Weird Sea Monsters

I came upon this picture online and I just thought it was the weirdest looking thing ever! I’m not exactly sure what it is other than it’s some sort of fish…but it looks like a blob!

More than 700 new species, such as this baby crustacean Ceratoserolis above, were discovered in the depths of the waters around Antarctica. The findings mean deep-sea conditions can support a diverse array of species, a surprise to researchers.

A catfish in Germany met its fate when it tried to eat a soccer ball that was floating in the river. Police spotted the catfish and say it’s the weirdest thing they have ever seen!

“The catfish had evidently bitten into the ball and suffocated,” Bavarian police said in a statement. “Whether the fish was swept up in the current excitement about football in the wake of the EURO 2008 championship could not be ascertained.”

Reiner Jünger of the river police said: “I’ve never seen anything like this in 30 years on the job.”

He said catfish are among the biggest freshwater predators. They lie in wait on the river bed and attack prey on the surface. They sometimes even attack ducks swimming past.

I stumbled upon this picture and I couldn’t believe my eyes! The stingray that this guy caught was of humongous proportions! But of course after reading up some more on stingrays, I found that this particular one was not as big as I had thought it was, but it was actually a very rare species that you can’t really find anywhere!

I always love seeing and learning about interesting species of well…anything! But when I saw this YouTube video of the so-called “Guitar Fish” I was kinda shocked. For anyone that doesn’t believe in aliens…here’s you proof! Absolutely insane looking!

This unusual looking octopus is called the Blue Ringed octopus because of its appearance. It is very tiny – about the size of a golf ball actually and it is very venomous and deadly to humans. So don’t get close to one because there is no anecdote.

The strange-looking coelacanth is one of the oldest species of fish in the world. It is considered by many to be an actual living fossil. Known scientifically as Latimeria chalumnae, this fish was thought to have been extinct since the end of the cretaceous period over 65 million years ago.

Fossils of the coelacanth have been found that date back over 350 million years. But, against all odds, in 1938, a fisherman actually caught a live coelacanth off the coast of South Africa. A second specimen was captured in 1952 off the coast of the Comoros Islands off theeastern coast of Africa near Madagascar. Needless to say, this caused a sensation throughout the scientific community. Since then, live coelacanths have been sighted and photographed many times in the wild.

The Ocean Sunfish is the heaviest known bony fish in the world. Its average weight is a whopping 1 tonne and they mainly live in  tropical waters.

Ocean Sunfish’s diet consists of lots and lots of jellyfish. I wonder what it would be like to see one of these babies up close! Scary or exciting? Both I guess!

The Umbrella Mouth Gulper Eel, also called the Pelican Eel, was discovered by Kyle Briggins. It is a deep-sea fish that is rarely seen by humans, but often gets caught if fishing nets.

This is an eel-like fish and it is the only member of the genus Eurypharynx and the family Eurypharyngidae.

 During deep-sea trawls off the Crozet Islands in the oceans off Antarctica, scientists found the bright pink eelpout Pachycara priedei, which is just one of six new fish species that were discovered at the time.

This species is a bottom-dweller and therefore feeds on tiny fish or whale carcasses. The fish’s tiny eyes may pick up bioluminescent signals from squid and shrimp, while its snout is studded with sensory pits for detecting the movement of prey in the darkness.

Deep-sea eelpouts have watery, jelly-like flesh, probably due to their sluggish lifestyle and as an adaptation to pressures exerted on their bodies.