San Diego, CA
Snorkelers found a rare deep-sea fish off La Jolla. It took ‘a community effort’ to haul it to shore to study.
Emily Miller and her friends had planned for a relaxing day of kayaking in La Jolla last weekend — a reunion of sorts for the former roommates.
But when they reached La Jolla Cove, the kayakers — most of whom are also marine researchers — found themselves with a bit of a “fish emergency” on their hands, Miller said.
Nearby snorkelers had found a roughly 12-foot dead oarfish, a rare species of deep-sea fish, lying in the seagrass at the cove. This discovery last Saturday was significant; fewer than two dozen oarfish have washed up in California since 1901, according to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
The oarfish, which can grow to be around 30 feet long, is often described as a sea serpent and has a reputation as a predictor of natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis, though this myth was debunked years ago.
While the snorkelers examined the unique fish, Miller — a research associate at California Sea Grant and a former commercial fisheries observer — knew that such a rare species washing up in San Diego likely warranted closer scientific analysis. In a lab, scientists can analyze the fish’s gills and body composition to better understand its lifestyle as well as its relationship with the rest of the ocean.
“I jumped in the water and … pushed it up to the surface to get a better look,” she said.
With her friends supporting the fish, Miller threw herself over her kayak, half in the water, and began making some calls — including one to Ben Frable, the collection manager of fishes at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who helped her notify the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center and local lifeguards.
After determining that the fish could be removed from the marine protected area, it was decided that the kayakers would bring the fish back to shore with them — an effort more easily said than done.
“Our small group had the mission of getting this unwieldy animal to the kayak launch,” Miller said. They struggled to orient the fish onto the kayaks, not wanting to damage the specimen, still mostly intact.
They had all but resigned themselves to swimming back to shore with their heavy haul when two passing paddleboarders offered to help. Their board was an ideal flat surface for carrying the ribbon-like oarfish.
“It was a community effort to get a rare specimen to scientists — and taking all the steps to make sure all the appropriate authorities were contacted,” Miller said. “It was a beautiful example of teamwork.”
The adult male oarfish has spent the last week at the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center. On Friday, scientists conducted a necropsy to determine a cause of death.
It still wasn’t clear why the fish died. There was no evidence of trauma. But the researchers also took gill and genetic samples, along with muscle samples, which can show what kinds of isotopes are stored in the body.
“They’re not like an apex predator … like a tuna or a shark or a dolphin,” Frable explained. “But knowing where they are in this food web, especially here in California, can help us really fill out our understanding of how these kinds of things, like carbon and nitrogen, cycle in the open ocean off the coast.”
After the necropsy, Frable will preserve the fish at the Scripps Marine Vertebrate Collection, where there are six other oarfish, along with the body parts of a few others.
Oarfish live in the deep sea and can be found at depths of as great as 3,000 feet, though it’s more common for them to live around 600 feet below the surface.
It’s rare for them to wash up in California. But Southern California can be a “lucky spot” to see deep-sea fish in general, Frable said, given its proximity to many underwater canyons that make for deep-sea conditions much closer to the shore.
This fish didn’t appear to have been scavenged by other marine animals, such as sea lions or sharks, he points out — a finding that aligns with some other oarfish that have washed up. “It may just be that their skin’s a little too tough and not worth it, or maybe they just don’t taste good,” he speculates, though more research is needed on the subject.
“It’s one of these great examples of all these different things that we still don’t really know about these organisms,” Frable said. “And one of the reasons why, when we get to encounter them like this, there’s so much we can learn.”
Originally Published:
Beauty and wellness are a staple of American culture. Thousands of citizens visit our spas and salons throughout the United States for critical, everyday grooming services they rely on. However, if the U.S. Department of Education has its way, Americans could soon have trouble finding qualified professionals to perform these traditional self-care rituals.
The department is proposing a new rule that would end access to many professional beauty programs — an important and growing trade. The department also is mistakenly labeling professional beauty programs as “low-value programs,” even though these programs offer students almost immediate employment opportunities providing professionals a flexible work-life balance.
Driven by high demand for skincare and hair services, there are currently more than 1.4 million professionals throughout the U.S. who work in the professional beauty industry. The professional beauty and wellness industry’s economic trajectory tells a story of continued and sustained growth. Growing at an annual rate of 7% from 2022 to 2024, according to McKinsey & Co., the United States ranks among the 10 fastest-growing wellness markets worldwide.
But even a robust and resilient industry like ours cannot overcome bad policy decisions that threaten an entire industry. Congress never included an accountability metric for certificate programs like cosmetology or massage therapy programs in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act does contain an accountability metric called “Do No Harm,” which is designed to keep colleges and universities that offer degree programs or graduate-level certificates accountable to the American people.
The accountability metric for degree programs, when applied to certificate programs, will eliminate opportunities for Americans to receive federal student aid, including Pell Grants, to unlock a career in cosmetology or massage therapy. The Department of Education has acknowledged using the Do No Harm provision as an accountability metric will have a severe negative impact on the cosmetology and massage schools nationwide, and determined that 92% of accredited cosmetology and massage therapy schools eventually will lose access to all federal student aid, including Pell Grants, for their students and most likely will be forced to close in the near future.
The one saving grace is that the department has not finalized its proposed rule, and it is not too late for the public to tell the department that this rule does not fit the bill for professional beauty students and schools. Comments must be received on or by May 20. You can submit your comments on the Accountability in Higher Education and Access through Demand-driven Workforce Pell (AHEAD) rule through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at regulations.gov/commenton/ED-2026-OPE-0100-0001. The department will not accept comments submitted by fax or by email or comments submitted after the comment period closes.
Any new rule adopted by the agency needs to account for the overall demographic and work-life balance goals of students and the professional beauty industry. These students and future small business owners deserve the same opportunities as students pursuing careers in other disciplines and fields.
Lynch is the owner and chief executive officer of the Poway-based Bellus Academy and the founding chair of the nonprofit Beauty Changes Lives, which awards nearly $500,000 in scholarships annually.
San Diego, CA
San Diego health officials monitor hantavirus situation as cruise ship passengers return to U.S.
SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — American passengers from a cruise ship hit with a hantavirus outbreak are back in the United States.
San Diego County health officials say they are monitoring the situation and there is no need for panic.
“The risk to Californians is really low and especially here in San Diego. Since the year 2000, we’ve only had 4 cases of hantavirus and the majority of those were in travel related cases so not even acquired here locally,” Ankita Kadakia, deputy public health officer for the County of San Diego, said.
According to the CDC, hantavirus is spread through contact with infected rodents.
“The virus can be in their saliva, feces or droppings,” Kadakia said.
San Diego County does see cases of rodents infected with hantavirus, but the strain seen locally is not the same strain connected to the cruise ship outbreak.
“The vast majority of strains of hantavirus are mouse or animal to human transmission. Not human to human transmission. So the Andes strain, which is found in Argentina, there is evidence that there is human to human transmission,” Dr. Ahmed Salem, a pulmonologist at Sharp Memorial Hospital, said.
Salem treated hantavirus during the 2012 Yosemite National Park outbreak.
“One of the ways you die from hantavirus is you get a collapse of your cardiac system and your pulmonary system and you have to go on something called ECMO. It’s one of the most aggressive forms of life support that you can do. So I do remember that case, and unfortunately, that person passed away,” Salem said.
There is currently no cure or vaccine for hantavirus. Health officials stress that for those who were not on the cruise ship, the risk of contracting the virus remains low.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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