A fish with human-like teeth is something you would expect from a horror movie. But a deep-sea fisherman encountered just that while fishing off the coast of Murmansk, northwestern Russia.
Roman Fedorsov took to Instagram after discovering a bizarre fish covered in leopard-like spots and provided with a full set of molars.
Many suspect the strange species to be a peculiar species of ‘wolf eel’, which uses its huge jaws to grab and crush its prey.
“You can never have too many teeth,” Fedorsov joked in the caption of his Instagram post. The trawler, called @rfedortsov-official-account on Instagram, spends months at a time in the ocean looking for mysterious creatures.
Often referred to as “eels that aren’t really eels,” wolf eels exist as one of five species in the “wolffish family.” These reclusive “eels” prey on crabs, sea urchins and other hard-shelled fish by grabbing them in their jaws and crushing them with their molars.
In general, they can grow to about 2.5 meters in length and are found in the cold waters of the North Pacific at depths of 200 meters. This is the point where the sunlight begins to fade, separating the surface water from the mysterious “twilight zone” below.
Many of Fedorsov’s followers have since flocked to Instagram, filled with amazement and horror at the monster of the deep.
‘Wolf eels like to eat hard-shelled animals like crabs and clams and aren’t as ferocious as they look. They also apparently mate for life,” one user wrote.
“They only seem to bite if you harass them or swim near their egg-laying area, which is honestly pretty normal for most animals. They are quite curious about people.’
In addition to the suspected wolf eel, Fedorov’s Instagram is home to several other alien fish species. It is often unclear what these are, with Fedorsov never failing to show the strangest creatures of the ocean.
“The abyss is a little deeper than you think,” reads his biography. “The sky behind us is always beautiful.”
