A fisherman was lost for words when he pulled a 'dragon' out from the depths of the ocean.
Roman Fedortsov was out in the Norwegian Sea when he came face to face with a bizarre-looking creature.
In a photo posted to his Instagram account, the fish has a light pink colour, with massive eyes, a long tail and what appear to be wings down its side.
Sharing the picture to his page, Fedortsov, who works on commercial trawlers, wrote: "Just a quote, 'It's one thing to chase something nameless, but quite another thing to find it' – G.F. Lovecraft."
Advert
The post has since racked up more than 22,000 likes, with users utterly baffled and amazed.
One person said: "It looks a little like a newly hatched dragon to me. Lol."
"God. The Dragon. Cool what! Who is this anyway??" chipped in another.
Someone then proposed: "Sea or ocean Chupacabra?!?"
"I think he’s missing two more heads," said another shocked user.
While yet another added: "It is better to look at such creatures from afar. Indeed, the depths of the sea are unknown."
However, far from being a mythical beast, it has since been identified as a chimaera – a cartilaginous fish, which are also known as 'ghost sharks'.
Murmansk-based Fedortsov – who uses his phone to document the animals – fishes mostly in the Barents Sea, off the northern coasts of Russia, which opens into the Arctic Ocean.
However, he said he also travels to other parts of the world, including the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Africa.
He started photographing the unusual discoveries after finding that there was such a vast array or strange animals living in the deepest, darkest parts of the seas.
Posting a video of a particularly creepy-looking catfish baring its teeth last year, Fedortsov wrote: "By the way, catfish are very tenacious, so you need to be careful with them. Especially when she's pretending to be dead!
"And yes, she even bites through rubber boots very well."
Writing about a roughhead grenadier, he said: "Would you buy such beauty if you saw it on the counter? I guess not!
"Therefore, they sell [it] cut up. But as it turns out, sometimes the ugly appearance is compensated by the delicious filling."
Dominic Smithers