Video: Creepy deep-sea fish with ‘alarmingly large eye’ spotted at Washington shore

Officials with a group called Harbor WildWatch in Washington were walking near a creek when a paddle boarder approached them saying, “Hey are you guys biologists?”

The man pointed them in the direction of a “massive, dead creature” with an “alarmingly large eye” submerged near the shore of the Salt Creek Recreation Center in Port Angeles, WVLT reported. Wildwatch officials described the fish as having eyes “the size of a coffee cup,” according to KOMO.

“The creature turned out to be an elusive deep-sea fish, rarely seen in the wild and even rarer to find washed ashore,” Carly Vester, a spokesperson for Harbor Wildwatch, told KOMO.

The four-and-a-half-foot fish is called “King-of-the-salmon,” although it’s not a member of the salmon species, Q13 FOX reported. The name originates from the Makah people who believed it led salmon home to spawn and catching or eating the fish would disrupt the process, according to Q13.

King-of-the-salmon usually live 3,000 feet deep along the Pacific Coast, KOMO reported. This is the fifth time the fish has been spotted between Washington and British Columbia, according to WVLT.

“Since there isn’t any noticeable injury, we think it’s likely that this specimen somehow was caught in the surf and washed ashore,” Rachel Easton, education director for Harbor Wildwatch, told WVLT.

This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 4:21 PM with the headline "Video: Creepy deep-sea fish with ‘alarmingly large eye’ spotted at Washington shore."