Last month, while working in the Gulf of Mexico, a crew of fishermen accidentally caught a very rare (and very terrifying) beast.
The crew had cast a net 2,000 feet into the water just off the coast of Key West, Fla., and noticed a peculiar creature mixed in with their usual load of shrimp, the Houston Chronicle reports.
“I didn’t even know what it was,” lifelong fisherman Carl Moore told the Chronicle. “I didn’t get the tape measure out because that thing’s got some wicked teeth, they could do some damage.”
This creature, it turned out, was a rare goblin shark, estimated to be about 18 feet long. Moore snapped a few photos before hoisting the creature back into the sea (yes, it’s still out there). Though More and his crew caught the shark on Apr. 19, they didn’t report it to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration until last week.
“This is great news,” John Carlson, NOAA shark expert, told the Chronicle. “This is only the second confirmed sighting in the Gulf, the majority of specimens are found off Japan or in the Indian Ocean and around South Africa.”
So when that razor-toothed pink monster haunts your dreams tonight, at least you can console yourself with a reminder that this is good news for science.
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