A giant oarfish was found off the Southern California coast by a marine science instructor, who was snorkeling at the area during a staff trip Sunday, Fox News reported Tuesday.
Jasmine Santana of Catalina Island Marine Institute, a nonprofit educational institute, was leisurely snorkeling at the Southern California Coast, when she found an 18-foot-long giant oarfish that looked like the monstrous serpents featured on fantasy novels.
Fox News reported that Santana had to enlist the help of 15 people to drag the huge oarfish to shore.
"Jasmine Santana was shocked to see (a) half-dollar sized eye staring at her from the sandy bottom," CIMI stated. "Her first reaction was to approach with caution, until she realized that it was dead."
Witnesses of the rare find said the giant had eyes the size of half dollars. Meanwhile, the Institute called the event a "discovery of a lifetime."
"We've never seen a fish this big," Senior Captain of the Tole Mour, CIMI's training ship, Mark Waddington said. "The last oarfish we saw was three feet long."
A statement from the CIMI explained that oarfish generally dive and stay more than 3,000 feet deep, making sightings of these creatures very rare and leaving them largely unstudied. Additionally, little is known about their behavior as of late, Reuters reported.
Reports stated that the 18-foot-long oarfish had died of natural causes but is yet to be confirmed by the biologists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where tissue samples and raw video footage were sent.
According to Waddington, Santana found something very shiny about 30 feet deep while she was snorkeling during a staff trip at Santa Catalina Island.
"She said, 'I have to drag this thing out of here or nobody will believe me," Waddington added on Santana's initial reaction to her discovery.
Santana had dragged the giant oarfish carcass by the tail for nearly 75 feet when other staffers decided to help her out in bringing the beast to shore.
The serpent-like carcass was reportedly on display at CIMI Tuesday for 5th, 6th, and 7th graders to view and study. However, Waddington said that the rare find would still be buried in the sand, but will be unearthed once decomposition takes place and the skeleton will be reconstituted for long-term display.
The oarfish can grow up to 50 feet and is considered as a deep-water pelagic fish and is also known for being the longest bony fish in the word, CIMI said in a statement.
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