Divers stumbled upon a huge Doomsday fish cut by a shark off the coast of Zhuifan. Divers even discovered Regalecus russelii, a member of the girdle fish family, also known as herring. They have a ribbon or belt-like body and can exceed nine meters in length.

“Apparently the fish was dying, so it swam in shallow water,” said diving instructor Wang Cheng-Ru.

Large holes appear on the body of the fish – these are traces of an attack by a glowing Brazilian shark, which, according to experts, has the ability to bite pieces of meat and lives in warm ocean waters around the world.

Regalecus russelii is called the “Doomsday” fish according to Japanese mythology. If a herring, which usually lives at a depth of 200-1000 meters, comes to the surface (and sometimes washes ashore), this is a sure sign of an impending earthquake.

Just two years before the strongest earthquake and consequent tsunami that caused the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in 2011, dozens of such fish washed ashore.

But scientists do not confirm the fears. “There is no scientific evidence of a connection between herring and earthquakes, so I don’t think people should worry. These fish tend to surface when they are physically weak. Therefore, they are usually dead when found,” said a professor of ichthyology at Kagoshima University (Japan). Hiroyuki Motomura.