The oarfish measured about 13ft long as Cavalin and friend David held it up for a picture
© CEN
The oarfish measured about 13ft long as Cavalin and friend David held it up for a picture
The fish is sometimes known as the "earthquake fish" as it is sometimes coincidentally seen days before earthquakes strike an area. They were famously spotted in Japan just before the deadly Fukushima earthquake in 2011

A giant deepwater eel-like fish which some bizarrely believe is a sign of an impending earthquake has been filmed washing ashore at a Mexican resort.

The 13ft long oarfish was found by aquaculture engineer Fernando Cavalin and his friend David de Zabedrosky in Baja California's Pichilingue Bay in La Paz on Sunday.


In the clip they shared on Twitter, the pair stand a metre apart while holding the bony fish in the shallow water.

It beams as the sunlight shines on its silvery body, which stretches about four metres long (13 feet).

Cavalin told local media Infobae that the oarfish was "dead and in an early state of decomposition" when they found the enormous marine animal.

Cavalin said: "A fish's protein is never wasted and there are other organisms which could take advantage of ti for their consumption."

Cavalin and his friend found the giant silver deepwater fish off the coast of the Pichilingue Bay on Sunday
© CEN
Cavalin and his friend found the giant silver deepwater fish off the coast of the Pichilingue Bay on Sunday
The rare deepwater fish have become a folk legend for their supposed future-telling powers. Dozens of the creatures were spotted in Japan in 2011 before the deadly Fukushima earthquake.

In June 11 this year, a giant oarfish was also spotted off the coast of Quintana Roo followed by an earthquake that struck the Mexican state of Oaxaca on June 23.