From an eyeless monster to a living fossil, here are 10 of the most bizarre creatures
ever caught!!
10.
Giant Talking Catfish
Native to the Amazon River Basin, the Giant Talking Catfish (Megalodoras uranoscopus),
also called the Giant Raphael Catfish, is typically found in tributaries, creeks, swamps.
Its unique black-and-yellow color pattern makes it stand out a lot compared to other
types of catfish and almost doesn’t even look real!!
It’s maybe not the most beautiful fish species on Earth but it’s pretty bizarre!!
Why are they called the talking catfish you ask?
Good question!
It’s because they can produce sounds by locking their spiny pectoral fins into their
sockets, grinding them against the inner portion of the socket and resonating their swim bladder
using a muscle in the back of their skull to produce a deep clicking sound.
Pretty cool huh?
Giant talking catfish are slow-growing, typically reaching up to two feet (60 cm) long and weighing
as much as 10 pounds (4.6 kg) by adulthood.
The largest known recorded specimens, found in the Amazon, Essequibo, and Tocantins river
systems, were as much as 28 inches (71 cm) long.
Their coloring makes them very popular in the aquarium trade and will eat pretty much
everything.
Despite their size, giant talking catfish can be described as gentle giants.
They tend to ignore other fish and go about their business, feeding mainly on crustaceans.
These bottom-dwellers are also heavily armored, which protects them from aggressive species.
So if you are in the Amazon and catch this yellow and black beast, don’t worry, it’s
actually a catfish!
There are much scarier things to look out for!!
9.
Alien Sea Beast
While fishing in Krabi province in southern Thailand late last year, 41-year-old Desha
Srichai captured a creepy creature with 20 long jet-black legs, causing him to throw
his net in horror.
At first glance, he thought the specimen was a twig, but when he saw it moving, he panicked.
Having never seen anything like it before, Desha told the press that he was so disgusted,
he considered burning the alien-like creature, but he took his phone out and filmed it instead
in hopes of receiving help identifying it.
Geez, calm down right??
Why would you just see something and burn it??
What the heck!
After the initial shock wore off, Desha rethought his initial urge to kill the strange lifeform
and used a stick to push it back into the river from a safe distance.
His friends told him that it was most likely a black feather star (Colobometra perspinosa),
a bottom-dwelling marine species that can regrow severed tentacles much like its relatives
from the crinoid group of animals that includes sea stars, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers.
Unlike many of its relatives, the black feather star does not have a stalk connecting it to
the seafloor.
And despite its terrifying appearance, it’s rather harmless to humans, feeding mostly
on plankton.
All of those weird appendages and feathers help it catch its food!!
But this apparently didn’t matter to Desha, who said that he hopes he never catches one
again.
8.
Long-Nosed Chimaera
Garry Goodyear, a Newfoundland and Labrador-based fisherman, was utterly shocked last year when
his crew caught a specimen he didn’t recognize while fishing for turbot in Bonavista Bay.
Hauled up in the boat’s trawler net from over 2,600 feet (800 meters) below the water’s
surface, the nearly 3.3-foot-long (1 meter) dead fish had a rubber-like nose and wing-like
appendages, according to Goodyear, who spoke with CBC about the strangest catch of his
career.
The perplexed angler posted photos of the creature on Facebook in hopes that someone
could identify it and ultimately determined that it was likely a long-nosed chimaera.
Related to sharks, rays, and skates, there are eight known species of chimaera.
These ancient cartilaginous deep-dwelling fish are typically found between 656 and 3,280
feet (200-1,000 meters) underwater, and are rarely seen or caught by humans.
Long-nosed chimaeras have a long, pointy snout and neon green eyes, giving them a monstrous
appearance, according to Carolyn Miri, a marine biologist with the Newfoundland and Labrador
Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Goodyear was also glad nothing bad happened to him or his crew while they handled the
fish.
Unaware that the species has a venomous spine, nobody thought twice about touching it with
their bare hands.
Miri explained that the fish Goodyear accidentally captured likely died while being hauled to
the surface due to pressure changes in the water and agreed that Goodyear and his crew
were lucky the fish was dead, because it could have caused serious injury by flailing around
had it been alive.
7.
Real-Life Sea Monster
After spending 45 minutes wrestling with his fishing line earlier this year, fisherman
Nate Iszac reeled in what social media users described as a “real-life sea monster”
while fishing in the Bering Sea off Alaska’s Akutan Island.
With a gaping mouth and a gigantic jaw equipped with razor-sharp teeth, the enormous prehistoric-looking
creature indeed looked like something from someone’s worst nightmare, or perhaps even
another planet.
While the sight of the creepy specimen was a first for many, Iszac told LADBible that
he had seen it before.
Knowing from past experience that they bite very hard, he and his crew were extremely
cautious in their handling of it.
Photos he posted on social media show that the demonic-looking fish measured around half
his height.
Identified as a wolf eel (Anarrhichthys ocellatus), the species can actually grow much larger
than the one Iszac caught, reaching up to seven feet (2.1 meters) long and weighing
as much as 41 pounds (18.4 kg).
These homely creatures lurk throughout the North Pacific, where they use their powerful
jaws to crush prey and mate for life in monogamous pairs.
Iszac releases everything he catches back into the water, and the “real-life” sea
monster was no exception.
Do you enjoy going fishing??
Have you ever found a strange animal in the water??
Let me know in the comments below!
And wanted to give a big shout out to Greyson N and Brandon Gordon!
Thanks so much for spending time with us and for supporting this channel!
If you are new here, be sure to subscribe and join us because, why not??
6.
Fish With Human Teeth
While fishing off the Melbourne, Florida coast earlier this year, fisherman Paul Lore caught
a strange-looking specimen bearing a zebra-like design and equipped with eerily humanoid teeth
arranged in rows of two or three.
The 33-year-old angler described the creature’s body as “like a snapper-type fish -- very
compact but meaty.”
He also mentioned that it had a “very strong bite power -- not enough to take a finger
but enough to make you never go near the teeth again.”
Despite its unusual appearance, this fish is not rare.
Known as a sheepshead fish (Archosargus probatocephalus), it’s often found off the Gulf and Atlantic
coasts in the U.S. but is common throughout North America, including as far north as Cape
Cod in Massachusetts.
The species inspired the name of the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood in Brooklyn, where it once
populated the waters off the eastern coast of Coney Island.
The sheepshead fish feeds mainly on crustaceans, using its teeth to crush barnacles, clam shells,
and crab shells.
Lore explained that its gills act like a filter, expelling shell fragments that the creature
consumes.
He added that the species’ diet gives its meat a crab-like taste, earning it the nickname
the “poor man’s crab” in his area.
The sheepshead fish grows to around 30 inches (76 cm) long, but even smaller specimens are
incredibly strong.
According to Lore, as soon as one gets hooked on a fishing line, they swim sideways with
a lot of force, making them difficult to reel in.
5.
Lobster-Shrimp Hybrid?
During what was meant to be an ordinary fishing trip in Fort Pierce, Florida, fisherman Stever
Bargeron looked on in shock and amusement as a nearby couple reeled in what he described
as an “alien creature” that looked like an oversized cross between a lobster and a
shrimp.
He snapped a few photos of the flailing animal before the couple, who had no interest in
keeping the creature, tossed it back into the water.
Bargeron passed the pictures on to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
(FWC), which posted the images on its Facebook page.
Ray Caldwell, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley,
instantly identified the critter as a mantis shrimp.
Also known as a stomatopod, the creature is actually rather common in Floridian waters.
People just don’t see them very often because they rarely emerge from their burrows on the
seafloor, making the catch unique in its own right.
Speaking with Live Science, Caldwell explained that the species is equipped with prominent
claws that it uses to stab or mash its prey, depending on the species.
Mantis shrimp can live for up to 30 years and grow up to a foot (30.5 cm) long.
Bargeron had claimed that the specimen he witnessed the capture of was around 18 inches
(45.7 cm) long, but admitted that he did not measure it.
Caldwell said that this was unlikely, but that it was entirely possible that the creature
looked much bigger in the pictures or because its claws were extended.
4.
Mutant Shark
After accidentally capturing a pregnant female shark in their trawler net off the Indonesian
coast earlier this year, fisherman Abdullah Nuren and his brother cut her open and received
the shock of a lifetime.
Two of the unborn pups appeared normal, but the third had eerily human-like facial features
and large, round, cartoon-ish eyes.
The deformed shark pup likely had a congenital defect called Cyclopia, according to marine
conservation biologist Dr. David Shiffman, who cautioned against Googling the condition
while eating.
He explained in a Twitter post that Cyclopia occurs when both of a creature’s eyes are
fused to one orbit.
Caught near the East Nusa Tenggara province, the mutant shark attracted a throng of curious
visitors including Nuren’s neighbors, who reportedly offered to buy the specimen from
him.
Instead, he kept it for himself with plans to preserve it as a good luck charm.
3.
Eyeless Monster
Australia has no shortage of bizarre wildlife, but every now and then, a species stands out
as even stranger than the rest.
This was certainly the case in early 2019, when a group of anglers witnessed the capture
of a nightmarish eyeless specimen with razor-sharp teeth in the secluded Mary River near Kakadu
National Park in Australia’s Northern Territory.
Tee Hokin, who reeled in the freaky fish, described the six-inch-long (15 cm) creature
as “purpley-brown with a really weird head” in an interview with ABC Australia, adding
that it reminded her of the 1979 horror movie Alien, during which a hideous monstrosity
comes out of actress Sigourney Weaver’s stomach.
Adding to the strangeness of the situation, the fish reportedly didn’t move at all while
being handled.
As it turned out, the creature was not an alien, but a member of a group called Eelgobies
or Wormgobies.
Speaking with the Daily Mail, fish identification expert Morgan Grant explained that there are
several species present in Australia’s brackish and freshwater estuaries, and that they have
poorly developed eyes that are often covered in skin because eyesight is essentially useless
in the murky waters.
Thisn forces the marine animals to rely primarily on their sense of touch to catch prey.
He added that the fish have extremely sharp and powerful teeth to make up for what they
lack in eyesight.
2.
Translucent Shrimp-Like Blob
While fishing with his two sons over 40 miles (64 km) off the Karikari Peninsula of New
Zealand’s North Island in 2014, Stewart Fraser spotted a translucent shrimp-like creature
floating near the water’s surface.
Curious as to what it was, he grabbed hold of it and posed for a few pictures to show
his fisherman friends.
The specimen was completely see-through, minus a small orange blob inside its body.
Fraser described it as scaly but firm and jelly-like to the touch.
Nobody he knew was able to identify it, leaving everyone baffled.
MailOnline got to the bottom of the mystery with the help of staff members at the National
Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, U.K., who identified the creature as a Salpa maggiore.
Salps somewhat resemble jellyfish, but are more closely related to vertebrates, according
to National Marine Aquarium Director Paul Cox.
They have gills and a heart, and their bodies are encased in a sac-like structure with two
openings -- one on each end -- that water pumps through, propelling the creatures through
the water.
Meanwhile, filters passively collect nutrients from algae and phytoplankton.
Little is known about these bizarre animals, which are found mainly throughout the Southern
Ocean, travel in large chains, and grow up to 10 inches (25.4 cm) long.
Salps are unique because they function individually and as part of a larger organism.
They have no defense against predators, proving that power doesn’t always come in numbers,
and their clear appearance serves as a form of camouflage that helps them to avoid becoming
another animal’s next meal.
1.
Living Fossil
Back in 2007, Indonesian fisherman Yustinus Lahama and his son caught an ancient-looking
fish in the waters off North Sulawesi.
They took the 4.3-foot-long (1.3 meters), 112-pound (51 kg) creature home and kept it
there until a neighbor told them that it was a rare species, prompting the pair to return
it to the sea.
Unfortunately, the fish died after spending 17 hours in a quarantine pool.
It was identified as a coelacanth, a prehistoric species that first appeared on the fossil
record around 350 million years ago and that scientists long believed went extinct along
with the dinosaurs around 65 million years ago.
This belief was turned on its head in 1938, when a living specimen was discovered off
the eastern coast of South Africa.
Today, there are only two known coelacanth species, and both can live for 60 years or
more.
They can grow more than 6.6 feet (2 meters) long and weigh around 200 pounds (90 kg).
The fish that Lahama caught was only the second coelacanth to be captured in Asia.
The first was caught in 1998, also off the North Sulawesi coast.
Scientists were perplexed by this, and by the fact that Lahama’s catch survived for
17 hours, since it’s commonly understood that coelacanths can only survive for up to
two hours outside their habitat.
But it’s not surprising that there’s a lot we don’t know about these fish, considering
the fact that their existence was unknown to us until relatively recently.