Fisherman catches a baffling ‘alien’ creature from the ocean

A fisherman has made an unusual discovery in the depths of the North Pacific Ocean, leading many to conclude that we may not be alone in the universe after all.

A Russian fisherman has pulled a strange-looking creature out of the murky depths while deep-sea trawling in the North Pacific.

In footage posted by Roman Fedortsov to his popular Instagram account, the creature sits perched on the rusting, weatherworn railing of a fishing trawler, bloated, slimy and apparently quite dead.

For many viewers of the video, the creature evokes images of all manner of fictitious alien creatures including, but not limited to, the Martians from Mars Attacks! Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and even H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulu.

The strange creature was compared to a number of pop-culture characters like Handsome Squidward. Picture: Instagram

“Kill it and burn it and don’t ever catch one of those again,” said one fearful user.

“Yeah, aliens are real,” concluded another.

Fear not though, for the creature is not an eldritch horror, nor a harbinger of the end times; it is a humble smooth lumpsucker.

The creature was pulled from the depths of the North Pacific Ocea. Picture: Supplied

Found mostly in the deep, cold waters of the North Pacific, lumpsuckers are an open-water-loving, jellyfish-eating creature- one of very few species of fish across the planet’s oceans that don’t have scales.

When submerged in their usual deep-sea habitat, lumpsuckers actually look quite different to the one parked up on Mr Fedortsov’s boat like it pays the bills.

Barotrauma caused the fish to bloat extensively, giving it a brain-like appearance. Picture: Instagram

The fish in the footage has suffered from barotrauma, which is essentially an internal explosion suffered by most creatures, and even the odd submersible vehicle, that endures radical changes in air and water pressure.

This sea-spider closely resembles the infamous "Facehugger" from the Alien franchise. Picture: Instagram

This fish has lips to die for. Picture: Instagram

A deep-sea critter sports a set of gnarly teeth. Picture: Instagram

Humans are also capable of suffering from barotrauma, which is why it is typical for divers that have been swimming at great depths to periodically stop for several minutes multiple times on the way back to the surface.

Fedortsov is no stranger to the mysteries of the deep, regularly cataloguing the weird and wonderful creatures that he pulls up in his nets.

Roughly 95 per cent of the Earth’s deep-sea waters are uncharted, leaving much of what lurks beneath the surface of our vast oceans up to the imagination.

For the thallasophobes among us (that’s a fear of the deep sea), there is general agreement that perhaps not knowing what lives at the bottom of the sea – and how big it is – is for the best.

Originally published as Fisherman catches a baffling ‘alien’ creature from the ocean