This Creature’s Bizarre, and That’s Not Just a Fish Story : Marine mystery: Rarely seen and evil looking, the longnose lancetfish pops up as latest in series of strange sea happenings.

A rare, sinister-looking fish with long fangs, a sail-like fin and an extremely slender frame washed up dead Tuesday at Crystal Cove State Park, the latest in a series of strange marine discoveries off Southern California that have puzzled biologists.

The longnose lancetfish--about 4 feet long and only a few inches wide--was found by Laurie Gabriel on her daily, pre-dawn walk on the beach. With its bizarre dorsal fin, long, fragile skeleton and dagger-like teeth, it resembles no other fish.

“It was just incredible,” said Gabriel, a Crystal Cove resident. “The mouth looks like a moray eel. But it was entirely different, so long and slender. And then you pick up the fin and see that it looks like a sailfish. I had no idea what it was. I have never seen anything that strange and I do a lot of fishing.”

Officials with the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural Science say the deep-water species, one of the largest fish in the sea other than sharks, is usually found far offshore in tropical areas.

“It’s a rare, deep-sea fish that only once in a while washes up or is caught in a halibut line,” said Camm Swift, associate curator of fishes at the Los Angeles museum.

The fish found Tuesday did not look like it had been hooked or netted. Its cause of death was unknown.

Scientists would like to empty the lancetfish’s stomach so they can determine what depth it inhabits and what other types of life forms swim there. The species has been known to live in waters as deep as 6,000 feet.

One of the more remarkable features of the fish, a predator known for its voracious appetite, is that its diameter is only a few inches.

“Despite its sinister look, it’s a very delicate fish,” Swift said. “If it bit into your arm, it would probably break all the bones in its head. It has almost paper-thin bones.”

The fragile skeleton probably evolved so that the fish could survive in deep, high-pressure ocean waters, he said.

The silvery, iridescent fish can be found throughout the deep Pacific but mostly between Colombia and Chile and off Hawaii. The longest specimen on record is 5 feet, 3 inches and weighs almost 10 pounds.

Marine scientists are at a loss to explain the series of rare fish and other marine species found off Southern California this year. Thousands of giant squid washed up on beaches near San Onofre, local waters have been holding an unusual harvest of warm-water species like yellowfin tuna and dorado, and a starfish usually found in tropical waters off Peru was spotted off Catalina Island.

Also, in late October, a rare megamouth shark was caught in a fisherman’s gill net 7 miles off Dana Point. After setting it free, scientists tracked it for two days with the help of a sonar device.

Scientists say the waters have been unusually warm off Southern California, which may account for some of the strange sightings. Some experts believe that the warm temperatures may signal the onset of an El Nino, a Pacific Ocean phenomenon that brings on severe weather changes including devastating storms. Others speculate that the warming could be caused by a less dramatic change in ocean current or a shift in wind patterns.

“It could be something like an El Nino is developing,” Swift said. “If it really happens, there will be a whole influx of bizarre things that happen.”

Gabriel is no scientist, but during daily walks along the shore she has noticed strange occurrences, too, especially in the past few days when unusually high and low tides have occurred.

“The ocean has been kind of a little weird lately. It looks like it’s been coughing up things,” said Gabriel, a retiree who has lived at the state beach for 30 years. “We found two whole lobsters this morning that were alive. I don’t know what it means, but it really has been an unusual moon.”

Dudley Varner, executive director of Orange County’s Museum of Natural History and Science in Newport Beach, collected the lancetfish from Gabriel and is preserving it, but he said that his museum has no fish expertise, so he may hand it over to the Los Angeles museum.

Seven specimens are in the Los Angeles museum, but all are smaller than the one that washed up Tuesday.

THE LONGNOSE LANCETFISH

* The longnose lancetfish is a predatory, deep-sea fish with a long, slender body and large, sail-like dorsal fin. It has long, dagger-like teeth in the roof of its mouth.

* The fish is one of the largest found in the deep sea, growing to almost seven feet. It is mostly iridescent with brown or black fins.

* It can be found almost worldwide in temperate and tropical seas. It is rarely encountered; when it has been spotted, it has washed up on beaches or has been caught on long halibut fishing lines or trolling gear.

* Lancetfish swim in waters from near surface to depths of 6,000 feet.

Source: “Peterson Field Guides’ Pacific Coast Fishes”