Interesting Critters: Juvenile Oarfish Found at Farnsworth Bank, Catalina Island

At the start of our second dive at Farnsworth Bank, Catalina Island, my dive buddy Billy and I were swimming towards the anchor line and about to start our descent to the corals and scorpionfish below. I almost always dive with a dSLR camera setup, and was tinkering with strobe arms just in case something big swam by as we made our way deeper. As I looked down into the blue, I noticed a larval fish swimming by, then rolling into a little ball, then swimming along in the current. It looked like a snailfish to me, so I called over to Billy and said “Hey, there’s some larval fish here”. Billy and I both have a background in marine biology, so we find this silly stuff interesting.

We nodded and started our descent when a weird, stringy, shiny thing started drifting by about 8 feet underwater. I wasn’t sure what it was. An elaborate ctenophore (comb jelly)? A larvacean? Then I saw the undulations of a long thing fin. At that point it turned broadside to me and I couldn’t believe that I was face to face with an oar fish. This is an animal I have been fascinated with since I was a little kid. Even though it was small, it still had the ornate, long, thin fin rays and long body typical of this mysterious fish. I yelled, no screamed at Billy but just couldn’t get his attention.

I tried very hard to get a shot of this little gem, but it greatly preferred to not go broadside, the whole while keeping its body in a vertical pose, fin threads trailing behind and dorsal fin undulating rapidly. It made total sense. On edge, the little fish almost disappeared. I was drifting away from the dive site, past the boat, out to sea. I knew I didn’t have much time to work this scene so I frantically adjusted settings and hoped my camera would focus on this translucent speck in a sea of blue. I only took 8 frames and all but one are virtually useless. To say I’m disappointed is an understatement, but the challenging conditions sure didn’t work in my favor and I did have a wide-angle lens on. I’m so happy to have one shot, even if it is cropped, of a living oarfish. You may wonder “where was Billy in all this? Why was he so preoccupied?”. Well, he was busy watching his own oar fish. That’s right, two within just a few feet of each other. Knowing that I was being pulled into deep offshore water, I kicked back towards the site and we reconvened at the anchor. We sat on the bottom and each started sculling underwater frantically with our arms like two rejects from the rowing team. What’s the signal for oarfish other than ROW? The rest of the divers must have thought we had gone mad but once we got back onboard and retold the story, they all understood our excitement and crowded around for a look at the frame.

I’ll never forget this encounter as it could be the only time I will ever see a live, healthy oar fish. It’s a great reminder to always be on the lookout for interesting critters and to educate yourself about the ocean because you never know when a once-in-a-lifetime encounter will happen.

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Story submitted by Justin Hofman
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