A giant oarfish: Mirrored Harbinger of Earthquakes (Helen Sullivan) -- Oarfish swim vertically, moving up and down and side-to-side like a cursor.

 “These are unpredictable fish,” research biologist Milton Love told the New York Times 10 years ago. 

But in Japan, oarfish are considered highly predictable: they predict the future. 

See an oarfish, the story goes, and an earthquake will follow. In the months before Japan’s 2011 earthquake, one of the most powerful ever recorded, 20 oarfish were found on beaches. 

They’re known as “messengers from the sea god’s palace”, or jinja hime, “shrine princesses”.