Students and staff from the Catalina Island Marine Institute heft the 18-footer.
(Credit: Catalina Island Marine Institute)
Two different oarfish, massive eel-like fish from the deep, have washed up near the California coast over the last two weeks. Considering the scarcity of sightings, it’s been a veritable plague of oarfish. It has also been an unexpected gift for researchers.
Parasitologists at the University of California at Santa Barbara got their hands on pieces of the longer of the two fish, the 18-footer that appeared near Catalina Island. They took the opportunity to dissect samples from the fairly intact sea beast. Inside, they found a host of parasites.
“Our findings say that these are actually majorly parasitized fish,” says Armand Kuris, professor of zoology in the UCSB Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology.
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