Sea Serpent-like 18-foot Fish Found at Catalina

Byline: Shane Scott CATALINA ISLAND — Snorkeling in the waters of Toyon Bay Oct. 13, Jasmine Santana was headed past the pier for a relaxing swim. She expected to see fish. What she didn’t expect was the glimmering blue half-dollar-size iridescent eye she saw staring at her from the sandy bottom. Right then and there, the Catalina Island Marine Institute (CIMI) instructor knew that her plans for the day had changed. At first, Santana approached carefully. “When I first saw it, I was a little scared because it was so big. When I got closer, I saw that it wasn’t moving,” she said. That’s when she realized it was dead. With the body being almost perfectly intact, it appeared to have died of natural causes. “I’d never seen anything like it,” she said. Santana swam around the 18-foot serpent-like body and realized what she’d found. “Once I saw the beautiful red dorsal fins on its head, I knew it was an oarfish,” she said. She remembered a video that her coworker had showed her on ribbon fish, a smaller relative of the oarfish, months earlier. Considering how rare this animal was, Santana knew she had to take it with her. As she reached the ocean’s surface, she looked...