A second king-of-the-salmonwashed upon on an Oak Bay beach this week.
The first drew attention on Rattenbury’s beach.
Emily Walsh was out on her routine walk with her dog Rizzo along Gonzales Bay when she spotted the second long slim fish.
“It was right between two seagull rocks. That’s how I spotted it I saw the circling (of seagulls),” said Walsh. “It moved a little bit at first but it was just dying.”
Walsh, who is among those who at the junction (garbage pickup is Oak Bay but recycling is Victoria), was impressed with the large head and length – about 1.5 metres she guesses.
Since the find, the Royal BC Museum contacted her in hopes of getting the specimen.
“I wasn’t going to pick that thing up and put it in my car,” she said. With the tide coming in and seagulls at the ready, Walsh expects it was quickly snapped up.
Despite being the second deep-water fish to find its way on shore, this isn’t necessarily the making of a trend warns North Island biologist Jackie Hildering.
“This remarkable species belongs in the waters off our coast. There are not multitudes showing up,” said Hildering, also known online as the Marine Detective. “We are all lucky enough to learn from being able to see and wonder at a fish that is much more commonly at depth.”
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