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u/UD_Glass_Sphere 22d ago edited 21d ago
One of the first rules of scuba: Do never touch aquatic life.
Every BeAmazed under water clip: touch
Other than that, this is a very special thing to observe.
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u/GordCampbell 21d ago
They very reason that my dive instructor didn't like gloves: "They encourage you to touch things that you shouldn't."
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u/SpareNickel 21d ago
What a crazy yet valuable insight. Yes, the gloves protect you, but they will also encourage you to interact with things BECAUSE they protect you. It's so simple yet so intuitive, good on your instructor.
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u/dollop_of_curious 21d ago
Honestly, that's been an argument about American football and boxing for a while. The gloves and helmets protect the body's structure, but they hurt the brain.
Edit bc I was worried maybe I came off as confrontational. I just meant it as an observation.
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21d ago edited 19d ago
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u/Mr_McShifty 21d ago
Come on mate, be fair here... How would you tell a brain damaged Australian from a regular Australian?
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u/StolenSweet-Roll 20d ago
Same way we do in America, wait until an election year and they tell on themselves
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u/c_marten 21d ago
It's wild to me that some of the hits in american football are legal. You see a hit like those in rugby and they're usually followed by a yellow or red card.
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u/ChefJayTay 21d ago
Same is true in kitchens. People wearing gloves often don't care about hygiene while wearing them. They also don't dispose of them regularly enough to prevent cross contamination. Add in a boss complaining about glove costs.
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u/Ranhert 21d ago
My mom has Reynaud's disease and always Scuba'd with gloves to help with the temp changes. We took a family trip to Bonaire for scuba paradise and during our dive orientation after landing they took her gloves. Gave them back on the way off the island but it wasn't enough to promise not to touch anything. No hard feelings, I'm only sharing this because in order to keep that reef/aquatic life pristine they won't even let you have dive gloves on the island, even with a medical reason.
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u/p2im0 21d ago
I love diving Bonaire, and how much they do to protect their reefs. I dive with a friend (who has a house on the island) that gets severe sun poisoning and he brings/wears gloves with a doctors note to get a permit from STINAPA.
He is also the one that taught me this same thing, explaining why we should not pack our gloves.
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u/IAmDominion 21d ago
I don't scuba but find it very interesting that it works out that way. Myself personally it would be the opposite, I would not want to touch things because of the gloves, since I can't actually feel it. Like petting a dog with gloves, what's the point?
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u/augustwest30 21d ago
I remember going on dives where gloves were not allowed for this reason.
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u/lohmatij 21d ago
I worked as a scuba instructor in Egypt and no one had gloves. I think they were banned for this very reason.
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u/misteraustria27 21d ago
Dive in Monterey and you know why gloves are not only work as protection against sea critters. Without your fingers might freeze off.
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u/MrMcFrizzy 22d ago
Immediate thought “don’t touch him!”
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u/ThrownWOPR 21d ago
Rule #1 according my instructor: do not fuck with the animals
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u/_Not_an_Economist_ 21d ago
Also, do not fuck the animals...
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u/towerfella 21d ago
[sad dolphin noises]
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u/Snoo_89085 21d ago edited 21d ago
To be clear, the dolphins might try to fuck with you…
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u/Animationen_usw 21d ago
Red button syndrome
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u/Dialogical 21d ago
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u/ResponsibleAct3545 21d ago
Maaaaaaybe something good….. Maaaaaatbe something bad….. WE’LL NEVER KNOW!!
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u/fliesenschieber 21d ago
"It's the history eraser button!" -- Damn this is one of the most epic and grotesque episodes! So many disgusting close-ups😂👌
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u/Commonefacio 22d ago
It looks like the other divers were telling the pov to take pictures only, after the touch.
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u/S0whaddayakn0w 21d ago
Oarfish is a deep sea creature. I wonder why it's heading for the surface - can't help but think it's dying. Reminds me of that fish that went viral recently 🥲
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21d ago
Sometimes the just go up, it's rare, but they do, some old folklore says they go close to the surface before drastic weather changes, nothing scientifically proven.
This one looks injured, so yeah, probably an old and weak individual, but sometimes the water had a drastic temperature change in the water can leave them disoriented and they swim up the surface and end up in the shore.
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u/b-monster666 21d ago
Japanese folklore apparently is that oarfish washing up on the beach is often a bad omen.
However, considering things like earthquakes and tsunamis can disturb them and drive them from their natural habitat, it's probably not 100% superstition. This one could be dying, or in a couple weeks, wherever they are will be hit by a tsunami.
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u/Extension_Shallot679 21d ago
Yes the Japanese believe Oarfish washing up on shore is an omen for Earthquakes and tsunamis. And I always say, if anyone knows what the fuck they're talking about when it comes to earthquakes and tsunamis, it's the Japanese.
They're also believed to be messengers of the dragon god Ryujin but that's mostly unrelated.
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u/Pretzellogicguy 21d ago
Just curious- are they normally vertical like that?
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21d ago
I don't know much about oarfish normal behavior, what I described is how deep sea creatures usually end up in the surface.
But yeah, they usually swim like that, the why they do that? Good question, some scientists believe they hunt for prey like that, that they can spot the prey silhouette easily like that and swim very slowly using the dorsal fins.
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u/DogPrestidigitator 21d ago
Things that live above, sink down to die
Things that live below, rise up to die
This is some William Blake stuff here, people!
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u/LazyLich 21d ago
deep sea creature
that explains the circular chunks taken out of it lmao
Edit: cookie-cutter shark, I'm assuming.
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u/rynbaskets 21d ago
We have a saying in Japan that there will be an earthquake soon if an oarfish comes to surface. Not sure if it’s true, though.
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u/rajrdajr 21d ago
Those holes in its back don't look quite compatible with long life.
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u/Donny_Krugerson 21d ago
It is, yeah. Those holes on the side are cookie-cutter shark bites. It's in a lot of pain, and probably bleeding out.
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u/RogerSchmoger 20d ago
Man I had to scroll quite a bit for the comment, sheeeesh. Glad I found it. I'm curious about the holes too. Yikes
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u/MobileCattleStable 21d ago
I hate to be the Debby Downer, but as much as it is special to witness an oarfish... This one is very much dying and probably died not even an hour after the film. Those holes indicate severe infection
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u/Sawgwa 21d ago
Unless your Steve Irwin, "Nevah approach a wild animal" while he is approaching a wild animal. "Nevah touch a wild animal, you'll stress them out" while he is grabbing said wild animal.
I agree, leave the wild life alone. Even feeding them can disrupt their life cycle. At least on some coastal areas they press everyone to feed frozen peas and carrots to the fish so everyone is not feeding them crappy white bread. Minor improvement.
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u/Gavin_McShooter_ 21d ago
Had a guy like this on my dive boat in an offshore trip in Belize. Kinda wish we left him out there. I was surprised that moron even knew how to swim.
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u/IGargleGarlic 21d ago
Ever been snorkeling in Hawaii? You arent supposed to touch sea turtles, but any time there is one people go out and try to touch it.
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u/PloppyPants9000 21d ago
yeah, I learned this the hard way when my knee accidentally brushed some coral and when I put my hand down on the sea floor to push myself up. I learned you can get mild stings from live coral, similar to touching a jelly fish. The ocean is not your home, so when visiting the homes of others, be a good guest by not touching anything! Look, but dont touch!
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u/drillgorg 22d ago
No need to add armor over those holes, add armor in the spots with no holes because those fish never came back.
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u/CPTKickass 22d ago
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u/theDataPiano 21d ago
For the interested: "Survivorship Bias"
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u/ExternalCaptain2714 21d ago
I recently learned that this revelation never happened and that military implications of survivor bias was common knowledge by all armies at the time (including the Italian army, the author couldn't help but emphasise).
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u/Deaffin 21d ago
I always assume a little story people tell with a lesson at the end like that is just somebody's attempt to come up with a practical demonstration for a principle because people take in information better that way.
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u/grae_n 21d ago
For a debunk article, this is a little slim on references.
Abraham Wald did use number of hits to calculate probability of survival in A Method of Estimating Plane Vulnerability Based on Damage of Survivors on page 64
Abraham Wald didn't invent survivor bias. Rather he used the lack of information as information. The reason why he was calculating "probability of a plane of being downed by the i-th hit" was too obtain information about the downed planes.
Lots of the stories do misrepresent what happened, but to say the story never happened also doesn't feel right.
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u/ExternalCaptain2714 21d ago
I think what specifically didn't happen is that derp soldiers with blank stares decided to armor the places with the bullet holes but a clever academic saved the day by slowly explaining the basics to them.
Otherwise obviously nobody denies that Wald was a sharp guy who improved the state of the art, no doubt about it.
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u/grae_n 21d ago
It is true, every iteration of this story the soldiers get stupider and Wald gets more smug.
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u/AttackSlax 22d ago edited 22d ago
Yes, stats. But to follow your survivorship case literally here, this deepwater fish is so far up in the ocean that it's the equivalent of a crash. Being at its correct depth in the deep ocean would be the successful return to base/landing. So, in fact, add armor to the holes on this fish....
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u/josuhataylor 22d ago
This is either an alien… Oarfish
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u/leokz145 21d ago
It’s actually a ribbonfish aka king-of-the-salmon fish. It doesn’t have the oarfish’s distinct red dorsal fin.
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u/jackieboy1230 22d ago
What are the circular divots?
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u/cmacchelsea 22d ago
I know that cookiecutter sharks leave bite marks just like these. Just checked online and both oarfish and cookiecutter sharks live at depth so that might be what these divots are.
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u/bwoods519 22d ago
I… I thought for sure this was a redditor joke, and a relatively funny one at that.
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u/cmacchelsea 22d ago
LOL…I remember when I learned about cookiecutter sharks, too, and thinking there was no end to how strange nature can be. And being pleased at our brains’ capacity to bestow wonderful names on things!
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u/jirski 22d ago
Did you also learn about them watching octonauts with your kids
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u/DSquariusGreeneJR 21d ago
How about that toad that was on here a few days ago that lays babies in its back or some fish that changes gender at will and fertilizes its own eggs(? I can’t remember if that’s actually happens or not)
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u/remote_001 21d ago
You aren’t too far off with Reddit haha.
I just found this
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u/bwoods519 21d ago edited 20d ago
Lmao. Did you know there is a sub specifically for identifying cookie cutters? It was recommended to me for so long and I don’t know why.
ETA: link, since a couple people were asking r/whatismycookiecutter
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u/ytrfhki 21d ago
“I invented a device, called Burger on the Go. It allows you to obtain six regular sized fishburgers, or twelve sliders, from an oarfish without killing the animal.”
- Cookiecutter shark
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u/NutsBruv 22d ago
probably bites from a cookie cutter shark
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u/RaLaZa 22d ago
Such a cute name for something that takes out a chunk of your flesh.
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u/Killboypowerhed 22d ago
Speed holes. They make the fish go faster
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u/fuggerdug 22d ago
I really think you should buy this fish.
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u/Jackal000 22d ago
Don't fuckin touch it with your bare ungloved hands.
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u/Male_Lead 22d ago
Honest question, not touching wild animal aside, is there any reason you add " with bare hands"?
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u/pridejoker 22d ago edited 21d ago
Poisonous secretions, microscopic barbs, attack reflexes, biting, unpredictable reactions.. I don't know man, anything with a mouth can bite.. Besides, what part of" It's a wild animal" isn't good enough of an explanation for you? Do you have a private physician on shore ready to save you if something does happen?
Edit: apologies. it's Saturday morning and I'm not medicated.
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u/Male_Lead 22d ago
It's a fish I know nothing about, so i took it as an opportunity to learn if this particular fish cause something if touched with bare hands.
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u/Raigne86 21d ago
There's also animals who are adversely affected by touching them with bare hands, such as amphibians that breath through their skin or butterflies and moths where it damages their ability to fly. Even in r/whatisthisthing I am amazed by people's response to immediately touch a thing when you have no idea if doing so could make you sick or kill you.
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u/eso_ashiru 21d ago
It’s also bad for the fish. A lot of fish are covered in antimicrobial membranes to protect them from parasites and touching them disrupts that and can lead to infection.
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u/juggheadjones 21d ago
Next time you should be more condescending and rude when you answer someone's question
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u/DifficultyKlutzy5845 21d ago
Yeesh, we’re just trying to learn.. could have stopped after the first sentence.
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u/MinxyMyrnaMinkoff 22d ago
It’s not a good idea to touch any wild animal, but there’s little risk to the oarfish here, if they are that depth in the ocean, they are already dying, right?
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u/Jackal000 22d ago
Not really.. I've seen multiple oarfish documentaries. They tend to come to the surface with multiple oarfishes sometimes. I don't know why tho.
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u/iswallowedafrog 22d ago
TIL there are orefish documentaries hmu pls
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u/Jackal000 22d ago
River monsters has a episode and national geographic also has a couple of docus.
And ofc almost every weird creature has its own documentary. Or at least a section in it. In fact it's a science. Biology....
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u/RamenNoodleNoose 22d ago
Who downvotes what appears to be helpful information with no explanation?
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u/undeadmanana 22d ago
They didn't offer an explanation, they said they've watched multiple oarfish documentaries and they come to the surface but they don't know why. They didn't listen.
The oarfish come to the surface when they're dying because they're losing the inability to control buoyancy and maintain depth.
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u/Digi_Dingo 22d ago
Most of reddit, sadly
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u/Bulky-Internal8579 22d ago
[downvotes furiously and yells for mom to make another hot pocket]
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u/FazeRN 22d ago
Don't oarfish only come up right before a major catastrophe?
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u/Ericstingray64 22d ago
Old sailors tale and superstition but, very strange coincidences with finding them on the beach.
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u/SophiaRaine69420 21d ago
Last year multiple oarfish washed ashore within 72 hours of an earthquake happening. Not a little barely there Richter scale nothingness that happens all the time, like big 5+ earthquakes
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u/SoySauceandMothra 21d ago
Not taking a shot at you, but as a native Californian, I'm always a little amused at people reacting to a "5+ earthquake." Around these parts, those are barely worth checking your phone to see if it was an earthquake or a big truck driving by. 😎
Now, a 6+... that's gonna get our attention 'cause that's when shit starts to break around here. 🤨
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u/roanfox 21d ago
Being raised in Chile I share the sentiment, a little higher perhaps, 6.5 to get our attention
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u/itsalwaysblue 21d ago
Yes and they have been coming up A LOT RECENTLY. The first one ever seen alive was only recorded in 2001 by a camera on a buoy.
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u/Capable-Magician-418 22d ago
Which fish is this?
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u/hzard2401 22d ago
Oarfish
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u/Capable-Magician-418 22d ago
Is it very rare to find it?
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u/NachoNachoDan 22d ago
On land, absolutely
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u/Cool-Tap-391 22d ago
Was gonna say, I'd swear iv seen several videos in the last month. Doesn't seem so rare. Or something bad is happening in the deep ocean.
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u/TwpMun 22d ago
It is regarded as a bad omen to see them, they are known as Doomsday fish and seeing them is considered a warning that a tsunami, earthquake or generaly something really bad is going to happen
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u/treasurrrrre 21d ago
It’s 2025, of course the Doomsday Fishes are coming though. That would track cause it’s been feeling pretty doomsdayish lately.
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u/NachoNachoDan 22d ago
Something bad is 100% happening in the deep ocean. Whether it’s related to this or not I do not know.
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u/Cool-Tap-391 22d ago
I know deep ocean sediment release of frozen methane is a big red flag.
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u/Shortsleevedpant 22d ago
It’s a deep sea fish and very rare to be encountered in person. It really shouldn’t even be that close to the surface so it might be distressed.
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u/Capable-Magician-418 22d ago
Thanks for the explanation. It looks quite unique with that vertical pose.
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u/Grif_the_Crit 21d ago edited 21d ago
They're a deeper sea fish
What I mean is that they usually live in areas where light is so scarce to no longer even present that no light, not even the light from the sun, can be seen.
This usually leads to fish either naturally glowing to either attract other fish or other such, or losing all sight and usually color due to both the lack of need and lack of sunlight.
It's been a little bit since I looked at the different levels of the ocean and what typos of fish reside in what levels, so if I missed something I'd appreciate a correction.
Edit: Oarfish usually reside in the Twilight Zone while cookiecutter sharks usually reside below that, but the latter goes up at night to hunt.
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u/leokz145 21d ago
It’s actually a ribbonfish aka king-of-the-salmon fish. It doesn’t have the oarfish’s distinct red dorsal fin.
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u/AceTheProtogen 21d ago
The people saying oarfish are only somewhat correct, while it is related this is a fish known as “king of the salmon”
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u/booshie 22d ago
Don’t touch wild animals. That shouldn’t have to be said.
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u/bry8eyes 21d ago
Apparently not these days, more than half the posts some idiot is touching it/squishing it 🤦♀️
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u/OldBob10 22d ago
You may find yourself
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u/Sisyphac 22d ago
Why is there always a desire for people to touch things that obviously don’t belong to them?
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u/SnooPandas1899 21d ago
we use hands to explore, just like shark use their teeth.
curiosity is still an animal instinct.
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u/Sisyphac 21d ago
Humans are distinct from other animals in that they create a morality system with expectations. So a person like this is being judged by my morality as being an idiot. Saying this person is more like a mammal doesn’t excuse my morality.
If it isn’t yours and you don’t have permission don’t touch things.
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u/AtlasMurphyUnderfoot 21d ago
Why do humans have to effing touch everything? Leave it alone.
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u/Cardboard_Chef 22d ago
Why do we feel the need to touch anything and everything? "Oh this might melt my DNA, but hey, totally worth it!"
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u/jondoeca 22d ago
Looks like a living mylar balloon
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u/maronicSea 21d ago
From a distance it would be camouflaged by the brightness of the surface especially if something was coming up from beneath it. Pretty cool
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u/shoppingstyleandus 22d ago
Humans, live and let live. They are not used to of our phony shit.
The amount of posts and videos we are seeing these days where humans are not letting other beings live…
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u/CosmicTyrannosaurus 22d ago
It's the 3rd deep sea fish coming to the surface in 2 months. What's happening down there?
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u/bodhiseppuku 22d ago
Do all oar fish have holes in the middle? Or is this an injury?
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u/idahononono 21d ago
Ok, since we are discussing never touch the wildlife rules, I have to share one of my favorite stories! In high school our marine biology teacher was pretty legit. He did some dives with famous folks like Jacque Cousteau and the like.
He studied cone snails for research and was the first person ever to document a cone snail sting live to his finger; all because he broke the “don’t touch the wildlife” rule. Luckily it didn’t pierce his calloused hand far enough to deliver any venom, but he said he had to change wetsuits afterwards! He would bring the photo all zoomed in of a little bitty but potentially deadly barb stick in his finger. Although he did end up with a cone snail named after him despite this debacle.
Even when you’re an expert, no touchy the wildlife lest they touch you back. Thanks for this info as a youth Mr. Kerstitch!
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u/qualityvote2 22d ago edited 21d ago
Welcome to, I bet you will r/BeAmazed !
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