{"id":931228,"date":"2026-05-01T18:28:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T18:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/931228\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T18:28:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T18:28:36","slug":"rare-fish-with-links-to-doomsday-lore-returned-to-sea-after-washing-up-in-co-clare-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/931228\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare fish with links to doomsday lore returned to sea after washing up in Co Clare \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A rare deep\u2011sea fish often linked to impending doom was saved after washing up on a Co Clare<\/a> beach this week. <\/p>\n

The oarfish, a long, ribbon\u2011like creature, was found on Tuesday evening on Fanore beach by a group of Brazilian<\/a> visitors out enjoying the sunset. <\/p>\n

Guilherme Dantas de Oliveira (24), who lives in Gort, Co Galway<\/a>, said he and a friend were running on the empty beach and decided to put their feet in the water to check the temperature. <\/p>\n

They looked into the water and \u201csaw something shining very brightly\u201d that appeared to be stuck, he said. <\/p>\n

They first thought it might be a \u201cpiece of plastic\u201d, but on closer inspection realised it was a fish, some 2.5m in length and with \u201cred parts\u201d they had never seen before. <\/p>\n

The friends feared it might be an electric eel and were reluctant to touch it. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know if it would shock us or not. It was kind of gelatinous. But we kept touching it and it was still alive, moving,\u201d de Oliveira said. <\/p>\n

Beatriz Oliveira de Souza (34), who was filming the scene, said she was fascinated by the \u201cbeautiful\u201d fish and her only goal was to save it. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe joked and gave the fish a name,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s that movie, Saving Private Ryan. It\u2019s the Saving of the Eel Ryan.\u201d <\/p>\n

De Oliveira added: \u201cThe fish couldn\u2019t get into the water because it\u2019s a deepwater fish. It doesn\u2019t swim horizontally, it swims vertically. So it didn\u2019t have any strength … and the tide was very strong. So we tried to drag it into the water.\u201d <\/p>\n

De Souza said the weak fish managed to start swimming slowly while the friends cheered: \u201cGo Ryan, go. Go Ryan, go. Be free.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ryan the oarfish has not been seen on the shore since, but videos of the rescue posted on social media have received thousands of views, many noting the species having links in some cultures to doomsday. \u201cIt\u2019s not an eel. Ryan came to bring the end of the world,\u201d said one commenter. <\/p>\n

Oarfish can grow to several metres in length and live in deep waters, far from the shore. The myth is associated with a belief that seeing one near the sea surface or washed ashore is a sign that an earthquake, tsunami or other disaster is coming. In Japan, it is known as the \u201cmessenger from the sea god\u2019s palace\u201d due to its apocalyptic reputation. <\/p>\n

Oarfish strandings are extremely rare in Ireland, with Declan Quigley, biologist with the Sea\u2011Fisheries Protection Authority, saying there was \u201conly one confirmed stranding from Irish waters\u201d which was in the Waterford estuary in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are only 60 records in Europe since 1740,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very exciting find, and the fact it was alive and it was in really good condition, suggests that it had recently stranded.\u201d <\/p>\n

Despite the negative myths about the fish, the Brazilian friends were delighted to have helped Ryan during his time of need. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe said if it were a bad message, there would be no more danger because we returned it to the sea,\u201d said De Souza.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Legal or illegal, Ireland\u2019s emissions failure will damage the worldOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rare deep\u2011sea fish often linked to impending doom was saved after washing up on a Co Clare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3847],"tags":[2106,69499,2311,1295,70,16,15,1717],"class_list":["post-931228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-brazil","tag-clare","tag-climate-change","tag-galway","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116500739141374732","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}