Worlds longest Fish

 

 

This one is a really strange looking fish. Growing to 17 metres in length this would have to be the worlds longest fish. The oarfish prefers deep oceanic waters but is sometimes found in estuaries and bays and washed up on beaches during violent storms and heavy swells. It is long and slender and a shiny silver colour with a orange dorsal fin,and is one of  the worlds longest fish.


In days past, it was believed that a swimming oarfish would 'row' with its pelvic fins in a circular motion, hence the common name.  Unfortunately folk tales aren't always true.  The strange pelvic fins are now believed to be used for taste perception not locomotion

Allegedly this Photograph shows US servicemen in Laos during the Vietnam War with a captured Mekong Dragon, Phaya Naga, Mekong Naga or enormously overgrown eel. It is widely circulated in Laos. However, the photograph was actually taken in 1996 and shows a Giant Oarfish, found on the shore of the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, California. This extremely rare specimen was 23 ft (7.0 m) long and weighed 300 lb (140 kg).



An Oarfish on the beach at Busselton, Western Australia, 8 November 2003. The fish was spotted at dusk on consecutive days. On the second day it beached itself but was returned to the water by onlookers. The fish swam away, apparently unharmed.