The remote town of Lajamanu, in the far north of Australia, is normally very arid and receives very little rain. Yet somehow this place has gone through 4 “fish rain”” over the past half century – once in 1974, another in 2004, once more in 2010 and one on February 19. Although the nearest fish pond is miles away, locals suddenly witness it live fish rain fell from the sky during a strong storm and they even have photos to back up those claims.
| The rain of fish just fell on the remote Australian town of Lajamanu over the weekend. Photo: Cyril Tasman. |
Andrew Johnson Japanangka, Lajamanu local and Central Desert councilor told >. “But when the rain started to fall, we also saw fish falling.”
“We saw some children fish free fall from the sky down to the ground. And some fell on the roof,” Japanangka added. “It was the most amazing thing we’ve ever seen. I think it’s a blessing from God.”
Such unusual natural phenomena have been reported in the past. Michael Hammer, fisherman who has investigated such incidents in the past, claims that many times people go out following the rain and see fish scattered everywhere. They did not actually see it fall from the sky but still believed that there was indeed a rain of fish.
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| A child in Lajamanu “shows off” one of the fish that fell from the sky. Photo: Facebook. |
However, in the case of Lajamanu, there are reasons to believe that the fish fell with rainwater during a storm. There are no watering holes near the remote town of Lajamanu and fish found on the street have been identified as spotted perch, a rare freshwater fish for sale in Lajamanu.
ichthyologist Jeff Johnson said: ‘They are a relatively large fish and they cannot be pulled out of the water and into the sky for long periods of time. But obviously that’s what happened.”
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| Lajamanu town is a dry place but has seen up to 4 fish rains in the past 50 years. Photo: >. |
Another puzzling thing regarding this most recent case of fish rain is that the people of Lajamanu insist that at least some of the fish are alive. Dr Hammer admits that, as long as they are not lifted too high and frozen in mid-air, it is quite normal for fish to survive when they are swept away by storms.
Although uncommon, the rain of fish is not unprecedented. For example, in places like Honduras, it happens every year. However, in arid places like the remote town of Lajamanu it’s really rare.
