10 Terrifying Deep Sea Creatures you Never Want to Meet

By Alex for Creepy

We know so little about the deepest parts of our oceans that we are always discovering new creatures. The deepest parts of our oceans are around seven miles below the surface and it is so dark that scientists are very aware that there could be enormous creatures lurking in the depths. The giant squid is probably the most well known creature from the deep, from what we know, they can grow up to around 13m, but this figure could become much higher as we continue to explore. The vastness of our oceans is inconceivable and every creature we’ve found in the deep sea up until now has been incredibly creepy.

Gulper Eel


http://www.science-rumors.com/20-gulper-eel-facts-to-know-what-this-creature-is/


Even regular eels kind of give me the creeps, I’m sure you’ll agree, they’re pretty weird. The Gulper eel, also known as the Pelican eel is like an eel from your worst nightmares. They live at around two miles below the surface and although they are rarely seen by humans, they do occasionally get caught in fishing nets; much to the dismay of the human that caught it. Of the Gulper eels we’ve found, we can determine that they can grow up to about a metre in length.


Anglerfish


http://www.sci-news.com/biology/first-ever-footage-mating-anglerfish-05848.html


Anglerfish truly are the stuff of nightmares, they’ve been around for around 130 million years, so they’d probably find us pretty freaky too. They have evolved to use their ‘fishing rod’ like attachment as a lamp of sorts in order to hunt in the dark and also to attract a mate. Anglerfish are in the depths of the oceans all over the world, so wherever you live, you’re probably not too far from water that is home to these spooky fish.


Japanese Spider Crab


http://ipfactly.com/japanese-spider-crab/


Crabs are a personal fear of mine so I’ll get through this one quickly. Off the coast of Japan, these monsters live at around 1000ft below sea level. They have been known to exceed 18ft in leg span, making them the largest crab (that we know of). For that reason and for the fact they look utterly terrifying, I think these are definitely the creepiest of the lot.


Giant Isopod


The reason the giant squid is so big is called ‘deep sea gigantism’, the case of the giant isopod is the same. Typical isopods are around 5cm in length, giant isopods can grow up to 50cm. Typical isopods aren’t particularly scary, but when they’re this size and you can actually see their features, they’re pretty weird. It very much reminds me of looking at bugs under a microscope.


Goblin Sharks


http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-photos/goblin-shark


Goblin sharks grow to around 3-4m in length and are particularly scary due to their nail-like teeth, when the goblin shark catches prey, the jaw almost looks as if it detaches from the rest of the body, it looks like something from a movie. It is thought that goblin sharks are of no threat to humans as they are far too deep in the ocean. Who knows what damage they could do with those teeth if they made it into waters accessible to humans.


Terrible Claw Lobster



http://www.realmonstrosities.com/2013/05/ausubels-mighty-claws-lobster.html


The terrible claw lobster was discovered in 2007 and is a tiny creature with one claw much longer than the other. It almost appears to have a knife and fork. It was discovered off the coast of the philippines at a depth of around 800ft, it’s strange to think about how long it took us to discover it.


Fangtooth Fish



http://oceana.org/marine-life/ocean-fishes/common-fangtooth


Although they are very small, with a maximum length of around 16cm, the fangtooth fish has the largest teeth in comparison to its body size of any sea creature. Their teeth are so large that they can never close their mouths. Thankfully, they’re found at depths of up to 5,000m, so the likelihood of you seeing one is pretty close to zero.They must be pretty terrifying to other fish of their size.


Barreleye


http://anintrospectiveworld.blogspot.com/2012/10/barreleye-fish.html


The Barreleye is capable of seeing all around, even behind itself, which in itself is unnerving. To make this worse you can see the whole of the barrel like eyes through the fish’s huge, transparent head. They are found as deep as 2,500m so hopefully we never have to come across these freaky fish.


Frilled Shark

https://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2017/11/13/frilled-shark-caught-portugal-orig-vstan-js.cnn


Although the frilled shark has been caught in some fairly deep areas of the ocean, it has also been found in shallower waters of around 50m below the surface in the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. They are somewhere between a shark and an eel, with a big frilly tale but a huge, teeth filled, shark like head. They can reach lengths of two metres long which doesn’t make them the largest on the list, but they’re still quite scary.


Viperfish

http://www.science-rumors.com/top-20-pacific-viperfish-facts-to-know-what-this-creature-is/


The Viperfish, with its ridiculous underbite is both horrifying and kind of hilarious. They survive in depths of up to 4,000m and can grow to around a metre in length. From viperfish that have been captured, it appears they don’t have any specific prey, the stomach contents of several specimens shows that they just swim around and eat whatever they encounter. Which sounds like a pretty great life if you ask me.  

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