A while back I wrote about a northern oarfish that came ashore in Wildwood. It was a modest 6 feet or so long.

This species is morbidly nicknamed the “doomfish,” due to quaint Asian beliefs that having one wash ashore prophesies imminent natural catastrophes. In Japan, where they’re called ryūgu no tsukai (messenger from the sea god’s palace), there’s some contrived anecdotal evidence that the Land of the Rising Sun has indeed seen a cruel correlation between stranded oarfish and calamities, most often earthquakes.

Far more provable, the northern oarfish is the planet’s largest known bony fish. That in tow, our N.J.