Claim: An oarfish, also called the “doomsday fish” and viewed as a bad omen, has been sighted on Philippine shores, signaling a looming magnitude 8.2 earthquake.
Rating: FALSE
Why we fact-checked this: Several posts and videos bearing the claim have been circulating among religious Facebook groups and pages. One such post from the page “Walang Hanggang Kanlungan” received 12,000 reactions, 3,700 comments, and 1,000 shares.
The text on the video says, “Maging alerto! Isang lindol na may lakas na 8.2 ba ang malapit nang tumama? Maghanda sa paparating na sakuna. Amen!”
(Be alert! Is a magnitude 8.2 earthquake about to strike? Prepare for the coming disaster. Amen!)
Another video, posted by the account “Bibliya Tagalog” on April 9, has garnered an estimated 34,000 reactions, 7,000 comments, and 1,000 shares. It bears the following text: “Lumitaw ang doomsday fish [sa] kailaliman ng dagat sa Pilipinas. Palatandaan ba ito ng isang mapaminsalang lindol. Tinatawag ka ng Diyos, naririnig mo ba siya?”
(Doomsday fish surfaced from the depths of the Philippine sea. Is this a sign of a catastrophic earthquake? God is calling you, can you hear him?)
The facts: In Japanese folklore, oarfish are known as the “Messenger from the Sea God’s Palace” and are considered harbingers of disasters, supposedly appearing before earthquakes and tsunamis occur. While the appearance of oarfish is associated with natural disasters, experts have said that there is no scientific evidence to support these claims.
In a 2019 study, researchers said that the “spatiotemporal relationship between deep‐sea fish appearances and earthquakes was hardly found” and that the Japanese folklore is “deemed to be a superstition attributed to the illusory correlation between the two events.”
In the Philippines, there have been previous instances of the oarfish surfacing on local shores. While these occasional appearances have prompted superstitions, experts say that this phenomenon could signify impending ecosystem destruction because these kinds of deep-sea creatures usually leave their natural habitat for survival, safety, or food.
Additionally, despite the posts’ claims that the oarfish sighting signals a looming earthquake, scientists have repeatedly emphasized that no one can predict the exact date, time, location, and magnitude of an earthquake. (READ: EXPLAINER: Is it possible to predict earthquakes?)
AI-generated: The clips of the oarfish used in the circulating social media posts were generated using artificial intelligence (AI).
AI detectors SightEngine and Is It AI both flagged a post by the account “Bible Time” as 99% AI-generated.
Meanwhile, the oarfish image from a video by “Walang Hanggang Kanlungan” was flagged by SightEngine as 84% AI, while Is It AI scored it as 55% AI-generated.
The video posted by “Bibliya Tagalog” also has a ‘Runway’ watermark at the bottom right corner. Runway is a company that uses AI to generate videos, images, and audio.
Doomsday fish: The deep-water oarfish (Regalecus Glesne) earned its nickname “doomsday fish” because of the superstition entailed with its surfacing.
This unusual fish has a ribbon-like body and can grow to 36 feet long. The deep-sea creature is typically found at ocean depths of between 656 feet to 3,280 feet and can occasionally be found on beaches after storms or near the surface when injured or dying. – Angelee Kaye Abelinde/Rappler.com
Angelee Kaye Abelinde, a campus journalist from Naga City, is a second-year Journalism student of Bicol University and the current copy editor of The Bicol Universitarian. She is a graduate of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellow of Rappler for 2024.
Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.