6 Horrific Deep Sea Creatures

The sea creatures that occupy the deep, deep oceans have evolved to something you and I may call horrendous. They have to withstand enormous water pressures, extreme cold, basically no sunlight, and little food and oxygen. So we’ll at least give ‘em that.

Depth range: 250 to 5,000 feet

This fish is one of the most unusual looking ones, and one of the many deep sea fish that can produce their own light through something known as bioluminescence – they use these lights to attract prey and find mates. Its creepishly large teeth are there to chow down on prey and hang on tight.

Despite the horror-movie-esque look, they only grow up to be about 12 inches. Still, that’s enough to grab onto your leg. Just warning you in case you decide to go deep sea diving.

Depth range: 600 to 4,500 feet

This little horror gets its name from the obvious hatchet shape of its body. There are various types of hatchetfish, ranging from 1 to 6-inches. Not big enough to kill you, don’t worry. But it’s not the hatchet shape that’s scary…it’s the look from the front.

They have large tubular eyes that point forward to enable them to hunt for food overhead, which is arguably their most terrifying feature.

Depth range: 5,000 feet

The dragonfish, again, like many deep sea fish, has a freaking light attached to it — you wish you did, didn’t you? It’s teeth are massive compared to the size of it’s body (6 inches).

Dragonfish are found in all oceans of the world, but the deep sea dragonfish resides mainly in the North and Western Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

Depth range: 500 to 6,000 feet

This absurd deep sea creature looks a little like something you drew when you were three-years-old. It’s insanely wide mouth is much larger than its body, and can swallow other creatures much larger than the itself. The poor prey is then deposited into the eel’s pouch-like thing (much like a pelican, for the gulper eel is also referred to as the pelican eel), and then into its stomach which can stretch to accommodate the eel’s larger meals.

So how big can it get, you ask? Start praying, because if you meet this 3 to 6 feet (0.9 to 1.8 meters) human-sized creature, you ain’t getting out alive. At most, to this thing all you’ll be is indigestion.

Depth range: Down to 10,000 feet

This creature has been used and reused in movies to the point where people don’t even believe it exists…but it does. The giant squid is one of the world’s largest animals, growing up to 43 feet (13.1 meters) in length, and has a highly developed brain (they’re one of the smartest sea creatures). Myths of the Kraken creature are thought to have originated from this squid.

These beasts are quite colossal…their eyes are the size of dinner plates and their tentacles contain hundreds of suction cups. The image below pictures sperm whale skin showing scars from the giant squid’s suction cups:

These beasts are quite colossal…their eyes are the size of dinner plates and their tentacles contain hundreds of suction cups. The image to the side pictures sperm whale skin showing scars from the giant squid’s suction cups:

But I guess the whales get their own back — the giant squids have one known enemy, the sperm whale. The squids are generally found in dead sperm whales’ stomachs, which only shows how the whales adore this meal. The giant squid is actually the second largest squid, the first being the colossal squid (growing up to 46 feet and living in depths of 7,200 feet).

Depth range: Down to 16,000 feet

This is actually a pretty small fish (6 inches), but it’s one of the most well known to be…well, ugly. It has a rather grotesque appearance and big teeth, hence the name. Scientists think this fish is blind, so it essentially has to ‘bump’ into its prey to find it. Quite inconvenient, don’t you think?

Due to its horrific appearance, this creature has also earned the names ‘sabretooth’ and ‘ogrefish’. So the next time someone calls you four-eyes at least be happy you don’t look like this fella.

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