This case began circulating on February 1, 2016. The following was published by the U.K.’s The Daily Mail, which is copyright protected by their respective owners. It is reproduced here under fair use, and for archival/research purposes.

By SARA MALM FOR MAILONLINE

An ‘alien fish’ caught on a small Caribbean island has left experts baffled, as they struggle to determine its species.

The creature reportedly has ‘feet’ which allows it to walk across the seabed, a ‘ perfect human nose’, and scales like a fish. 

The sea creature was caught in the port of Windward on the tiny island of Carriacou, a few miles from Grenada.

One islander said ‘Everyone crowded round to look – nobody had ever seen anything like it.

‘Quite a few people were pretty scared and thought it looked like something out of a sci-fi horror film.’

Veteran fisherman Hope McLawrence, 74, who found himself staring into the eyes of the ‘alien’ creature when he hauled in his nets, admitted he was astounded and baffled.

The foot-long beast had two feet with toes, no fin, a long bone on its back and ‘a perfect human nose immediately above its mouth’ according to Mr McLawrence.

‘I have never discovered anything like this before. The wings and tail looks extremely complicated.’

Mr McLawrence, who has more than fifty years experience in the fishing industry added ‘By the look of the creature it cannot swim but apparently walks on the sea bed.

‘This has shocked me to a considerable extent since I never thought that a creature like this even existed, much less in the harbour of these shallow, friendly waters.

‘This is like a mystery and breathes a chill with this discovery’ he added. 

The fish is believed to be a frogfish, an ambush predator that can eat almost anything that will fit into their large mouths. This includes other fish as well as crabs and shrimp.

Have an idea on what it might be? Comment below!

Possible Explanation

Although a lot of theories are beginning to circulate, and one expert in the article above called it a “Frogfish,” The Black Vault adds the following fish to this case file, which is in the oceans called a Walking Batfish.

According to Wikipedia:

The red-lipped batfish or Galapagos batfish (Ogcocephalus darwini) is a fish of unusual morphology found around the Galapagos Islands and off Peru at depths of 3 to 76 m (10 to 249 ft). Red-lipped batfish are closely related to rosy-lipped batfish (Ogcocephalus porrectus), which are found near Cocos Island off the coast of Costa Rica. This fish is mainly known for its bright red lips. Batfish are not good swimmers; they use their highly adapted pectoral fins to “walk” on the ocean floor. When the batfish reaches maturity, its dorsal fin becomes a single spine-like projection (thought to function primarily as a lure for prey). Like other anglerfish, the red-lipped batfish has a structure on its head known as illicium. This structure is employed for attracting prey.

Could this fish explain the mystery?

The post Is it fish or just foul? ‘Mutant’ sea creature with a nose, feet, tail and WINGS baffles Caribbean island first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post Is it fish or just foul? ‘Mutant’ sea creature with a nose, feet, tail and WINGS baffles Caribbean island appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

The following was published by RT on July 01, 2015:

The enigmatic remains of a giant marine animal with a furry tail found in Russia’s Far East have puzzled locals and social media, but scientists have managed to identify the odd creature.

A mysterious sea animal washed ashore near the airport at Shakhtersk on Sakhalin Island this weekend, Sakhalin Media web portal reported on Wednesday. The remains, a few meters in length, featured a furry tail and a huge nose, making it very difficult to identify the creature.

Social media reacted to pictures posted online with a variety of explanations for the appearance of a never-before-seen creature in Russia. While it reminded some people of an ancient dinosaur, the most popular guess was that it was a Ganges River dolphin from India.

“Probably, our summer is so cold that even the Indian Dolphins getting into local waters are covered with fur,” a commentator joked.

However, according to experts, it would be impossible for a fresh water dolphin to survive the swim in the salty ocean. Besides, they don’t have any fur and are smaller in size.

“We have gathered a group of scientists. We studied all the versions and came to the conclusion that the fossils found ashore belong to a whale cub,” Nikolay Kim, Deputy Head of the Forecasting department of the Sakhalin Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, told Sakhalin Media.

Kim added that the cub must have been a giant beaked whale, a species that is quite common for the region, so the discovery is a“no wonder.” Besides, all dolphins and whales are born with a hair coat that disappears with age.

Berardius bairdii, also called “giant bottlenose whales,” is the largest of all beaked whales, reaching up to 12 meters in length, and found in the North Pacific. It is listed in the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).

The post ‘Mysterious’ sea creature with furry tail washes ashore in Russia’s Far East first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post ‘Mysterious’ sea creature with furry tail washes ashore in Russia’s Far East appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

An account given by a Mr. Chalmers, published in The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, telling of a remarkable incident occurring out at sea. Mr Chalmers writes of how, in 1749, from the deck of the Montague as it sailed in the Mediterranean just north of Corsica, he saw a blue fireball rolling on the surface of the water and making its way towards the ship.

As the crew lowered the sails and tried to avoid impact, the mysterious ball rose up and exploded, making a sound “as if Hundreds of Cannons had been fired at one time; and left so great a Smell of Brimstone, that the Ship seemed to be nothing but Sulphur”.

The ball left the main topmast of the ship shattered and tore the mainmast sail. Surprisingly, only five men were “knocked down” but one of them sustained burns from the explosion. It is unclear what caused the fireball or what it actually was.

The post Account of an Extraordinary Fireball Bursting at Sea (1749) first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post Account of an Extraordinary Fireball Bursting at Sea (1749) appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

Any one know what kind of species is this? As i meet him?… her?… it at Pulau pangkor beach. It kind of weird, every legs with pincers. It got a baloon on it’s head, the baloon with get big and small when it breathing.

The post What kind of creature is this? At Pulau Pangkor Malaysia. first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post What kind of creature is this? At Pulau Pangkor Malaysia. appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

“The incident occurred at about 3:20 a.m. Moscow time. Because the unidentified aircraft was flying at different altitudes, the headings of one Aeroflot and one SAT Airlines passenger plane had to be changed, as the unidentified aircraft was obstructing their flight path,” the source said for VOR.

The unidentified aircraft’s flight plan had not been cleared with relevant bodies or agencies, he said.

“This could have been a drone, a military plane or something else. This has yet to be determined. However, no one else except for the two passenger planes was supposed to be in that area,” the source said.

The post UFO Hinders Flights Of Two Russian Jets In The Sea Of Japan (East Sea) first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post UFO Hinders Flights Of Two Russian Jets In The Sea Of Japan (East Sea) appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

Original Posting from (and special thanks to) The Black Vault User OddDuckfor the initial report:

Hey guys I know I am new here but I noticed you didnt have the wierd picture on this site. It is a new story I just found out about there is very little to what is known about it or anything I just have the picture.  If you can find more out that would be great!  Looks like an oarfish swam through fukushima. lol 

“Experts” are saying this is a giant oarfish or a thresher shark.  If you go ahead and look these creatures up you can see that they look nothing like creature dead on that beach.  The oarfish if you look at multiple photos is very long and skinny.  There are no horns on the oarfish.  Then the thresher shark.  It’s a shark with a tail fin?  Come on seriously?!!?

Maria Sanchez of Civil Protection in Cuevas.  This creature was apparently 13 ft from head to tail.  It stunk as well this reminds me of the case that was recently posted here about what people seem to think is a whale carcass.  I am wondering if the Leviathans really did exist.

The post Mysterious Creature with horns washed up on beach in Spain first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post Mysterious Creature with horns washed up on beach in Spain appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

A very important official, Major-General V. Demyanko, commander of the Military Diver Service of the Engineer Forces of the Ministry of Defense, USSR. He arrived to inform the local officers of an extraordinary event the had occurred during similar training exercises in the Trans-Baikal and West Siberian military regions. There, during their military training dives, the frogmen had encountered mysterious underwater swimmers, very human-like, but huge in size (almost three meters in height!)

The swimmers were clad in tight-fitting silvery suits, despite icy-cold water temperatures. At the depth of fifty meters, these “swimmers” had neither scuba diving equipment (“aqualungs”), nor any other equipment, only sphere-like helmets concealing their heads.

Well, the local military commander (quite alarmed by such encounters) decided to capture one of the creatures. With that purpose in mind, a special group of seven divers, under the command of an officer, had been dispatched.

As the frogman tried to cover the creature with a net, the entire group was thrown out of the deep waters to the surface by some powerful force. Now, because autonomous equipment of the frogmen does not allow surfacing from such depths without strict adherence to the process of decompression stops, all of the members of the ill-gated expedition were stricken by aeroembolism, of the Caisson disease. The only remedial treatment available consisted of an immediate confinement under decompression conditions in a pressure chamber. They had several such pressure chambers in the military region, but only one in working condition. It could contain no more than two persons.

Hence, local CO had forced four frogmen into the chamber. As a result, three of them (including the leader of the group) perished, and the rest became invalids – terrible consequences caused by the usual Soviet military bungling.

The major-general rushed to the Issik Kul to warn the local military against similar “devil-may-care” actions. Although the Issik Kul Lake is more shallow than the Baikal Lake, the depth of the former was sufficient to contain similar mysterious creatures.Did the major-general know something that Officer Shteynberg did not?

A short time later, the staff headquarters of the Turkmenistan military region had received an order from the Commander-in-Chief of the Land Forces. The order consisted of detailed analysis of the Baikal Lake events and reprimands. It was supplemented by an information bulletin from the headquarters of the Engineer Forces of the Ministry of Defense, USSR. the bulletin listed numerous deepwater lakes where there had been registered sightings of anomalous phenomena: appearances of underwater creatures analogous to the Baikal type, descent and surfacing of giant discs and spheres, powerful luminescence emanating from the deep, etc.

Such documents, without exception, were highly classified and “for the eyes” of a very limited circle of military officers. The purpose [of]such documents was “to prevent unnecessary encounters….”

The post Russian Underwater Encounters With Underwater Humanoids first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post Russian Underwater Encounters With Underwater Humanoids appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

Originally, I had no information on this case.  However, within days, this case file quickly became the #1 downloaded case file… getting more than 8,000 downloads in just the first couple of days it was online.

After a day or so, the actual photographer wrote to me to clear up some of the information being touted by the media. Shockingly… they were disseminating the WRONG story about what really happened.

Below, is an email interview I did with the actual photographer… who gave some more details and cleared up a few things.  This was our exchange (No corrections have been made.)

These are the words of Emadaldin Pichgah, the original photographer:

Can you explain in detail how you were made aware of this creature?

At 1030 (lt) – 11.07.2013 when our vessel was standby in Persian Gulf (South Pars Area) one of my friends, Capt. M. Nikkhah made contact with me by radio and inform me that they discovered the huge unknown Carcass that floated in water in their position. So i proceed toward their location and try to approached to this creature. the point was that the horrible smell spread as much as all crew sense that from approximately 200 m (may e more) from the carcass. when we approached to carcass we shot some photos and also inform the position and course and speed of carcass drift to the nearest Drilling Rig this Carcass at that moment drifted in 120 degrees – 1 knt speed. Also the length of this Carcass was approximately between 33 to 39 ft. After 1 hour we left area because of horrible smell.

How long have you been at sea? Have you ever seen anything like this before?

I am chief officer with around 6 years experience and during this sea time i have never seen some thing like that. How ever i’ve never work in Fishing vessels, because Fishing vessels crew are more experienced about these cases.

What did your shipmates think?

Unfortunately every one had his own opinion. Octopus! Huge Shark or desperate whale! but no body couldn’t prepare any evidence or strong reasons.

Why was this originally said to be captured by the Iranian Navy?  Did you release the story, or did the media steal the photos from your page?

Honestly, i don’t know! I am working in Supply Boat in Offshore Field. If you notice to photos you can realized that the type of vessel in frame is Supply Boat not a War Ship. First time i sent photos to tabnak.ir –

(http://www.tabnak.ir/fa/news/334013/%D9%86%DA%AF%D8%A7%D9%87-%D8%B4%D9%85%D8%A7-%D9%85%D9%88%D8%AC%D9%88%D8%AF-%D8%B9%D8%AC%DB%8C%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D9%84%D9%82%D9%87-%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D9%BE%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B3-%D8%AC%D9%86%D9%88%D8%A8%DB%8C)

just to ask the website visitors to discover the nature of this creature but in flash of light the photos spread in media and social networks. so i blame no body to stole this photo from my page but except tabnak.ir and mamnak.com nobody mentioned the source of these photos and just copy that.

Have you ever seen a dead whale carcass in the sea? Did it look like this?

Alive Whale yes, even one time we touch accidentally with one of them but dead whale no.

What do you think this is?

My knowledge about the sea mammals and animals in general is poor so i have no idea about this Carcass. Also regarding the type of tidal current in Persian Gulf its a little hard to believe some things drift from Ocean into the Persian Gulf near the Qatar beach.

My special thanks to Emadaldin Pichgah for the interview, and allowing us all access to the original, raw and high resolution photographs.  They are available for download below.

High Resolution Photos

The following was published by the Huffington Post shortly after the photos began circulating.

Update 8/12/2013 from The Black Vault: Thanks to the more than 10,000 people that have visited this case file as the time of this update, another discovery made in 2011, also noted as a mysterious and unidentified carcass, washed up from the sea onto shore.  Photos of this look nearly identical to whatever this creature was.

Here is the original news story, dated March 24, 2011, from the Nassau Guardian news site.

The post Iranian vessel found a strange creature in the Persian Gulf first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

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