[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text dp_text_size=”size-4″]A remote community in the Australian outback was shocked over the weekend when small, live fish began falling from the heavens.
Locals in Lajamanu, on the northern edge of the Tanami Desert in the Northern Territory, said the scaly phenomenon occurred during a heavy rainstorm.
“We’ve seen a big storm heading up to my community and we thought it was just rain,” Central Desert councilor Andrew Johnson Japanangka told ABC News.
“But when the rain started falling we’ve seen fish falling down as well.”
Japanangka said the fish were still alive as they fell, and were about “the size of two fingers.”
“Some are still hanging around in the community in a puddle of water,” he told the outlet.
Amazingly enough, Lajamanu has already encountered a seafood shower. According to ABC News, there have been sporadic reports about the strange incident since 1974.
Penny McDonald described a day in the middle of the 1980s when fish seemed to fall from the skies above the community: “I got up in the morning, I was working in the school at the time, and the dirt streets outside my home were covered in fish.
They were little fish, and there were plenty of them. It was really fantastic.”
A comparable occasion also occurred at Yowah, Queensland, in 2020.
Queensland Museum ichthyologist Jeff Johnson identified the first that fell over the weekend as spangled perch, or spangled grunters, which are a common freshwater fish in Australia.
Michael Hammer, the curator of fishes at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, told ABC News that the phenomenon was “not unusual.”
Hammer attributed the fishy sprinkles to floods in local waterholes, though he also cited the possibility of sea life being picked up by strong storms, like tornadoes, and “dropped in other places.”
“It just depends what the local weather patterns are,” he explained.
“What forces would be needed to lift them out of the waterhole specifically, and then up into the air, would be pretty interesting.”
Hammer also encouraged Lajamanu locals to study the phenomenon themselves.
“I think next time it rains you just need to be out there with a net, catching the fish as they fall, and properly document it,” he said.
“Start some citizen science, and create a picture.”
The fish rainstorm, on the other hand, was dubbed “the most incredible thing we’ve ever seen” by Japanangka.
He pondered, “I suppose it’s a blessing from the Lord.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
