Doomsday Omen 6-Foot Oarfish Seen Dying with Cookiecutter Shark Bites Off Taiwan Coasts

Divers witnessed a 6-foot oarfish mowing toward the surface of Taiwan's shore.

The so-called doomsday omen was suspected to be dying as it seems to be covered in bite marks from a cookiecutter shark.

Doomsday Omen 6-Foot Oarfish in Taiwan

A six-foot-tall marine creature that appears to be rising from the depths has been discovered by divers.

The creature, an oarfish, is around two meters long, with flattened, elongated, and highly silvered sides that resemble enormous knives.

Photographs taken off the coast of Taiwan showed the divers swimming alongside it close to the surface.

Although this strange species resembles something from a medieval bestiary, it is actually very real.

Additionally, their appearance has been linked to legends that predict impending calamity or danger, particularly in Japanese folklore where they are regarded as a sign of earthquakes and tsunamis.

Russell's Oarfish Riddled with Shark Bites

Also called the "king of herrings," "ribbonfish," and "streamer fish," according to the Florida Museum, the Russell's Oarfish normally dwells between 200 and 1000 meters of water.

Since the light is the same color as the surroundings, it may be nearly impossible to see the enormous creature from the side in the gloom of the twilight zone.

The diving instructor Wang Cheng-Ru had to take a picture of the Russell's Oarfish because it was the first time he had ever seen one.

The skin of this Russell's Oarfish appears to be scarred, with large black holes protruding from it, giving the impression that something has torn pieces of the giant fish.

The gigantic creature that would challenge the dreadful-looking oarfish in the ocean's depths initially piqued the divers' curiosity.

There are gigantic sharks in the deep ocean, such as the Six Gill Shark and the Sleeper Shark, but because hunting requires a lot of energy, these species are more likely to be scavengers than active predators.

Also Read: 5 Terrifying Amazon River Creatures to Avoid

Cookiecutter Shark

However, later, it was thought that the shark responsible for the oarfish's horrifying scars is a much smaller species more generally known as the Cookiecutter Shark.

The seemingly harmless-looking small shark, whose name derives from the shape of its jaws, actually has a rather terrible method of obtaining food.

One of the most intriguing sharks in the water, the cookiecutter shark never gets larger than 18 to 20 inches.

Its habit of chewing off tiny pieces of much larger creatures gives it its common name. It is small in size and spends the majority of its time in the deep water column, according to Oceana.

Once it has a hold of the victim, it begins to bite away at the skin until it can remove a round chunk from the victim, leaving the recognizable circle markings.

The bigger sharks and fish that it preys on are helpless to stop it. They can't easily scrape it off because they lack arms.

The oarfish, according to Wang, was "dying" and was swimming to shallow waters as a result.

As oarfish go, the two-meter species is still quite enormous, but it's more of a tiddler.

Oarfish have been observed to grow up to eight meters long, and unconfirmed observations imply they may even be able to grow to lengths of more than twice that.

One measuring 16 feet long was even discovered off the coast of Chile, LAD Bible reported.