SoCal