Fun rerun: Columbia River’s Colossal Claude’s sea serpent cousins have been popping up in California.

An 18-foot deep-sea dwelling giant oarfish carcass was found off Catalina Island (tinyurl.com/oarfish18) fairly recently. It is pictured courtesy of the Catalina Island Marine Institute.

But the marine science community got another jolt when a second oarfish carcass, 14 feet long, washed up on a beach in Oceanside, California, Oct. 18.

The oarfish is the world’s longest bony fish, and can grow to 56 feet long and weigh up to 600 pounds. They don’t have scales or teeth, and you don’t want one for dinner, as they taste like “gelatinous goo.”

According to traditional Japanese belief, if oarfish start washing up on the beach, it may signal an impending earthquake. Kiyoshi Wadatsumi, an earthquake scientist, thinks because they live near the bottom of the ocean, and are “sensitive to the movements of active faults,” it’s probably true. (In One Ear, 11/1/2013)