Photos: Ultra-rare 'deep-sea monster' footballfish washes ashore

An ultra-rare deep-sea fish often dubbed as “deep-sea monster” washed ashore at Black’s Beach in Torrey Pines in San Diego, a city in the U.S. state of California.

A person named Jay Beiler taking a walk on the beach on Nov 13 came across a scary-looking fish. He initially thought it was a jellyfish, but when he had a closer look at the creature, he realised it was something completely different he had never seen before.

Beiler took photos of the creature before leaving the beach. Later, when the photos were shared with scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, it was revealed that the creature was a Pacific footballfish.

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Scientifically known as Himantolophidae, footballfish live in waters that are 3,000-4,000 feet deep. The creature is mostly found in tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans.

A professor of zoology, Johan Reinhardt, had first discovered the fish in 1837.

The photos Beiler snapped show the fish’s knife-sharp teeth, spikes on its sides, and a projectile flowing out of its forehead.

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“I have never seen anything quite like this before,” Beiler told NBC 7 San Diego.

“At first, I thought it was a — like a jellyfish or something, and then I went and looked at it a little more carefully, and some other people were gathered around it too, and then I saw that it was this very unusual fish. It’s the stuff of nightmares — mouth almost looked bloody,”