The Oarfish

People talk about sea monsters their whole lives. Giant squid, whales so big they don’t seem possible, crabs the size of… I don’t know, houses. You hear it and think, sure, whatever. Cool story. Probably fake. Then scientists in California, including Jasmine Santana, pull a five-meter oarfish out of the water. Dead, which is how we got to see it. Now it’s in a freezer or on display or something at a research institute, and I have no idea what they do with a fish that big. Eat it? Mount it? Bring it back to life through the power of science fiction?

The thing that gets me is the reminder that it was down there. It existed. It’s still out there, those things are, right now. Which means when you’re in the ocean and you think you’re alone, you’re not. There are things down there, impossible-looking things, and we only find them when they wash up dead. What about the ones we don’t find? What about the bigger ones?

That actually scares me.