Two guys out for their evening jog were stunned to find this 1.5 metre deep sea cannibal fish washed up on the beach.
The Longsnout Lancetfish which is infamous for eating its own kind and usually lives 1000 metres underwater was found on the shore of Fitzroy beach on New Zealand’s North Island by friends Nik Pyselman and Cam Twigley.
Cam told Daily Mail Australia:
It looked like it was struggling a bit to get off the shore. I knew we had stumbled across something out of the ordinary so I grabbed it by the tail and lifted it out. We were pretty shocked when we got a proper look at it. It’s like a hybrid of a baracoota with its fang-like teeth and a sailfish with its tall fin. I’ve definitely never seen anything like it.
They took the specimen to a local fishery where it was formally identified, and were told it is ‘extremely rare’ to find them in shallow water. The large predators use their camouflage to sneak up on their prey and have been known to grow up to two-metres. But it is their tendency to eat their own kind that makes them more feared and has earned them the nickname of ‘cannibal fish’.
The fish has been kept in a freezer where it may be used for samples and photographs. I would have left that thing well alone.
