ABOUT two weeks before the 6.7 magnitude earthquake hit Surigao City, two oarfish have been found in the beaches of Butuan City and another oarfish was washed ashore in Misamis Occidental and in Agusan del Norte days later. Residents near the shores took selfies and posted the sightings on social media networks without looking into the cause of this sighting.
A big earthquake hit Surigao City on February 10 leaving 6 persons dead and thousands of victims hurt. The earthquake left properties, roads and infrastructures damaged. While residents are still recovering from the natural calamity, a number of oarfish and other sea-deep creatures were found on the beaches of nearby provinces including one in this city in barangay Gusa.
After the Surigao earthquake, the sightings have caused quite a stir among residents with a lot of shares on social media networks noting that the sightings tend to tell of a bad omen that a calamity like an earthquake is about to hit the city.
To date, there have been a total of 11 stranded oarfish in the country this year since the first one in January 12 found in Danao City, Cebu. The latest case was reported with two oarfish found in a municipality in Southern Leyte on February 20.
Last February 18, more than a week after the Surigao earthquake, an oarfish was found in Barangay Gusa much to the surprise of many Kagay.anons. After which, other mysterious sea creatures started popping up on beaches which caused fear of many for an upcoming disaster.
On February 21, a 20-foot hairy monster-like sea creature called ‘globster’ was found along the shore of Cagdianao town in Dinagat Island. Experts said that it was actually a carcass of a whale in an advanced decomposing stage.
A day after that, an enormous ocean sunfish was stranded in the town of Balingasag and a dead pygmy sperm whale was found in Barangay Tablon, Cagayan de Oro city, the following day.
With all of these sightings, many believe that another earthquake is due sooner because of a buzz that circulated in social media networks that these deep-sea fish are moving for sanctuary to higher sea regions because of the tremors in their habitats underwater.
Davao city was victim to the latest earthquake with a magnitude of 4.6 on February 23, Thursday. This confirmed premises and theories that the ‘Big One’ earthquake is soon to ravage areas in the Philippines.
In Japan, an oarfish is believed to be a sign of calamity. According to an old Japanese folklore, an oarfish is the 'harbinger of earthquakes' because it is supposed to be the 'ryugu no tsukai' or the 'Messenger from the Sea God's Palace'.
A considerable number of oarfish were stranded in the shores all over Japan in between December 2009 to March 2010 which the Japanese people believed they have preceded and foreshadowed the disastrous magnitude 9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake and tsunami of March 2011. It was the biggest earthquake in Japan's recorded history killing a considerable fraction of its populace and destroying millions worth of infrastructure and property.
According to Japanese Seismology expert Kiyoshi Wadatsumi in an interview for Japan Times, this Japanese belief is also grounded to their modern researches suggesting the relativity of animal behavior to natural changes and disasters.
"Deep-sea fish living near the sea bottom are more sensitive to the movements of active faults than those near the surface of the sea." Kiyoshi explained to Japan Times.
The speculation goes around that these stranded deep sea creatures are warnings to prepare for an imminent disaster. However, experts say that these events of deep-sea creatures getting stranded ashore and the occurrence of earthquakes in big cities are just big coincidences that should not be cultivated to raise alarm.
The McKenough Marine Research Center of Xavier University noted that there is no need to panic because there is the lack of factual support correlating the appearance of oarfish and these other deep-sea creatures to the occurrence of earthquakes.
"There are so many reasons why these oarfish may be stranded in our shores today. There is the possibility of a disease among their specie or of a sudden change in their habitat or environment such as the lack of food, or it may be the presence of strong currents in the living areas of these oarfish," said Nadine Arabelle Vivares, researcher and technical staff of McKenough Marine Research Center.
Vivares explained that oarfish is considered to be the longest bony fish in existence today. These fish specie are mostly found in the Mesopelagic area or the 'twilight zone' of the ocean which is about 200-1000 meters underwater.
"The Mesopelagic area, where the oarfish live, is deep enough already for humans but that depth is still not that deep enough for them [oarfish] to necessarily feel earthquake tremors because that is still shallow as compared to the Bathypelagic or the Abbysopelagic areas which are closer to the ocean floor," Vivares said.
Aside from stating that there is still not enough research done and evidence found to connect the appearance of oarfish and other deep-sea creatures, Vivares also forwarded that we may be actually looking at coincidental sea accidents that happened to these creatures and not actually a migration to the sea surface.
"The ocean sunfish is another mesopelagic sea creature that only comes to the surface to 'sun bathe'. The one found in Balingasag may have been on the sea surface when something might have attacked it leaving it wounded and weak and unable to go back to its habitat undersea. So inevitably, it was washed ashore," Vivares said.
As to the 'globster' that was found on the shores of Dinagat Island, the XU McKenough Marine Research Center admits that little information has been extracted from the unidentified creature but they have strong beliefs that it was only the decomposing carcass of a whale that was pushed ashore.
"We really cannot see clearly what it was however, it is highly probable that it was only the carcass of a whale. The white wig-like substance that was entirely enveloping it we believe is blubber or fat. Because the organism was in its late decomposition stage, the thick body fat may have looked like that because the skin already gave away," she explained.
The regional Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR-10) also has the same opinion that these deep-sea creatures and their sudden appearance to Philippine shores do not necessarily mean that there is an upcoming disaster. It may only be coincidental or that a change in their natural habitat underwater forced them to go ashore.
"It is hard and quite farfetched to connect the pygmy sperm whale that was found in Baloy to an upcoming earthquake or any natural disaster simply because there is not enough proof for it. If we look at the stranded creature, it was deeply wounded and its wounds already have pus in them possibly from a predator. The bite marks that we saw actually resembles the teeth patterns of a cookiecutter shark which can add to the explanation that it was washed on shore becasue it was already weak," Jennifer Rivero, a veterinarian of BFAR-10 explained.
For whatever reason these deep-sea creatures are being seen on land today, both the XU McKeough Marine Research Center and BFAR-10 noted that these are just huge coincidences of nature and instead of instilling fear for calamities, people should focus more on taking care of the marine environment around us.
"I think that is part of what is happening here and instead of correlating these to earthquakes without more facts or evidence, let us look at this as a call to put up more effort to care for the environment," Vivares added.