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Rarely Seen Deep Sea Fish Found in California, Scientists Want to Know Why 

This image provided by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography shows a team of researchers and science-minded snorkelers working together to recover a dead oarfish from La Jolla Cove, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (Michael Wang/The Scripps Institution of Oceanography via AP)
This image provided by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography shows a team of researchers and science-minded snorkelers working together to recover a dead oarfish from La Jolla Cove, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (Michael Wang/The Scripps Institution of Oceanography via AP)
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Rarely Seen Deep Sea Fish Found in California, Scientists Want to Know Why 

This image provided by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography shows a team of researchers and science-minded snorkelers working together to recover a dead oarfish from La Jolla Cove, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (Michael Wang/The Scripps Institution of Oceanography via AP)
This image provided by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography shows a team of researchers and science-minded snorkelers working together to recover a dead oarfish from La Jolla Cove, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (Michael Wang/The Scripps Institution of Oceanography via AP)

A rarely seen deep sea fish resembling a serpent was found floating dead on the ocean surface off the San Diego coast and was brought ashore for study, marine experts said.

The silvery, 12-foot-long (3.6-meter) oarfish was found last weekend by a group of snorkelers and kayakers in La Jolla Cove, north of downtown San Diego, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography said in a statement.

It's only the 20th time an oarfish is known to have washed up in California since 1901, according to institution fish expert Ben Frable.

Scripps noted that oarfish have a mythical reputation as predictors of natural disasters or earthquakes, although no correlation has been proven.

Oarfish can grow longer than 20 feet (6 meters) and normally live in a deep part of the ocean called the mesopelagic zone, where light cannot reach, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Swimmers brought the La Jolla Cove oarfish to shore atop a paddleboard. It was then transferred to the bed of a pickup truck.

Scientists from NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center and Scripps planned a necropsy on Friday to try to determine the cause of death.

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Tiny South American Deer Debuts at New York City Zoo

This photo, provided by the Wildlife Conservation Society's Queens Zoo, shows a southern pudu fawn, one of the smallest deer species in the world, born at the zoo at about 2 pounds, June 21, 2024, in the Queens borough of New York. (Terria Clay/Wildlife Conservation Society's Queens Zoo via AP)
This photo, provided by the Wildlife Conservation Society's Queens Zoo, shows a southern pudu fawn, one of the smallest deer species in the world, born at the zoo at about 2 pounds, June 21, 2024, in the Queens borough of New York. (Terria Clay/Wildlife Conservation Society's Queens Zoo via AP)
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Tiny South American Deer Debuts at New York City Zoo

This photo, provided by the Wildlife Conservation Society's Queens Zoo, shows a southern pudu fawn, one of the smallest deer species in the world, born at the zoo at about 2 pounds, June 21, 2024, in the Queens borough of New York. (Terria Clay/Wildlife Conservation Society's Queens Zoo via AP)
This photo, provided by the Wildlife Conservation Society's Queens Zoo, shows a southern pudu fawn, one of the smallest deer species in the world, born at the zoo at about 2 pounds, June 21, 2024, in the Queens borough of New York. (Terria Clay/Wildlife Conservation Society's Queens Zoo via AP)

A tiny South American deer that will weigh only as much as a watermelon when fully grown is making its debut at the Queens Zoo in New York City.

The southern pudu fawn weighed just 2 pounds (just under 1 kilo) when it was born June 21, the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs New York City's zoos, said in a news release Thursday. It is expected to weigh 15 to 20 pounds (7 to 9 kilograms) in adulthood.

The southern pudu, one of the world's smallest deer species, is listed as near threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It is native to Chile and Argentina, where its population is decreasing because of factors including development and invasive species.

The Queens Zoo breeds southern pudus in collaboration with other zoos in an effort to maintain genetically diverse populations, the conservation society said. Eight pudu fawns have been born there since 2005.

The newborn fawn will share a Queens Zoo habitat with its parents. There are two more pudus at the conservation society's Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn.