A rare ‘footballfish’ washed up from the deep sea onto a California beach, and what made it an even more remarkable sight was it was fully intact.
A beachgoer, Ben Estes, was walking along the shore in Newport Beach in Orange County on Friday morning when he spotted a strange-looking fish. The big, round-shaped, dark-colored fish lay in the sand at Crystal Cove State Park.
Estes told park rangers and lifeguards about the fish.
The following day, Davey’s Locker Sportfishing & Whale Watching, a boat tour company, shared several photos of the creature and identified it as a pacific footballfish measuring 18 inches.
‘‘RARE FIND! Deep sea anglerfish washed up in Newport Beach on Friday morning!’ Davey’s Locker tweeted on Saturday.
On Facebook, the boat tour company wrote that ‘though the fish itself is not rare, it is extremely rare to see on this intact along a beach in southern CA’.
Unlike most fish, the Pacific footballfish utilizes bioluminescent lures on the tips of a fishing pole-looking projection from its head to draw in prey. It lurks deep in the dark depths of the ocean.
The footballfish was taken in by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and it was not immediately clear what would become of it.
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