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 Three fish considered 'messengers of the sea' have washed ashore in the Philippines, sparking fears an earthquake may be about to hit. 
 
 The bizarre-looking oarfish were all found dead along the country's coasts despite usually lying between 200 and 1,000metres beneath the waves. 
 
 All three have washed up since February 8 and were dotted across the northern coast of Mindanao island, in the south of the archipelago. 
 
 The flat, oar-like fish can grow to more than 17 metres. 
 
 The latest find was made on Saturday when locals spotted one of the creatures on a beach in the city of Cagayan de Oro, measuring around 15 feet long. 
 
 (Image: Jude Cyril Roque Viernes / Facebook) 
 
 While it was alive at the time it later died. 
 
 Another washed ashore in the nearby province of Agusan del Norte in Mindanao island and fishermen caught the first on February 8 - two days before 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck the island. 
 
 Social media posts revealed how locals are fearing for their safety with oarfish often seen as signs of impending doom - and earthquakes. 
 
 (Image: Jude Cyril Roque Viernes / Facebook) 
 
 The Japanese call the fish the “Messenger from the Sea God's Palace” and several are said to have washed up on the country's coasts before the tsunami in 2011. 
 
 Kiyoshi Wadatsumi, a specialist in ecological seismology, told the Japan Times in 2010 that “deep-sea fish living near the sea bottom are more sensitive to the movements of active faults than those near the surface of the sea.” 

 (Updated) - A 20-FOOT long oarfish was found in Barangay Gusa, Cagayan de Oro City, around 4 p.m., Saturday, February 18, three days after the fifth sea creature was seen off the coast of Agusan del Norte. 
 
 According to Marlo Tabac, Gusa barangay chairman, the elongated fish was still alive when found by residents but later died. 
 
 Netizen Clark Ian Richardson, meanwhile, posted a video of oarfish, barely breathing, being surrounded by people. 
 
 
 
 Jude Cyril Roque Viernes also posted on Facebook a photo of the dead fish. 
 
 
 
 Tabac said the fish had numerous cuts in its body when found . 
 
 Oarfishes are large, elongated fishes which dwell at a depth of 200 to 1000 meters (660 to 3300 feet). It is the longest bony fish alive, growing to up to 11 meters (36 feet) in length. 
 
 This is the sixth oarfish found dead in the Philippines from January this year. 
 
 On February 15, a 10-foot long dead sea-serpent washed off the shore of Barangay Rojales, Agusan del Norte. 
 
 READ: Another oarfish found in Agusan del Norte 
 
 
 
 The first oarfish, which was 10-foot long, was found on February 8, two days before the 6.7-magnitude earthquake that hit Surigao City. 
 
 It said that in Japan, the oarfish is known as a "messenger from the Sea God's Palace." 
 
 Photos of dead oarfishes have sparked debates over the internet, as some said the fish have been known to forecast earthquakes. 
 
 
 
 Renato Solidum Jr., director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology told SunStar Philippines that the probability of another strong earthquake is low but the agency is not disregarding it. (Pia Noreen Bilar/Pamela Jay F. Orias/SunStar Philippines) 
 
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– Every couple of years, a mysterious rare fish that resembles a serpent washes up on some beach, generating buzz about the bony sea creature and worries about earthquakes until it fades from memory again. In what National Geographic pegs as a "poorly understood phenomenon," it's happened again, this time in the Philippines. People on the shore of Carmen in Agusan del Norte plucked a dead oarfish—aka Regalecus glesne, or the "king of herrings"—from the waters Wednesday, just days after a fisherman had found another one not far from that spot. And the SunStar notes four others have been retrieved in the Philippines since January, including one that was initially found alive in Cagayan de Oro on Saturday, though it later died. A Facebook post from Wednesday shows images of the oarfish pulled onto the Carmen beach, with smiling beachgoers holding the outstretched fish for photo ops. The oarfish—which can grow to over 30 feet in length—is seldom spotted because it usually lives up to 3,300 feet deep in the ocean. While scientists are puzzled as to why they occasionally pop up on the surface near land, and subsequently perish, they think it may have something to do with the wind and powerful currents. Longheld anecdotal evidence links the surfacing of the oarfish to subsequent earthquakes—the Mirror notes it is sometimes called "the messenger of the sea god"—but whether there's any scientific grounding to that remains unclear because of a lack of research. "The intrigue remains," observes the Geographic. (The earthquake theory goes back a long way in Japan.)