![Real Serpent of the Sea]()
An 18-foot oarfish was found floating off Catalina Island. (Courtesy Catalina Island Marine Institute)
By Steve Rogers, OutdoorChannel.com
Sea serpent? Maybe. Deep-water oddity? Clearly. Amazing discovery? Definitely.
And for the folks at the Catalina Island Marine Institute, it was just plain cool.
An 18-foot-long oarfish, a deep-residing fish rarely seen dead or alive by humans, was found by one of the institute’s instructors in Toyon Bay off Catalina Island, located off the coast of southern California. A CIMI news release described it as a “discovery of a lifetime.”
Even for life-long marine enthusiasts and scientists, like CIMI Toyon Bay program director Jeff Chace, the discovery was a thrilling one.
“I had heard about a couple of them washing up, but even that’s...