Oarfish | This Legendary Fish That Announces Tsunamis

In Japan, the Oarfish holds a significant title as "the messenger from the palace of the God of the sea." Its name, it is believed, originated from the observation that its appearance often coincided with earthquakes or tsunamis. However, an intriguing event occurred in 2011 when approximately 20 regalecs washed up on beaches in the region just before Japan was struck by the devastating Tohoku earthquake and the subsequent tsunami.

Likewise, in Chile, a peculiar occurrence took place before an 8.8 magnitude earthquake hit. Japanese fishermen had stumbled upon a dozen regalecs shortly before the seismic event occurred.

[bertrandloyer]

Hello, I am the director of this show shot in 2015 and take the opportunity to answer to some of the comments and questions. This film has been filmed in Japan ( for stranded animals) and in the Med sea, offshore my hometown Marseilles. We encountered SEVERAL oarfish which measured between 2 and 9 meters long and belong to the species Regalecus glesne.

Note that the original film was natively shot in UHD and will soon be available in this format with 5.1 surround sound. On a big screen, this would make a real difference. Indeed, this could be scary to dive at night in 2000m deep water, even if we mostly spent our time between the surface and 50 meter deep: we established strict safety protocol to avoid loosing our team members which included safety lights and deco-stops. Diving in this offshore location requires dead flat sea conditions where currents are at their minimum. On a windy day, the currents could be so strong that the massive buoy is dragged under the surface ! It took us 2 seasons ( mostly spring/ early summer during planktonic bloom) to be able to can all the footage you see in the show. If I was to shoot this show again, current advances in deep sea diving ROVs would bring another dimension to the story and could be able to film more behavior of this elusive fish.

To answer the question about the scariest moments, Roberto Rinaldi did have some pretty insane "drags" to the land of hyper pressures: while framing for the animal, he did not figure out how deep he was until his ears went difficult to compensate the 6 x atmospheric pressure that prevails 50 meters below the surface... then he gently returned back to the surface with several deco stops !

To answer other questions ( I have provided some other answers directly when asked for):

1) there is not a single CGI in this film (except for the MRI scanner which has been performed by a vet in Japan and produced a cloud of points); all the footage of the oarfish are live, in its natural environment

2) I am not an AI !

3) we are working on other factual projects with elusive deep-sea animals but we need a lot of expensive ressources to venture into the depths. The challenge is to capture natural behavior of animals which are used to perpetual darkness

4) the close caption issue will soon be adressed by the publisher of my film

5) we publish from time to time some samples of our work on our company (Saint Thomas Productions) social medias

6) our speciality is science, environment and wildlife factual films.

7) the original score of this film has not (yet) been released

8) we have used the imperial system for units, as the client (National Geographic Channels) requested it - we have a series of alternative metric takes with the same actor (James Faulkner): we will change this soon.

9) this film was shot on RED DRAGON cameras, in 5K to 6K, 16 bits, original format, as well in 3D stereo with 2x C400 Canon Cameras for an IMAX project which has not materialized

10) I have nothing to do with the "tsunami" hook created by the publisher. But such belief is indeed deeply anchored, albeit not scientific at all, in Japan.

[BugsHaveProtein]

"Fish do not know man, therefore do not fear him" is such a surprisingly raw quote

[MsMirthling]

to be honest, when I started watching this documentary I did not plan on watching it all the way through. It is quite late. Yet there wasn't a choice. This was beautiful. Thank you for all your work

[drowseefloof]

I clicked on this for a quick look because of the interesting title. After what I thought to be around 10-15 minutes, I realized I had actually watched over 40 minutes of this documentary completely hypnotized by the shots, narration and soundtrack. Great work.

[NTav]

This documentary is amazing, truly. I almost came to tears when the oar fish appeared when they were filming at night. So majestic and beautiful.

[Flex-xlty]

It's rare for a maritime documentary to offer so many new facts and insights in this wonderful world. Really a step forward in understanding a small part of the oceans mysteries

[flowers]

Not to flex but its in my Animal crossing museum

[Temptfree]

If not for the bravery and expertise of the divers, none of this would have been possible. Thank you for bringing such immense beauty and knowledge for many of us enjoying this video at home. It's truly fascinating, interesting and an eye opener.

[nathanware]

This was the most interesting and captivating documentary about *anything* that I've seen in a long time. The footage, especially of the biomass migrations, is just jaw-dropping. What a beautiful creature the Oarfish is. Thank you for braving the depths of the ocean to bring us this glimpse of the unknown!

[justbailey]

This is probably my most favorite sea lige documentary. All the data they got and they never once felt the need to catch one fish for scientific studies. Instead they spent months putting their own lives in danger to study and make this amazing documentary. Fantastic!

[____Liv____]

The Oarfish is such a majestic creature!!
Wow, this was such an amazing documentary! Beautiful cinematography and soundtrack. This might sound funny, but I though that everything about it was very calming and soothing, while keeping us very interested. I feel very relaxed after watching this.
Major respect for the divers & crew's dedication and patience, and to all of those so dedicated to study this beautiful creature!

[ckeilah]

When I studied marine biology in the 80s my teacher said that no one had ever seen a live oarfish (outside of "still alive but mostly dead" or "sea monsters"). Thanks for bringing me up to date on these weird creatures! :-)

[bobcatgaze]

It's amazing just how many dives were done in order to get less than an hour of footage, but the data is well worth it. Such a beautiful creature.

[tinglin]

This documentation is straight-up monumental. It has resolved a thousand-year-old mystery! I remember, even in 2010 or so, there weren't any live oarfish caught on camera. Then this documentation reveals so many incredible details about this mysterious marine animal all in one go, along with all the astonishing beautiful footages.

[nahaniyes]

I am obsessed with ocean life like nothing else. As I was watching this it gave me a great feeling of comfort that 49 million other people liked this video. And that's just the people who actually took the time to hit the like button.

[Techelettt]

Incredible. Nothing terrifies me more than deep ocean exploration. Congratulations on this amazing work.

[hiheeledsneakers]

Most beautifully done. I couldn't begin to imagine what this fish has to offer us without having the divers, scientists and filmmakers bringing it all together. Tyvm!

[Judith-hkif]

I am at awe of this incredible documentary: I usually stop watching fish docus after about 10min because I do not find them particularly inspiring. Here - I just got stuck and could not move away! Incredible documentary and so well done. Thank you!
Note almost a year later: Stumbled across this docu again - and got hooked again. Thank you!

[blackpoppymagazine]

That cross pose was one of the most incredible things ive ever seen! What a wonderful day that must have been to catch that on film! How extraordinary. Thank you for this incredible film. ❤

[setsuro.splice]

Now this is what i call a REAL documentary. Thank you! :D