San Diego, California - A group of snorkelers and kayakers made a wild discovery off the coast of San Diego. They found the body of a very rare oarfish also known as a doomsday fish!

Scripps Institution of Oceanography from the University of California took to Facebook to share the remarkable discovery of a doomsday fish made by some lucky visitors to the La Jolla Cove.

Oarfish are also known as doomsday fish because, in some parts of the world, they are considered harbingers of imminent disasters.

The visitors found the body of a 12-foot-long oarfish floating on the surface just two days before a 4.4-magnitude earthquake rattled LA.

Animals 9 foot long "doomsday fish" washes up on California beach

Per CBS News, twenty of the rare creatures were found on the shores of Japan before the catastrophic 2011 earthquake.

These deep sea creatures rarely come to the surface unless sick or dying. What's more, doomsday fish are huge! They can grow up to a whopping 26 feet long, according to FishBase experts.

While these fish can get pretty big, a sighting of one is exceptionally rare. According to the California Institute, there have only been 20 sightings of oarfish in California since 1901.

The lucky kayakers didn't just spot the doomsday fish – they even took it upon themselves to bring it to shore.

A wild video clip of the catch shows the lengths they went to bring the large fish to shore!

Scientists from the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography will perform a necropsy to try and determine the animal's cause of death.