Giant Oarfish

The giant oarfish (Regalecus glesne), also known as a ribbon fish, is considered to be the world's largest bony fish. This means they have a skeleton made of bone, like humans, instead of cartilage, like sharks and stingrays. The oarfish can be as long as 56 feet long and can weigh up to 600 pounds! That's a lot of fish! The oarfish is found deep in the oceans around 3,300 feet, and very seldom seen. Most information that scientist has come from dead or dying fish that float to the surface or wash ashore. They made news last year when two of the fish washed ashore in October within a week. 

The oarfish may be big, but it only eats plankton, which are very small crustaceans. They have relatively small toothless mouths and catch food through structures called gill rackers that act similar to the baleen in whales. As water goes through the gill rackers, small creatures get stuck and become a meal. The oarfish does not have scales on it's body, making them very fleshy and sustainable to injuries at the surface. 

Oarfish move like other fish, but also have the ability to hover vertically in the water by movements with their dorsal fin, which is the fin located at the top of their body. This allows them to easily move forward and backward. 

Oarfish were discovered over 200 years ago in 1772. Sightings of ones floating on the surface with their snake like appearance were often thought to be sea serpents. People who have tried eating an oarfish say it tastes like goo with the texture of gelatin. So, if you have tasted goo, you've tasted an oarfish.

Here is a good video of a living giant oarfish!

Here is one of your own to color!

Source: 5 Surprising Facts About the Oarfish That Has Been  Washing Up on Beaches, 2013, Brian Clark Howard, National Geographic, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131022-giant-oarfish-facts-sea-serpents/, accessed Jan. 11, 2014.