Talk:Lluvia de peces

I've more or less rephrased the entire article, in an attempt to improve readability. I don't think I've altered the original meaning in any way; if I have, mea culpa. --Steevm 04:25, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

"A town in Honduras"

If anyone's Spanish is good enough to understand the link, please enter the actual name of the town in the article.

done. the city's name is "yoro" as well. Taygeta 16:54, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

credibility

This sounds like mere folklore to me. It simply doesn't make any sense. Is there any hardcore proof that this is an actual real-life occurence? Perhaps if I actually saw a photograph of a village covered in fish, I would actually believe this a little bit. Yet, a google image search for "Lluvia de Peces" brings up paintings of fish falling from the sky does not bring up any photographs that lend any credibility to this myth.

I have read about fish and frogs being sucked up by tornadoes and waterspouts and then falling on land. This myth most likely was originated because of such an occurence. Many facts have been embellished and changed.

If you are from Honduras, you would not talk like this. This event is happening every year for more than a century. In one of the link there is picture of some of the fishes.

National Geographics sent in 1970 some reporters to investigate about it. Do you think National Geographics is a stupid institution in order to send some people to Honduras?

The Department name is YORO, the capital of the Department is also called YORO. This event is happening in the Departmento of Yoro. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.4.6.138 (talk) 14:06, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

--> new comments I couldn't find the article in national geographics. Care to post the link here? Anybody can say that the NASA or Discovery Channel or any other organizations send some people there, but without concrete proof, I think it's a bs.

Inconsistancy - blind, or not blind?

The entire Explanation section seems a little incoherent, but what is especially striking is the way the first paragraph states (without sources) that the fish are not blind, and then in the second last paragraph states (with sources) that the fish are indeed blind. Suggestion would be to rewrite the Explanation section noting that various explanations have been put forward for this phenomenon, list them explicitly with bullets, and detail them, and if there is in fact contradictory sources on whether the fish are blind or not, are from the sea or fresh water or not, etc then create another section, perhaps, detailing the different observed and documented sightings, date them, note the differences between these documented sightings, and crossreference the explanations that have been linked with each sighting. EG: On June XX, 19YY sighted fish normally found in the ocean 250 miles away fell [citation], according to research NN they were sucked up in a waterspout [citation]. On April ZZ, 19QQ, bind fish fell [citation], according to National Geographic they were washed up from subterranian sources [citation]. and so on. Syndaryl 20:24, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

A photo of the fishes would be helpful. If they are blind, there are only a handful of possibilities what they could be. Dysmorodrepanis (talk) 18:36, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

The Town in Honduras

The article says the town is YORO, a small city located with the Department of Yoro. Like The City of NY located within the State of NY. Both have the same name. NY means New York (Ok?)

In one of the references, there is a picture of don Miguel, a senior citizen who can talk about this Rain of Fish, the people whoe are witnesses, are very humble. I know him (don Miguel) as well as others. They do not have access to internet, I don't think they even have phone (line) or cell phone. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.4.6.138 (talk) 00:28, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

Can anyone describe the fish? Do they have a "beard"? How long are they? Are they scaly or naked/slimy? What is the body shape - teardrop, elongated, spindle, ...? Dysmorodrepanis (talk) 00:30, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Photo of fish

Look here: http://www.geocities.com/saptegus/YOROpeces.html

With eyes. They are described as "una especie de sardina plateada que venía con el agua". According to the photo, they may well be Clupeiformes or even Clupeidae. Dysmorodrepanis (talk) 00:52, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

References

Would it be a good idea to convert the links into references? BobertWABC (talk) 17:31, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

I have started to convert the links to references. Looking at them, they are fairly poor quality, and throwing out the blogs and low credibility sources is not going to leave much. Grafen (talk) 14:22, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

For people who only search the Internet

Why do you travel to Honduras and find out more about it. This is happening for more than a century in a yearly basis. Meet with the people who had eaten those fishes.

So no one in Honduras has a camera and an internet connection? The only photo referenced here is from a long-dead link — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.79.125.10 (talk) 03:03, 8 July 2012 (UTC)

Nat Geo?

If National Geo sent people to verify this startling phenomenon, surely they must have reported it in their magazine? Can this article be identified? APL (talk) 04:59, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

Nat Geo did a show about raining fish in their "Wild Case Files" series: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/wild/episodes/raining-fish

As the "Wild Case Files" title implies, they look back through the National Geographic "case files" (ie expedition reports and related video) looking for oddities. They mentioned a community in Australia that made a similar claim of raining fish (and there too they suggested that the fish were probably washed up from an underground cave - which is the best theory for Lluvia de Peces too). If Nat Geo really had sent an expedition out to check out the phenomenon in Honduras, surely there would have been at least a passing reference to their findings in that show.

I strongly suspect that the story of the actual expedition to investigate the very similar story of raining fish in Australia got retold in relation to the Honduras events...which would explain the origin of the claim - and why we can't find out anything about such an expedition.

At any rate, there is zero evidence of a Nat Geo expedition to investigate the Lluvia de Peces...and without evidence, we can't regard it as true. SteveBaker (talk) 13:56, 18 September 2012 (UTC)

Further checking reveals that Nat Geo did indeed send an expedition to Australia to investigate raining fish in 1974...which fits the "In the 1970's" claim for a Nat Geo expedition to the Honduras. Case closed, I think. SteveBaker (talk) 18:58, 18 September 2012 (UTC)

References

An article like this stands or falls by its references. Here, we have four - two of which have vanished. Of the other two, one is in Spanish and is pretty readable with Google Translate...they both say almost exactly the same thing. Both are journalistic pieces in very minor sources - there are no scientific sources, no photo evidence, no first person accounts. Basically what we know from the references is:

• The fish mysteriously appear in large numbers after a heavy rainstorm.
• They only do so for a period of a month or so in June/July.
• They are a few inches long at most.
• Nobody claims to have actually seen the fish land or fall out of the sky - they merely deduce that from the secondary evidence of fish being where they would not expect fish to be.
• They only ever appear in flat, treeless ground around the town - never in places such as trees or rooftops that would prove that they'd fallen from the sky.
• They are only ever reported to be seen in temporary puddles or streams in marshy ground or perhaps in meadows. Places where one might expect to find fish. These fish are not scattered over dry land as one might expect from a 'rain' of fish.
• They are claimed to taste markedly different from other fish found in the area.

So it's pretty clear that there is absolutely zero evidence from the references that says that fish fell from the sky. What the referenced evidence says is that after heavy rain, quantities of a not-otherwise-seen fish are found in pools and streams in flat, marshy land after heavy rain storms has created these pools and streams.

While it is true that there have been extremely rare (but well-verified) accounts of small animals such as fish falling from the sky elsewhere, there are no other accounts of this happening on such a regular basis.

It's overwhelmingly likely then that this is a case of heavy rain causing these temporary pools and streams to appear - and for some reason, this particular species of fish migrates there from places where the townspeople don't normally go to look for them.

Wikipedia should not add hearsay evidence to the facts as known from the references.

SteveBaker (talk) 13:30, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

This is a great criticism of the article. I think that is the situation of science, that the best known information is presented until more is known. Here, the area is without internet and there is little study of the phenomenon, so the best known information is not amazingly backed and could likely be wrong, but it is still what is best known. This could be grounds for adding a little bit of original research to the article to add experienced commentary to both sides of the story. It is also notable that some readers have visited this page after traveling to Honduras and sound quite convinced the rain is real. 50.225.46.130 (talk) 02:35, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

It turns out Yoro actually has websites now. After glancing places like https://www.hondurastips.hn/2014/05/22/lluvia-de-peces-de-yoro-un-fenomeno-unico-de-honduras/ my opinion is that these do look fish that have not fallen from the sky. For example, they do not appear damaged, but rather appear in tributaries. I would interpret the concept of "rain of fish" as a local turn of phrase for an ecological situation, as the local websites sound equally happy to describe the fish as coming via waterways as the sky, they don't sound concerned regarding the reason. I would then interpret the religious figure as having had an intuitive connection to this ecological activity when praying for aid. It's natural and normal for members ancient cultures to have intuitive connections to their ecology. 50.225.46.130 (talk) 02:44, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

Oh, rereading the article the Father actually came from Spain. It totally looks like one of those instances of Christianity taking credit for something that was already happening and likely had traditional non-Christian mythology making it harder to convert the locals. 50.225.46.130 (talk) 02:47, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

the article doesn't say what Lluvia de Peces actually is

do fish actually rain from the sky? The phenomenon should be explained in the article — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.234.204.27 (talk) 01:46, 20 October 2012 (UTC)

So what is it?

Agree with previous comment: the article doesn't say what the phenomenon is. Do fish appear in the street? How many: one or two on a random street corner? millions covering the roads? --Mythic1 (talk) 19:59, 16 May 2014 (UTC)