A rare deep sea anglerfish has been discovered on a beach in Southern California, according to local reports.
The creature, identified as a Pacific footballfish, was found by San Diego resident Jay Beiler at Torrey Pines State Beach, KNSD reported. He remembered the eerie fish as "the stuff of nightmares."
"At first I thought it was a — like a jellyfish or something, and then I went and looked at it a little more carefully, and some other people were gathered around it too, and then I saw that it was this very unusual fish," Beiler told the station. "Mouth almost looked bloody! I'd say it was nearly a foot long."
Pacific footballfish live deep in the ocean where sunlight does not penetrate, so it's unusual appearance on the San Diego beach has left many astonished. The species has only been seen "a few times" in California, Ben Frable, manager of the marine vertebrate collection at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told the station.
The footballfish species are one of the largest of the anglerfish. They live at depths between 2,000 to 3,300 feet and use a bioluminescent lure attached to their heads to attract prey, according to the California Academy of Sciences.
"They've been found in Japan, all the way down to New Zealand, all over, and a lot of times, they have been found washed up on beaches, so it's not really quite sure what causes them to wash up," Frable said.
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