Mysterious, Unseen Wonders

BRUCE  LICHT

The oarfish, scientifically known as Regalecus glesne, ranks as one of the most fascinating and breathtaking creations on Earth. This unusual fish, which many say is the inspiration for ancient sea serpent myths and terrifying sea monster legends, has intrigued human imaginations for centuries. (1), (2), (3)

First officially sighted in 1772, its long, flat, ribbon-like, tapering body ends in a fine point.(4) It can grow up to thirty-six feet with maximum published weights as much as six hundred pounds. The Guinness World Records recognizes the oarfish as the longest bony fish on Earth in modern times. It is largely considered to be inedible. Fishermen who on unusual occasions haul in oarfish usually throw them back, unable to sell the flabby, gelatinousmeat at market.

Its shimmering, silver to silvery-blue, scaleless body features a red dorsal fin running its entire length and some peculiar, elaborate, elongated fins that make it look like a mythical creature from a Dr. Seuss book. It is perfectly designed for filtering krill, plankton, crustaceans, and small squid by straining them carefully from the water using specially evolved gill rakers located inside its toothless mouth. These incredible creatures can be found dwelling far off the beaches in Southern California, south to Chile in the eastern Pacific Ocean, across the Atlantic Ocean, in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as recent uncommon sightings recorded in the Philippines.

Yet, what makes this remarkable creation so mysterious is that direct encounters with live oarfish remain exceedingly infrequent. Typically, the oarfish remains at great depths ranging from 656 to 3,280 feet below the surface. In fact, it was not until as recently as 2001 that a living oarfish was actually captured on film by the United States Navy.

This deep-water fish spends the majority of its concealed life far beneath the rolling ocean’s surface, inhabiting a quiet, pitch-black world far beyond the reach of sunlight. Because oarfish normally live in an extreme environment which humans can rarely visit, their presence is almost entirely unseen by our everyday eyes.

This hidden oddity offers a striking parallel to the spiritual realm. Even though the elusive oarfish has only been witnessed by a tiny handful of people throughout all of human history, one cannot make the case that it does not exist. The absence of widespread human sightings does not negate this biological reality.

In the same way, the theological fact that many people have a difficult time physically seeing or perceiving God, does not mean He does not exist. The divine, much like the magnificent oarfish residing in the shrouded, dark trenches of the ocean’s floor, is entirely independent of our limited human observation and fleeting perception points.

We do not need to thoroughly behold the veiled depths of the ocean or the vast expanse of space to know that there are wonders far beyond our comprehension. Obviously, existence can transcend human vision and imagination, reminding us to not rule out profound truths that subsist just beyond the interpretive horizon of our ordinary sight and current exploration.