I love fishing as much as the next guy but remind me to stay away from where ever the heck these dudes dropped their lines…
Two unnamed anglers are the talk of the proverbial town after posting a picture of an fish they caught of Melville Island, Australia. Not only was this creature absolutely ginormous but it had a head that looked like seahorse which begged the question “What actually is this thing?”
Turns out it’s an oarfish with a very distinct feature. Take a look for yourself to understand just how freaky this thing is.
Admittedly, I was not familiar with oarfish until seeing this so I did a bit of research.
They live very deep in the ocean, anywhere from 660 to 3,300 feet down, and can grow to absolutely enormous sizes. The longest one has been confirmed to be is 26 feet long though there are unverified reports of two that reached 36 and 56 feet, making the one above actually quite small by comparison. They can weigh up to 600 pounds and are rarely seen on the surface. In fact, their appearance was thought to be a bad omen, which gave them the nickname of “Doomsday Fish”.
But back to this particular oarfish. What is going on with its head? Here’s a photo of a normal oarfish:
The thing still looks not of this world but at least the head looks fish-like. How did a seahorse head grow on the one caught in Australia?
Well, it’s not actually another species cranium growing on a sea monster. Oarfish’s mouths have a weird feature which allows their jaws to extend, which probably happened while it was being reeled in. Imagine a bendy straw; when you pull the top it extends outwards.
All in all, I don’t know what to make of this but I’m sure happy those guys got an extremely rare catch to be proud of.
Now put that thing back where it came from before it triggers some cataclysmic event…
