Mysterious Sea Creature With Razor-Sharp Teeth Washes Up On Beach, Scares Beachgoers

Two beachgoers stumbled upon a terrifying sea creature as they paddled in the sea in southwest England. The mysterious creature washed up on the shores after bobbing for about ten minutes in the waters.

Katrina Ashmore, 41, and Paul Ashurst, 43, spotted the sea creature on the shores of Devon. They initially thought it was a turtle or an old rucksack. Later, Ashurst went close and flipped it over. He sustained cuts on his hands due to the creature's razor-sharp teeth, Wales Online reported.

It was later found that the creature was an anglerfish, usually found half a mile underwater. The rare fish had staggered 9,000 miles from its home in the Pacific Ocean.

Ashmore and Ashurst left the fish where it was as it was dead. The family, from Doncaster, told Yorkshire Live that they felt lucky to have seen the amazing creature.

"It was the most amazing experience. I just kept watching it, wondering what it was," Ashmore said. "We didn't realize it was upside down, then we flipped it and saw all these teeth and the dangly thing like a fishing rod."

"It was so big - easily twice the size of a football... A woman told us what kind of fish it was, and then I saw one had washed up in California, and it's the exact same fish," she added.

"The teeth were like razor blades, I hardly touched it and I got these deep cuts all over my hands... I kept washing them in the sea but they wouldn't stop bleeding. Not many people can say they've been bitten by one of those: I feel very privileged," Ashurst, who is an electrical engineer, noted.

This is not the first time an anglerfish has washed up on a shore, but the instances are very rare.

Last month, a man walking on a San Diego beach found an anglerfish on the shore. The man was in Black's Beach during sunset when he came across the creature. He initially could not identify the creature and shared the images with local media outlets. The photos showed the creature with a mouthful of knife-sharp teeth, a projectile flowing out of its forehead and spikes on its sides.

NBC San Diego reached out to the scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to help identify the creature.