Irish Fishermen Dredge Up Alien-Looking UnknownSpecies[Original headline: Creature from the deep baffles expert]
The Department of the Marine has appealed for help in identifying a long legged deep sea creature, which was netted off the Kerry coast.
A seasoned specialist on rare fish was last night baffled by the strange grasshopper like specimen found in nets 220 miles from the shore.
Department of the Marine official Kevin Flannery thinks that what he described as a weird looking animal may be a sea spider, but he appealed for people with expertise for help with identification.
“In my 25 years’ experience, I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and it could be the first time that the likes of it was landed here, given that the trawler was fishing to a depth of around 2,000 metres,’’ he said. “We come across a lot of unusual species around the south and west coasts, but this is one of the strangest I’ve seen,’’ he added.
It has eight, nine inch legs, virtually no body and is shaped like a grasshopper. The body is of a pink/orange colour and the legs are brown/yellow.
“It’s alien looking and, I’d say, is rather large for a sea spider, but I hope someone out there can confirm what it is,’’ Mr Flannery said.
The creature was landed in Fenit, Co Kerry, by a trawler working off the Porcupine Bank.
Mr Flannery has preserved the creature, and it could end up in the Natural History Museum, or in the Aquarium, in Dingle, Co Kerry.
• Story originally published by •
Irish Examiner / Cork | By Donal Hickey - February 5 2001
