‘Alien’ sea creature caught off Singapore

THE mystery surrounding an ‘alien’ sea creature found by an angler has been solved — but what is this freakish thing?

A FISHERMAN in Singapore reeled in a mysterious creature straight out of a science fiction movie.

When Ong Han Boon spotted his line going up and down at his favourite fishing spot on the island of Sentosa, the 54-year-old had a feeling he was about to snag himself something special for lunch, Central European News reports.

But when the sea dweller broke the surface, the fisherman was confused by the strange animal.

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Bizarre ... the unusual creature appears to have more than 100 tentacle-like arms. Picture: Supplied

“When I pulled it out of the water, I was completely flummoxed by what I was looking at,” he told a local radio station. “I’ve had quite a few odd things come out of the ocean, but I have never seen anything like this before in my life. It had all these arms waving around.”

Twisting and curling its alien-like body, the creature looks like some sort of mutant starfish. Boon captured its bizarre and freakish movements in remarkable video, which he posted online in hopes that someone could identify the animal or that perhaps tell him that he had found a new species.

But now the strange creature has been indentified by starfish experts as a Basket Star. Generally found in deep sea habitats Basket Stars can live up to 35 years.

Weighing up to 5 kilograms, they lack blood and achieve gas exchange via their water vascular system.

This story originally appeared in The New York Post.