Experts make unexpected discovery after rare ‘Twilight Zone’ fish washes up on shore

It’s not every day that a terrifying creature from the deep ocean washes up on a beach, but that’s exactly what happened recently in Oregon. The team at the Seaside Aquarium, who call themselves “fish nerds,” were amazed when a rare and frightening deep-sea fish appeared on the shore.

According to USA Today, the aquarium staff were already familiar with this type of fish. It has a long mouth full of sharp, razor-like teeth and is rarely seen anywhere near the Oregon coast. A visitor had walked into the aquarium’s gift shop with a photo of the massive fish he had found and asked the staff to help identify it.

Tiffany Boothe, the assistant manager at the Seaside Aquarium, told reporters that when they saw the picture, they immediately recognized it as a rare and fresh specimen and decided to go collect it right away.

She explained that although about half a dozen of these fish turn up in their area each year, it’s still a big deal when they find one. Boothe admitted that if she ever saw this fish alive, she would never dare to touch it because it looks so unfriendly.

The fish turned out to be a longnose lancetfish, a deep-sea species that usually swims more than a mile below the ocean’s surface. Although they prefer warmer waters, they sometimes migrate as far north as the Bering Sea, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The creature found on the beach was an impressive five feet long. Boothe mentioned that lancetfish have soft, jelly-like flesh that seagulls love to eat. That’s why finding one fresh and still intact is very rare — most are quickly eaten or badly damaged before anyone finds them.

What made this discovery even more fascinating is the lancetfish’s very slow digestion. This means that whatever the fish recently ate often remains almost fully preserved inside its stomach.

When the aquarium team retrieved the fish, they decided to open its stomach to see what it had been eating  and the findings didn’t disappoint. Inside, they found several squid and octopus remains, along with at least three whole fish.

The Seaside Aquarium shared all the gory but fascinating details on social media, thrilling their followers. They described the longnose lancetfish as looking similar to a barracuda, with large eyes, sharp fangs, and a long, serpent-like body that makes it stand out from most other fish in the Pacific Northwest.

Despite its fearsome appearance, little is actually known about this species. Scientists know that they can be found from the southern Bering Sea all the way down to Chile and that they can live in waters as deep as 6,000 feet below the surface.

The aquarium team pointed out that lancetfish aren’t picky eaters. Studies show they feed on more than 90 different species of marine life  including sometimes even eating each other. Sadly, they also sometimes swallow ocean trash like plastic, a reminder of the growing pollution problem in our seas.

By studying what the lancetfish eats, scientists hope to learn more about how marine ecosystems are changing over time, especially with events like El Niño or La Niña affecting ocean life.

According to NOAA, the longnose lancetfish is known as a “Twilight Zone” fish because of the dark, deep waters where it hunts. It can grow up to seven feet long and weigh around 20 pounds. It also has a scientific genus name that sounds straight out of a dinosaur era — Alepisaurus — meaning “scaleless lizard.”