Re: NANFA-- Oarfish Sighting

Sajjad Lateef (sajjadlateef_at_yahoo.com)
Tue, 18 Mar 2003 11:14:01 -0800 (PST)

I searched around on the Internet for other oarfish
websites. I found one Japanese website [1] (translated into
English via software) which mentions that the photographer
saw the oarfish moving horizontally. The other reported
sighting mention that oarfish move horizontally as well [2].
One other website mentions that the fish come to the surface from
deep undersea after undersea volcanic activity. And goes on to
mention "The oarfish floats to the top and the pressure is so
strong that the oarfish cannot swim back down, so it dies." [3]
The last statement seems counter-intuitive to me.

1. http://www.geocities.co.jp/Outdoors/4115/oalfish01e.html
2. http://home.sprynet.com/~lencole/oarfish.htm
3. http://www.bajanet.com/reports/fishing_02_01_01.html

One nice image (copyrighted) can be seen at:
http://www.brianskerry.com/images2/fish/oarfish.htm

I wonder if the oarfish swimming vertically is a sign of
swim bladder damage?

Sajjad

ps: This isn't formal research, per se, hence the use of
URLs for references.

=====

-- 
Sajjad Lateef
sajjad_at_acm.org
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