There was a wave of panic on social media in Japan after several so-called herring kings were discovered several days ago in shallow water near the coast in Toyama Prefecture.
One of the fish was especially large, reaching over 4 meters in length. Below is her photo.
The herring king or belt fish can reach a length of 3.5 meters or more and lives at a depth of 500-1000 meters, and in shallow water it falls in very rare cases, either during severe storms, or, as it is believed in Japan, before a strong earthquake, which often causes an equally strong tsunami - a destructive wave.
In Japan, the disastrous 2011 tsunami in the Tohoku region, which killed 19 thousand people, is still well remembered. And a few days before him, 20 herring kings were found washed ashore in the same region.
Since then, every appearance of the herring king on the shore or close to the shore is perceived as a sign of a future earthquake. especially when the fish is not one, but several at once, as in the new case.
Scientists strongly doubt that the belt fish can sense seismic activity and "predict" earthquakes and tsunamis, but they cannot compete with the people's faith in omens. Especially when these signs really work with frightening consistency.
So two dead giant (more than 4 meters) belt fish were discovered on August 8, 2017 in the Philippines, just a day before the 6.6-magnitude earthquake on the island of Luzon. It is not for nothing that in Japanese folklore the fish belt is also called "the messenger from the palace of the sea god."
Promotional video:
Belt fish found in the Philippines in August 2017, the day before the earthquake.
In addition, belt fish live in regions where earthquakes often occur, since there are underground fault lines.
Rachel Grant, professor of biology at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, says it is "theoretically possible" that beltfish thrown into shallow waters could signal an imminent earthquake.
Nevertheless, Japanese seismologist Shigeo Aramaki, a professor at the University of Tokyo, is sure that there is no fresh threat of an earthquake or tsunami and that social media users are simply "making noise out of nothing."