Drumroll please.  We’ve talked with three different biologists that all came to the same separate conclusion about our sea monster sighting (if you missed it, see the post with video and photos here).

What we saw, according to all the experts, was an oarfish, a rarely seen giant that can reach up to 56′. How could those tentacles, seemingly belonging to a squid or octopus belong to a fish, one might ask?  Well, oarfish have the strange habit of “standing” vertically in the water column with their heads pointed toward the sky, and the tentacles we were seeing above the water were the elongated pelvic fins. If there were indeed two oarfish together, at the surface, then this behavior may be new to science.

An oceanic species, the oarfish is found living in depths to 3,280 feet. The experts have been stumped as to what these oarfish may have been doing, since they are thought to live solitary lives with the exception of spawning activities. 

Although little is known about oarfish reproduction, it is generally thought to occur at depth as well. Generally they are only observed when beached after storms or at the surface when sick or dying. For these reasons, the oarfish is a probable source of many sea serpent tales from ancient times.  

Credit to our research sources: Wikipedia and the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) website.

Kudos to Laurie Mora for guessing correctly.

 

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