Japan is braced for a huge earthquake or tsunami after two giant deep-sea fish, symbols of doom in the country, were caught on its coast.
The huge oarfish, which can each grow as long as much as 11 metres, come to the surface when a natural disaster is brewing, according to legend.
And now the Satomi Higa of the Yomitan's fisheries confirmed two creatures were caught alive in fishnets this week.
"The two oarfish were swimming vigorously in the nets.
"They looked mysterious and beautiful," a spokesman told CNN.
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Numerous dead oarfish washed up along the shores of Japan in the past few months.
Since then, fears of an earthquake have grown.
The fish are traditionally known as "Ryugu no tsukai" in Japanese, or the "Messenger from the Sea God's Palace".
The believers say dozens of oarfish washed onto the country's coastline before the 2011 Fukushima earthquake and subsequent tsunami, which killed more than 20,000 people.
The quake had a magnitude of nine and was one of the biggest recorded in a century.
Fires broke out, and the disasters caused devastation across the country.
It also caused a nuclear meltdown.
But scientists dispute the doom theory.
Kazusa Saiba, who is an aquarium keeper in Japan, said global warming or subtle changes in the Earth's crust cause various fish to wash up along the shores.
He said the activity "causes the current to stir and push creatures at the bottom to the surface."
"There is no scientific evidence at all for the theory that oarfish appear around big quakes.
"But we cannot 100% deny the possibility," he added.
