ความคิดเห็นที่ 25
เสริม # ๘
Story By JOSN John Carstens,
Navy Compass Staff, San Diego, Calif.
Photos by LT DeeDee Van Wormer,
Naval Special Warfare Center Public Affairs Officer,
San Diego, Calif.
Look, on the beach! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... a fish? Twenty-three feet long and more than four feet in circumference, this image from a 1950's horror film weighs in at 300 pounds. And it's dead as a doornail.
The silvery serpent of the sea - an oarfish - was discovered last year by Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) Instructor Signalman 2nd Class (SEAL) Kevin Blake. The oarfish has large, saucer-shaped eyes and a raised, red, elongated dorsal fin along the upper ridge of its spine.
At the time of the find, Blake was leading students on a beach run at the Naval Special Warfare Center, Coronado, Calif. "It was unlike anything I had ever seen before," said Blake. "It looked like some sort of prehistoric throwback."
Scripps Institution was notified of the find. Although this specimen was dead, it was a rare find. The University of California, San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, has only been able to collect four specimens of the undersea giant.
Scripps' Senior Museum Scientist H.J. Walker came to the site and removed the creature's head and tail for anatomical study. He speculated on the death of the fish, saying it probably met its maker after an encounter with the propeller of a boat.
Walker dared the BUD/S trainees to sample their find, knowing well that oarfish, when cooked, tastes like paper. He tried eating it himself when an oarfish was caught in some fishing nets off the Southern California coast a decade ago.
According to Walker, the oarfish is harmless, eating only small shrimp and living in depths of up to 700 feet in warm tropical water. Oarfish average between 20 and 30 feet long when fully grown.
"Because of its look and size, this is a fish that gives rise to the sea serpent image," Walker said. Records have a 56-foot long serpent-like creature found on a Scotland beach in 1808. It's believed to have been an oarfish.
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20 ต.ค. 49 09:40:55
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