A legendary sea serpent has been brought ashore Tuesday in Southern California.

An off-duty marine science instructor who had been snorkeling off the coast had spotted something shimmering in the water, seeing that it was a legendary sea serpent floating at about 30 feet deep, and saw upon closer inspection that it was the 18 foot long carcass of an oarfish.

Oarfish are said to grow up to 50 feet, and is a deep water fish, the longest bony fish in the world. The dive for lengths up to 3,000 feet making them obscure and very rarely studied. The long and silvery oarfish are the ones largely responsible for legends of sea serpents, however they are not dangerous, but are rather flashy creatures.

Jasmine Santana, from the Catalina Island Marine Institute saw the carcass and, believing that nobody will believe her, she dragged it to the surface for everyone to see. She dragged the 18 foot long oarfish for about 75 feet before colleagues jumped in the water and helped her drag it ashore.

Staffers at the marine institute are calling it the discovery of a lifetime.

"We've never seen a fish this big," said Mark Waddington, senior captain of the Catalina Island Marine Institute's sail training ship. "The last oarfish we saw was three feet long."

The giant oarfish apparently had died of natural causes.

Some of its tissue samples, and video footage have been sent to biologists at the University of California, Santa Barbara to be studied.

The giant oarfish had been put on display at the Catalina Island Marine Institute for students from the 5^th -7^th grade to study. After that, the 18-foot-long oarfish would be buried in sand until decomposition is complete, and its skeleton to be reconstituted for display.