Premonition of a Major Earthquake? 'This' Found Again After 3 Months Off the Coast of California, USA

2.9m Largehead Hairtail Carcass Found on San Diego Beach
Also Found Last August off La Jolla Cove Coast

The sablefish, nicknamed the "Doomsday Fish" due to a superstition that it appears before major earthquakes, has been found again off the coast of California, USA, after three months.

On the 14th (local time), local media including USA Today reported that a sablefish carcass was discovered last week at Grandview Beach in Encinitas, a popular resort area on the outskirts of San Diego, California. The sablefish found dead this time measured about 2.9 meters in length and has been transported to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, for an autopsy.

Earlier, in August, another sablefish carcass was found near La Jolla Cove off the coast of California. At that time, people kayaking or snorkeling along this coast discovered the dead sablefish. This sablefish measured 3.66 meters in length.

Carcass of a sandfish found at Grandview Beach in Encinitas, California, USA. Instagram 'scripps_ocean'

Since sablefish are deep-sea fish, they are known to come close to the surface when they are sick, dying, or have lost their sense of direction. Additionally, sablefish can grow up to about 9 meters in length.

The Scripps Institution of Oceanography stated that since 1901, a total of 21 sablefish have been washed ashore along the California coast over 123 years. Researcher Ben Preble from the institute said, "This is the 21st time a sablefish has been found on California beaches since 1901, making it extremely rare," adding, "Two sablefish have been found consecutively within three months, despite only 21 being found in total over 123 years." He also noted, "The exact cause of the sablefish deaths is unknown, but changes in the marine environment, population increases, and various factors such as El Ni?o and La Ni?a could be involved."

Meanwhile, there is a superstition that sablefish are omens of disasters such as earthquakes. This belief stems from the fact that 20 sablefish were washed ashore along the Japanese coast before the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. However, in 2019, a research team from Tokai University and Shizuoka Prefectural University analyzed the correlation between the appearance of deep-sea fish like sablefish and earthquakes in Japan from 1928 to 2011, concluding that the superstition surrounding deep-sea fish is baseless.

Also, two days after the sablefish was found in August, a magnitude 4.4 earthquake occurred in Los Angeles (LA), California, on the 12th, seemingly supporting this claim. However, experts emphasized, "There is no confirmed correlation between sablefish and earthquakes," and warned, "Since there is no scientific evidence, premature speculation should be avoided."

Sablefish are known to inhabit the East Sea and South Sea of Korea, and last August, a sablefish was found on Maldo Island in the Gogunsan Archipelago, Gunsan, in the West Sea. At that time, the National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korea announced that on August 16 last year, around 6 a.m., a roughly 2-meter-long sablefish was found washed ashore by a rock fishing enthusiast on the coast of Maldo Island, about 40 km south of Gunsan, and was donated. Regarding this, Ahn Yong-rak, head of the Marine Biodiversity Division, explained, "Although sablefish, which generally inhabit deep waters, have been rarely recorded near the East and South Seas of Korea, finding one in the West Sea is very unusual," adding, "Its external condition was also minimally damaged, making it very special."