Oct 21, 2013 10:00 AM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

For the second time in less than a week, a rare deep-sea oarfish has washed ashore off the coast in California, Reuters reported.

Officials said the most recent sea serpent carcass washed ashore Friday on a beach in Oceanside, Ca. In less than a week, two of the deep-sea eel-like fish have been discovered far out of their normal habitat and experts are stumped as to why.

"It may have happened some place on Earth before but it certainly doesn't happen very often," said Milton Love, a research biologist at the University of California in Santa Barbara.

CLICK HERE to see the second sea serpent.

Oarfish typically dwell at a depth of 3,000 feet and can grow to be as long as 56 feet, giving them comparisons to various deep-sea legendary creatures. The most recent one found was 14-feet long and the one before was 18.

A local marine instructor found the first dead oarfish last week off the coast of Catalina Island, which lies nearly adjacent to Oceanside Beach. She called it "the discovery of a lifetime" when she came across the lifeless fish floating in the water.

Love said he is waiting on a tissue sample from that first fish in order to do a DNA sample. Given their similarity in size and their close proximity to each other, he did not think it was a coincidence. Love also speculated neither deaths were caused by humans.

He said oarfish are not strong swimmers and could easily have been swept toward shore by a strong current and then battered to death by swells.

"There may be ones lying in 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 meters) of water we'll never know about," Love said.

Little is known about oarfish because they are so rare and rarely studied as a result. They are known to be as thick as a human's torso and to dwell in most tropic waters.

The two recent discoveries could help scientists determine a key debate regarding oarfish, whether or not they constitute multiple species.

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