’Nightmare’: Fish washes up on San Diego beach

Beachgoers have stumbled upon a terrifying looking fish, which sports rows of undulating teeth, in an incredibly rare sighting.

A gruesome-looking sea creature gave beachcombers the fright of their lives on Tuesday after it washed ashore on a San Diego beach.

Footage of the freaky flotsam is currently making waves online, New York Post reports.

“I have never seen anything quite like this before,” Jay Beiler, who took the photos, told NBC of the sea monster, which he found on Torrey Pines State Beach.

Initially thinking it might be a jellyfish, on closer inspection the beachgoer realised it was actually a fish, reported Storyful. By that time, a large crowd of curious onlookers had gathered.

“It’s the stuff of nightmares – mouth almost looked bloody!” Mr Beiler said.

He estimated the sea creature was about 30cm long.

Jay Beiler said the fish was ‘the stuff of nightmares’. Picture: Jay Beiler via Storyful

His photos show the fish, which sports rows of undulating teeth and a fleshy tassel on its head.

The Scripps Institution of Oceanography has since identified the animal as a Pacific footballfish, one of the larger species of anglerfish with a maximum length of 60cm, NBC reported.

The oceanic predator is notable for the fleshy, bioluminescent head protuberance which it uses to lure small prey, according to the California Academy of Sciences.

Sightings of the Pacific footballfish on land are incredibly rare. Picture: Jay Beiler via Storyful

As the footballfish typically resides at depths of 600-1000m, sightings on land are extremely rare.

In fact, Mr Beiler’s find marks the first time this ocean denizen has been sighted in San Diego since 2001, Accuweather reported.

“It’s only been seen a few times here in California,” said Ben Frable, the collection manager of the marine vertebrate collection at Scripps.

“The Pacific footballfish is known from 30 specimens that have ever been collected and brought to museums around the Pacific Ocean.”

However, scientists are “not really quite sure what causes them to wash up,” he said.

Mr Beiler, for one, is still buzzing from the encounter.

“You know, I go to the beach fairly often, so I’m familiar with the territory, but I’ve never seen an organism that looked quite as fearsome as this,” he said.

This isn’t the first time a rare fish has washed ashore of late. In July, Oregon beachcombers were stunned after discovering a wildly colourful 45kg opah on the shore of the state’s northwestern region.

This article originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission