Apocalypse ahead? What is a Doomsday Fish? Long unusual fish spotted multiple times recently goes viral

Discussed vastly in dark, mysterious podcasts with an eerie tone, the ‘Doomsday Fish’ which is said to surface when indicating a disastrous event, is a known phenomena by now. But the frequent spotting of the said fish in recent days has triggered an alarm. 

The rarity of its spotting and the legends tied with the ‘Doomsday Fish’ raised eyebrows, especially after the frequent spotting of it from May 2025. Between a couple of weeks the Doomsday fish has been spotted in multiple regions in the world – once in India, thrice in Australia, New Zealand and California. This has not only raised concerns of the conspiracy theorists but also the scientific crowd. 

What is an ‘Oarfish’ aka ‘Doomsday Fish’?

Oarfishes are elongated, slender, ribbon like fish which can grow extremely long in size and are found in areas from temperate to tropical zones. The giant fish named ‘Oarfish’ is assumed to be because of the physicality of its compressed and sleek body, or denoting the way it moves in the water, basically rowing in the water with the fins. 

Although not harmful to humans, the fish along with the ‘superstitions’, ‘conspiracies’ and historical records of it makes it as a harbinger of fatal disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis. 

Historical sighting and aftermath

In Japanese Folklore, the sleek and slender fish was seen as bad luck and is known as “Messenger from the Sea God’s Palace” which essentially bore news of the earthquake. More than coincidental, the fish historically has been bearing natural disasters whenever it surfaced, mostly earthquakes and tsunamis. 

One of the most fatal tsunamis in Japan, the 2011 disaster that took the lives of over 20,000 was followed by more than 20 of the Oarfish spotted in the beaches in 2009 and 2010. 

Although said to be as an ‘illusory correlation’, that is two happenings connected yet there is no possible relationship proven, sightings such as seen in 2024 at the San Diego coast led to a 4.4 earthquake, stands yet to be corrected from any formal conclusions.  

Recent Sightings

A group of fishermen in Tamil Nadu, India caught a 30 foot long enormous Doomsday Fish, lifted by seven men, was shared in the social media and went viral, opening the string of other sightings recently. 

On the coast of Tasmania, a local resident captured a 3 metre long Oarfish washed up on the coast. The image was also shared thousands of times on the internet and users compared the fish to seismic predictions in the area. 

New Zealand residents also spotted the unusual fish twice in a single week, a rare occurrence, one at a beach near Dunedin and one headless surfaced to the beach near Christchurch. This further unraveled more conversations of bad activity in the area and marine biologists wondering the reason behind the surfacing.