What’s an Oarfish you may ask? Here’s what they look like.

Oarfish are rare deep-water filter feeders that live at depths of 600-3000ft. and grow as long as 36-feet. Sometimes, they get beached along the shoreline. I’ve had two encounters where I swam each fish out to sea, as documented in Oarfish Rescue (Spanish: Recate de un pez remo) and Swimming with Oarfish (Spanish: Nadando con los peces remo). In both, the behavior of this fish is on full display as it responds to and navigates a shallow water environment. Very little is known about this fish, but by observing their behavior in these videos, we learn more about them, and can attempt to answer the most common, basic question at the center of the great mystery surrounding this interesting, one-of-a-kind fish; “Why do Oarfish get stranded on our beaches?”
A third video How to Rescue an Oarfish (Spanish: Cómo recatar un pez remo) instructs how to save an Oarfish without harming it, drawing on experience, using footage from two rescues, introducing how/where to report an Oarfish beaching. At the end, see photos of a beaching that took place 21-years ago in El Sargento when a 14.5 foot Oarfish landed on the very same beach where the aforementioned videos were filmed.
Oarfish videos in Spanish:
Here’s the link to a playlist of all videos in English and Spanish: Entire Playlist-Oarfish Rescue Series – English and Spanish.
Here are two poster links in Spanish and English announcing “The Oarfish Beaching Awareness Project” whose goal it is assist those who want to help beached Oarfish, and to provide information on how/where to report stranded Oarfish. This data will help us determine the location and frequency of Oarfish beachings, and help us learn more about this amazing fish.
We received our first 2025 Oarfish beaching report, when a stranded Oarfish died along La Ventana Bay. See the report below. A thank you to Bruce Watts for taking the photo!

It is my hope that the learning we do together will somehow benefit this unique and special deep-water fish.
Thank you, William Ihne – Oarfish Beaching Awareness Project Coordinator.
To report a beaching: 52 612 204 5156 WhatsApp, desertplayer@hotmail.com