The deep sea is a place of mystery that we are still trying to understand and underneath all that salty water is a unique world with full of life despite the utter absence of light or warmth. The diversity of aquatic creatures is considered far greater than the diversity of ones on land. Roman Fedortsov, a Russian fisherman working on a trawler from the port city of Murmansk in the northwest part of Russia, has taken pictures of some of these deep-sea creatures their trawler captured. Here is what they look like.

This strange-teethed eel-like fish is called frilled shark, an extant species of sharks. Its features are considered so primitive that it is called a “living fossil”.

This black scabbardfish has huge glassy eyes and teeth like daggers. 

Another strange creature that looks like a metallic duck toy…

Two strange fishes caught in the trawl. The one on the right with only one eye on the top of its head is actually a halibut. 

These two dark deep sea creatures might look as if they’ve been slathered in tar. But, their pitch black color could be to avoid being sighted by their prey. 

This fish with large bulging eye is macrourus, also known as rattail or grenadier. It is found at great depths from the Arctic to the Antarctic oceans. 

The protruding mouth of a grenadier fish.

Chimaera, also known as ghost shark, is a close living relative of sharks though its evolution branched off from sharks 400 million years ago. Its eyes glow when exposed to light, but they look like sunken pits in the dark underwater. 

The mouth of a chimaera fish…

Lumpfish or lumpsucker. The eggs of this fish are used as a substitute for caviar produced by sturgeons. 

An unidentified fish with its transparent front side. 

A fish looking like a dragon.

This one looks like a lampwork glass bead. 

Another deep-sea shark with its eyes glowing…

A live starfish with more than five arms and in an interesting color. 

The deep sea fish have to live in extreme darkness, and so they evolve to adapt to their environment. Most of these fish are blind and rely on their sense of pressure and smell while others develop big and extremely sensitive eyes that are 100 times more powerful than human eyes. 

A dark-colored and sharp-toothed flat fish…

This one is an orange-colored sea spider, a marine arthropod with legs that are extremely long compared to its body size. 

These creatures seem to use their own bodies to hide and come out when they want to. 

Strange and ugly though they are, these pictures only prove the immensity of nature and the infinite variety of life on this small blue planet of ours. Hence, it is our duty to help preserve it by being responsible towards the environment.

You may find more images of these creatures on Fedortsov’s twitter account.

[sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]