California 'sea serpents' was egg-carrying female

This Friday Oct. 18, 2013 image provided by Mark Bussey shows an oarfish that washed up on the beach near Oceanside, Calif. This rare, snakelike oarfish measured nearly 14 feet long. According to the Catalina Island Marine Institute, oarfish can grow to more than 50 feet, making them the longest bony fish in the world. (AP Photo/Mark Bussey) MANDATORY CREDIT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 14-foot oarfish that washed ashore in Southern California last week was ready to become a mommy.

The serpent-like fish was dissected Monday. H.J. Walker of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography says marine biologists found the healthy female was ripe to spawn: Its 6-foot-long ovaries contained hundreds of thousands of eggs.

Walker says the fish had lost its tail somehow while alive and it had disc-shaped wounds from cookiecutter sharks, but those injuries weren't deadly.

In fact, it's unclear why the creature died, although Walker says it's possible the deep-water fish came too near the surface and the waves.

The oarfish was found Friday in Oceanside — five days after an 18-foot oarfish was discovered off of Catalina Island.

It's also unclear what killed that fish.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/california-sea-serpents-egg-carrying-female-235557243.html
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