If you were fishing one day and came across this monstrosity swimming by, you’d probably never take up the hobby again.
That’s because this weird little fishy is something of nightmares.
When Jason Moore was looking for a spot in the River Exe in Devon to catch chub, he probably didn’t expect to find something that could nab his finger off his or any other small body part.
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The 47-year-old caught a glimpse of the strange creature and decided to fish it out to have a closer look.
As it turns out, it was something akin to that sandworm in Dune and if that doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what will.
The fish was long and sort of like a slug, with an open round mouth razor-sharp teeth surrounding its mouth.
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While many of us would have launched it into space, never to be seen again on Earth, Moore was curious and found the discovery ‘amazing’.
Speaking to Pen News, he said: “I was looking for rocks and snags and tree overhangs where the chub live, just trying to work out where I was going to go fishing next.
“It was in the water, on the water's edge. I was sort of like ‘wow, that's amazing, look at the size of that! Let's fish it out and have a look.’"
As it turns out, Moore had found a lamprey.
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This weird species is known for drinking the blood of its prey, which is why it’s commonly known as the ‘vampire fish’.
With a similar look to a giant leach, you can see how it’d use its teeth to latch onto passing fish or small animals.
Instead of being wildly freaked out, Moore decided to share it on the Facebook page for naturalists to show off his catch.
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While one person shared how he’d been bitten by one nine years ago and the mark was still freaking him out today, others went on to point out it’s similarity to the sandworm in the hit sci-fi movie.
One person wrote: “No doubt the inspiration for many a sci-fi monster, including the sand worms of Dune.”
While others called it a ‘living dinosaur’ or ‘the stuff of nightmares’.
But Moore found that it was more like the terrifying Demogorgon from Stranger Things.
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It’s pretty accurate...
He said: “It's long and eel-like, and its mouth is – I don’t know how to describe it really – a bit like a leech I suppose, but much, much bigger.
“It's got rows and rows and rows of teeth, that almost look like the Demogorgon from Stranger Things. It looks quite horrifying.”
He also isn’t a stranger to the lampreys, but this one was his largest catch.
He shared: “I've seen lampreys before and they're not uncommon here, but I've never seen one that big ever in my life.
“It must have been somewhere between 80cm and a metre long.
“It was massive. Other ones I've seen have been about 10 to 15cm in length.”
According to the fisherman, the lamprey was dead when he spotted it, and he placed it back into the water after taking a few photos of it.
He said: “It literally died not long ago, so it’s gone up the river, I assume to spawn, and then snuffed it as they do.
“There were signs of spawning and eggs around. I think it’s a life-cycle thing.”
He added: “I think most people are a bit shocked that that type of thing swims in our rivers really.
“But I wouldn't want anybody to be scared or horrified, or really think about not going in the rivers, not kayaking, or avoiding a river for recreation just because that's in there.”
So… it’s best to avoid dabbling in a bit of fun in lakes? Gotcha.
Britt Jones