The Japanese believe that the oarfish, which lives at ocean depths of up to 3,000 feet below the surface, are so sensitive to tectonic movements that they surface or beach themselves in advance of an earthquake.

That legend has Mexican residents concerned after two oarfish were caught on video attempting to beach themselves near Isla San Francisco in Baja California Sur.

The video of the incident was posted by the Shedd Aquarium of Chicago and show beachgoers pushing the fish back out to sea in an attempt to save their lives.  Oarfish are notoriously bad swimmers and usually swim in a vertical manner rather than horizontally like other fish.

While oarfish can grow to over 50 feet long, these two fish were only around 15 feet long.

Some scientists dispute the idea of the fish being able to detect seismic shifts by pointing to other times the fish has been found on a beach without a major earthquake immediately following the beaching oar.