Columbia University's Earth Institute once said that scientists know more about space than the ocean. Up to 91% of the creatures living below the surface are still unknown to humans. So when a bizarre fish was recently washed up on the shore in Australia, people were amazed and confused about what creature it could be.
From time to time, sightings of deep-sea creatures away from their habitat have stunned the public because of their out-of-this-world appearance. People would usually play guessing games until scientists identified them through various tests.
A general view of Bondi Beach on December 29, 2021 in Sydney, Australia.
Unidentified Deep-Sea Creature Found in Sydney
Drew, a resident in Sydney for over 20 years, told Daily Star that he was only taking a morning walk with a friend when he suddenly saw a freaky creature that he believed from the depth of the sea. It was his first time seeing such an animal, even after living there for two decades.
"It had these weird lips that looked like it had been to a cosmetic surgeon and had way too much filler put in, and also it had these weird teeth," he said while trying to describe the fish.
No one knows what kind of creature it is, though he thinks it could be a shark or a stingray. He shared the photo online and, just like him, dozens of netizens tried to identify the fish in the comment section.
Some said it could be a decaying numbfish, coffin ray, or cuttlefish. While others think it could either be a mermaid or the notorious bear of Aussie urban legend that somewhat looks like a koala but only a carnivorous version. But in the end, Drew said that it could be some form of a baby shark that was typically not seen in the area before.
The sea creature is still unidentified as no one is sure what really it is.
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Why Do Deep-Sea Creatures Look Weird?
According to Smithsonian Magazine, the deep sea could hide 20 Washington monuments stacked upon each other. But as of today, the deep sea remains unexplored. Light deep below the ocean surface fades rapidly, while the temperature drops dramatically. Despite the harsh conditions and high pressure in the deep ocean, an astounding variety of creatures live there.
They learned to adapt to the darkness with their large eyes and counterillumination. Some even developed bioluminescence and eyes that are highly sensitive to the light produced by other animals. That is why they look somewhat different from most animals humans get to see.
Why Do Deep-Sea Creatures Get Wash up on Shore?
The recent discovery of the freaky deep-sea creature came after a month of severe weather in Sydney that caused torrential rain every day. He thinks that the sea creature got caught up in the pile of seaweed washed up on the beach from the recent king tide in Sydney, where water has even reached up to the road of Bondi beach.
But how about the other cases of deep-sea creatures that suddenly washed up on shore?
According to MarineLab, scientists usually perform a necropsy to see signs of diseases or parasites and identify the cause of their death. However, scientists typically do not know the reason for these phenomena.
Some say that the warming waters caused by global warming could have disturbed their food sources, while Japanese folklore suggests that it could be a sign of an impending earthquake. Mark Benfield, a researcher at Lousiana State University, said that about 20 oarfish were found stranded on Japanese beaches before the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, suggesting that their habitat must have been disturbed by a coming earthquake.
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