Rarely seen 'doomsday' oarfish found washed up in Tasmania

At first it looked like a great silver streak on the sand. An oarfish, fantastically long and rarely seen, had washed up on Tasmania's rugged west coast.

- Petra Stock

Oarfish, one of the ocean's longest fish, are astonishing creatures that grow up to 8 metres long. Nicknamed the "king of herrings" or more unkindly the "doomsday fish", some legends and stories consider the animals to be harbingers of disaster.

Sybil Robertson made the discovery while walking on Ocean Beach, near Strahan, on Monday.

"When I go out there, I'm the only person on the beach," she said. "It's really wild. There's nothing between here and Argentina."

She had walked in a different direction to usual and noticed a group of sea eagles inspecting the fish, which she estimated was about 3 metres long, on the sand.

"I'm five foot nine, and I've got a reasonable stride, [it was] a good three-and-a-bit paces," she said. "It was fantastic. I just knew it was something unusual and weird."