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'Doomsday fish': Once-in-a-lifetime sea creature encountered in Monterey Bay

sfgate.com

61 points by sipofwater a month ago · 28 comments

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bschwindHN a month ago

> Other members of the group were quick to point out that sightings of ribbon fish in shallow water have historically been an omen of earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan, with one person even calling it a “doomsday fish.” But as it turns out, that legend concerns a very similar-looking cousin of the king-of-the-salmon: the oarfish.

So, not a doomsday fish. Still cool though.

  • jasonjmcghee a month ago

    I was about to post the same comment- so just blatant click-bait misinformation by sf gate...

spaceman_2020 a month ago

So this awful website hijacked my back button, directed me to an ad, and instead of telling me the name of the fish immediately, made me search for it deep in the article

Yeah, no wonder the web is dying

  • cwnyth a month ago

    Firefox + ublock origin. Nothing was hijacked, I saw no ads, and I found the name in the 3rd paragraph. You can improve your web experience immensely.

    • 2Gkashmiri a month ago

      I find this funny.

      On tv, back in the day, we used to have mandatory ads. They were part of programmming..

      On web, people."feel" its the same thing. "Oh let the poor owners earn a bit" because of sob stories of content creators and "only source of income".

      They dont see ublock as something important

      • hulitu a month ago

        > On tv, back in the day, we used to have mandatory ads.

        _we_ didn't.

    • spaceman_2020 a month ago

      Safari on iPhone

      There are mobile users in the world too you know

  • peterspath a month ago

    I do not know what your setup is. But here on my machine I did not encounter this behaviour.

    Safari 26 on macOS 26, Lockdown Enabled (limits javascript to make your system more secure)[1], and 1Blocker (to block ads and trackers)[2].

    1. https://support.apple.com/en-us/105120

    2. https://1blocker.com

    • spaceman_2020 a month ago

      My setup is Safari on iPhone. Aka the majority of users

      Leave it to HN to blame users for “not having the perfect ad blocking setup” instead of calling out trashy click baity websites for bad practices

      • peterspath a month ago

        It was not to blame, more to tell that there is a solution. Yes it is too bad those website exist. I agree with that completely. But it is not something that will stop until the root evil is destroyed, ads.

  • stevenwoo a month ago

    Hearst papers (sfgate.com and chron.com) are really bad about this on mobile - the advertising providers just go all out to take over your screen and it takes so long to load that the place you click is not the thing you want if you click too soon. The only plus is all the articles are free to read still.

    • spaceman_2020 a month ago

      This really isn’t an “article”. Its not content. Its a click bait summary of another piece of content shared by someone on an entirely different platform

      That this content is “free” isn’t something we should be thankful for

    • the_real_cher a month ago

      Free slop!

  • scubazealous a month ago

    This and the clickbait headlines are why I refuse to click on sfgate links now.

  • IAmBroom a month ago

    Chrome laptop browser on Windows, and the site disabled Ctrl+W to close the window.

    Fuck that.

derektank a month ago

Once in a lifetime might be overstating it. A handful appeared near San Diego in 2024[1], and several were observed in New Zealand and the Canary Islands last year. Wonder if this is a case of surveillance bias as a result of easier communication or an actual increase in appearances

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/15/oarfish-cali...

  • NewJazz a month ago

    That's not the same fish as the one in this article I don't think.

  • fnordpiglet a month ago

    The figure of speech is about a typical divers lifetime. I believe you’re confusing it with “once a generation,” which refers to the collective human experience type of rarity.

    • derektank a month ago

      I’ll be honest, I’ve never heard that phrase in that context. My only real frame of reference is the 1981 Talking Heads hit single which I always took to have the “once in a generation” meaning. What’s a diver’s lifetime?

sandworm101 a month ago

No mention of where the name comes from? It comes from the legends of Pacific-Northwest native peoples. Not Japan. Washington and British Columbia.

leobg a month ago

> Don't let Google decide who you trust. > Make SFGATE a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.

Lol

HelloUsername a month ago

"I caught an oarfish! I hope I catch morefish!"

sipofwaterOP a month ago

Mirror: https://archive.ph/Gfz0g

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