SATUN, Thailand – A deep-sea “oarfish” has been discovered in La-ngu district of Satun province, marine ecologist Thon Thamrongnawasawat revealed on his Facebook page on Jan 3.

Even though a lecturer at Kasetsart University’s fisheries faculty confirmed that this piscine creature was found commonly worldwide, some Thai people would be surprised with this discovery.

“Thai people are not familiar with oarfish because they do not catch deep-sea fish,” Mr Thamrongnawasawat said, adding that this fish was caught by a fishing boat in the Andaman Sea.

Oarfish and sunfish are assumed to appear in Thailand due to the Indian Ocean Dipole, an irregular oscillation of sea surface temperatures in which the western Indian Ocean becomes alternately warmer and then colder than the eastern part of the ocean.

“Oceans have strange phenomena over time, but if we have enough information, we can have an explanation for them,” Mr Thamrongnawasawat said, adding that researchers had taken the oarfish for study.

He also urged people not to panic, saying it had nothing to do with an earthquake.

There is a belief among Japanese people that an oarfish is a messenger from the sea god to warn them that a disaster is coming.

Oarfish are large, greatly elongated, pelagic lampriform fish which can be found in areas spanning from temperate ocean zones to tropical ones.

There are three species in the family. The giant oarfish is the longest bony fish alive, growing up to 11m in length. This is the reason why this piscine creature is dubbed “naga fish” among Thais. In Thai, naga refers to a serpent with scales and a golden comb.

Oarfish feed on planktons, small shrimps and crabs. Their behaviour is hardly seen because it lives 50m to 1,000m under the sea. THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK