Finding Nemo fans immediately recognised the Pacific Football fish after pictures of the “amazingly rare find” were posted on Facebook showing its terrifying “prehistoric” mouth
A beachgoer found an alien-like angler fish that lives 3,000ft below sea level washed up “perfectly preserved” on a sandy Californian beach.
Finding Nemo fans immediately recognised the Pacific Football fish after pictures of the “amazingly rare find” were posted on social media.
The weird creature’s mouth gaped open revealing its razor-sharp teeth and a specialised fin on its head which lights up to lure prey in the deep sea.
Los Angeles boat tour agency, Davey’s Locker Sportfishing & Whale Watching posted pictures of the bizarre creature on Facebook.
It wrote: “Not something we pulled onto the boat today but still an AMAZINGLY RARE FIND off of local @newportbeach at Crystal Cove State Park yesterday.
A beachgoer found an alien-like angler fish that lives 3,000ft below sea level washed up “perfectly preserved” on a sandy Californian beach (Image: Davey’s Locker Sportfishing & Whale Watching)
“State park rangers and lifeguards with Crystal Cove State Park were alerted to a weird looking fish that washed ashore Friday morning from beach visitor Ben Estes who happened to notice it on the sand.”
The agency added: “It’s been identified as a deep-sea Pacific Footballfish, which is a species of anglerfish that are normally dwellings at depths more than 3,000 ft below the surface.
Finding Nemo fans immediately recognised the Pacific Football fish after pictures of the “amazingly rare find” were posted on Facebook (Image: Davey’s Locker Sportfishing & Whale Watching)
“It’s one of more than 300 living species of anglerfish from around the world. Though the fish itself is not rare, it is extremely rare to see one this intact along a beach in southern CA.
“The fleshy long dorsal fin called an illicium extends in the front of the mouth and has a phosphorescent bulb on the end which can emit light to attract unsuspecting prey closer to it.
Los Angeles boat tour agency, Davey’s Locker Sportfishing & Whale Watching posted pictures of the bizarre creature on Facebook (Image: Davey’s Locker Sportfishing & Whale Watching)
“It’s not known yet why this 18” fish washed ashore almost perfectly preserved, but our partners @crystalcoveconservancy explained that it’s still unclear where this rare find will end up (either with museums/ educational institutions, etc), but it is currently housed with CA Department of Fish & Wildlife.”
Lynn Telzer replied: “It’s like a super terrifying real-life version of the fish from Finding Nemo.”
Tori Cristan added: “This looks like the fish that tried to eat Marlon on Finding Nemo.”
And Shannon Swa said: “WOW!!! unbelievable? Can you imagine if we saw that while we were there? Look at those teeth! It looks prehistoric.”
The tour company explained the “amazingly rare find” washed ashore on Friday morning at California’s Newport Beach.
After Mr Estes found the fish, state park rangers and lifeguards were called.
A similar-looking fish made an appearance in the Finding Nemo animated film.
