Photo of Giant Fish: Real or Hoax?

A photo shows three men holding a massive fish in the ocean. Is this photo real or fake?

It’s real.

At first glance, one may assume this to be a Photoshopped image, but upon further investigation, the story and additional photos confirm the image is legitimate. According to mexfish.com, this is a photo of a Giant Oarfish (also known as “the king of herrings”). The fish was found barely alive in 2007 off of East Cape of Baja Mexico:

SPECTACLE AT EAST CAPE–This rare oarfish was found barely alive near the beach at East Cape on Tuesday last week. The fish was taken to Hotel Palmas de Cortez to be frozen for study. It is being held by, from left, Troy Tinney, Steve Lawrence, and Mike Shaw. PHOTOS COURTESY OF BARB ALBRIGHT.

Below are other photos from the same event:

Confusion with 2010 BBC Story

The photo has been circulated with this BBC story from 2010 in which researchers filmed a live Oarfish in the Gulf of Mexico. The photo was included to give more information on the Oarfish, but this has caused some confusion, leading some commenters to believe that a live, healthy Oarfish (from the BBC story) was captured and brought ashore (from the photo).

The photos above are unrelated to the 2010 BBC story.

Google Trends

This photo, along with several others, have prompted increased interest in oarfish in recent years, as seen in the Google Trends chart below.

Bottom Line

The image of three men holding a giant fish is real. It was an oarfish found in the waters off of East Cape of Baja Mexico back in 2007. Corroborating media reports and additional photos confirm the image to be real.

Updated May 3, 2015
Originally published January 2013