Researchers have discovered a 25-foot chunk of fiberglass that appears to have come from a Japanese fishing boat, which was thought to be destroyed four years ago after getting a hit from a deadly earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The fiberglass was discovered thousands of miles away from its home on Thursday in the waters off the coast of Oregon. The researchers found several live yellowtail jack fish on board the flotsam.

The catastrophic event shivered Japan four years ago, killing more than 18,000 people and causing 300 billion worth of damage.

According to Oregon Parks and Recreation Department spokesperson Chris Havel, plenty of refuse from the disaster has been seen over the past few years, including a 66-foot-long boat dock, a mannequin head and several other sea craft. However, finding animal life dwelling inside is not so common.

“They were probably born outside of that boat, but arrived in that boat. Fish of that size in such a small hold, I don’t know, I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s pretty interesting and they’re in apparently good shape”, said Jim Burke, the director of animal husbandry at the Oregon Coast Aquarium.

The debris was first reported Thursday evening having been spotted a few miles from shore. After this, a team of state agencies was tasked with intercepting it and dragging it into harbor. Later, scientists figured out that it was free of any invasive species.

The team then pulled the wreckage out of the ocean. The fish has already been sent to an aquarium and algae samples have been collected in hopes of learning more about the boat’s origins.

It is believed that the wreckage is the remains of a 50-foot commercial fishing vessel called a trawler.

Biologists with the Oregon Coast Aquarium and OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center said a very little threat to the Oregon Coast ecosystem is posed by the organisms still attached to the vessel.