Russian Fisherman Find Nightmare Creatures Lurking In The Deep-Sea

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December 23, 2016 Sean Adl-Tabatabai News, World 0
Russian deep-sea fisherman discover nightmarish beasts lurking beneath the sea
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A Russian deep-sea fisherman has discovered alien-like creatures lurking beneath the ocean, and has posted his nightmarish finds on Twitter.

While scientists admit that we know less about the sea here on Earth than we do about the surface of Mars (due to the fact that we’ve only seen 0.05 percent the ocean), the discovery of these bizarre creatures have still managed to surprise the scientific community.

Businessinsider.com reports:

Roman Fedortsov is a deep-sea fisherman based in the port city of Murmansk in Russia, which looks out over the Barents Sea – a relatively shallow sea that opens into the Arctic Ocean.

Fishing throughout the coastal Arctic ocean region, all the way to the coast of Morocco, Fedortsov has been sharing images of the deep-sea creatures that wander into his nets.

And let’s just say, you might think you know what an anglerfish looks like, but it’s a whole other story to see one close-up, sitting in the palm of someone’s hand:

Imagine being hunted by this:

Or this:

If you’re wondering why they’re all black, aside from red, it’s the best colour to be in the deep sea if you don’t want to get spotted.

These creatures live in the ‘twilight zone’ of the ocean – otherwise known as the Mesopelagic – which extends from a depth of 200 to 1,000 metres (roughly 660 to 3,300 feet) below the surface.

Below the Mesopelagic is the bathyal zone, which spans from 1,000 to 4,000 metres deep (3,300 to 13,000 feet), at which point there is zero sunlight.

That means these guys are dealing with only the tiniest hints of light penetration, and because black absorbs every wavelength of light without reflecting any back, they’re effectively invisible in their natural habitat.

This also applies to red-hued deep-sea creatures too, as the US National Ocean and Atmospheric Administraation (NOAA) explains:

“The black animals absorb all colours of light available, and the red animals appear black as well; there is no red light to reflect and their bodies absorb all other available wavelengths of light. Thus red and black animals predominate.”

Case in point:

Before we have a look at some more of these incredible creatures, let’s just put it out there that it sucks that these animals died because they were caught up in a fisherman’s net, and the best place for them is obviously back safe in their habitat.

But these images give us the opportunity to appreciate and learn more about life on Earth, and the more excited we are about the breadth of life that’s lurking in the depths of the ocean, the more likely researchers will be to get the funding they need to actually go down there and study them.

So here are some more of our favourite pics from Fedortsov, and you can see them all in his Twitter feed:

Aww.

Sean Adl-Tabatabai

Sean Adl-Tabatabai

Sean Adl-Tabatabai

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