A group of people kayaking and snorkeling off the San Diego coast made an unusual discovery when they came across an oarfish, a rarely seen deep sea fish that has washed up in California only 20 times in over a century.

The 12ft-long silvery fish was found floating dead in the water last weekend. The group, along with marine experts, helped bring the creature ashore for study.

Oarfish have long, ribbon-shaped bodies, and can grow longer than 20ft (6 meters). They typically live in an area of the deep sea called the mesopelagic zone, where light cannot reach, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Noaa has described the fish as “strange and mysterious” creatures that scientists know little about.

Oarfish are sometimes called doomsday fish due to their mythical reputation as predictors of natural disasters or earthquakes.

Oarfish are known to have washed up in California only 20 times since 1901, according to Ben Frable, a fish expert withthe Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

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The group who found the fish in La Jolla Cove, north of downtown San Diego, coordinated with lifeguards and marine experts to retrieve the creature. Swimmers brought the oarfish to shore atop a paddleboard and it was then transferred to the bed of a pickup truck.

Scientists from Noaa Southwest Fisheries Science Center and Scripps planned a necropsy on Friday to try to determine the cause of death.

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• Fish
• Marine life
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