Dr. William Ludt, the museum’s associate curator of ichthyology, or fish studies, told Spectrum One News in 2021 that he was excited about the discovery because “it’s an extremely rare specimen.”

“Large-scale fish kills are becoming more frequent as our climate changes,” Martin Grosell, a professor of ichthyology at the University of Miami, said.

“It is very strange, and it’s the talk of the town among us California ichthyologists,” or zoologists who study fish, said Bill Ludt, assistant curator of ichthyology at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum.

He persevered, and wound up managing the museum’s ichthyology collection.

“This one is a very elaborate, complex lure that is pretty easy to tell it apart from other fishes,” said Bill Ludt, assistant curator of ichthyology at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum.