Japan braced For Possible Major Earthquake

The residents of Japan are bracing themselves after dozens of rare giant oarfish have been found, washed ashore, or caught in fishermen's nets. The rash of tectonic movements around the Pacific may be the cause.

The fish first began appearing immediately after the 7.0 magnitude January tremours in Haiti and the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile. An earthquake registering 6.4 recently hit Taiwan. In January a 7.2 earthquake hit the Solomon Islands, followed by a 7.1 earthquake on April 12th. On May 14tha 7.1 earthquake shook the Qinghai province of China.

Oarfish, apparently solitary creatures, are found in all temperate to tropical oceans, yet they are very seldom sighted. However, over the past few weeks, 10 specimens have been found either caught in fishing-nets, or washed ashore, off Ishikawa Prefecture. Half-a-dozen have been caught in nets off Toyama Prefecture and others have been reported in Kyoto, Shimane and Nagasaki prefectures, all on the northern coast of Japan.

Experts at aquariums and public fisheries centers, in eight prefectures along western shores, have confirmed that since November, at least 19 specimens been seen. The total sightings reaching approximately forty.

Hiroshi Tajihi, deputy director of the Kobe Earthquake Centre, told the Daily Telegraph "In ancient times Japanese people believed that fish warned of coming earthquakes, particularly catfish, but these are just old superstitions and there is no scientific relationship between these sightings and an earthquake."

The Tokai University Marine Museum in Japan says an oarfish was caught just two days before a major earthquake on Niijima island, near Tokyo, in 1963. The same type of rare fish was caught only a few days before shock waves hit Uwajima Bay in 1968.

The Regalecidae have only four species. One of these, the King of Herrings, is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest bony fish alive. It was measured at up to 17 metres (56 feet) in length. They are usually found at a depth of around 1000 metres and very rarely seen above 200 metres from the ocean's surface.

When fishermen do find the oarfish caught in their nets, they tend to put them back, because their meat is not suitable for eating. The fish have a very distinctive ribbon-shaped silver body and a long tasseled dorsal fin that is bright scarlet and rays out into long streamers.

About Japan braced For Possible Major Earthquake
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