The oarfish may be the most enigmatic of fishes, and so it might be fitting that the most enigmatic of ichthyologists has chosen it for his latest subject. I'll leave the topic of the man to his autobiography (Roberts, 2005), and to the many tales told of him by others; I will mostly only praise him here for his masterful monograph. Doctor Roberts comprehensively reviews much of what is known about oarfishes and clears up the confusing taxonomic mess that has impeded research on them. He also raises a few intriguing hypotheses that render these incredible animals even more remarkable despite simultaneously taking down some of the greatest myths about them (e.g., they are not known to reach over 8 m in length, and they are not found in freshwaters despite the widespread hoax in Thailand).
Of 20 nominal species of Regalecus most ichthyologists currently recognize only one...