Prepare to be amazed by the mysterious sea creature recently caught off the coast of Coney Island in New York City. This mind-boggling discovery has sent shockwaves through the internet, leaving everyone in awe. But fear not, the explanation behind this bizarre creature is not as otherworldly as it may seem.
A video of the creature, uploaded to TikTok by user Natalie1526n, has already garnered over 1.4 million views. This squirming, amorphous blob has sparked wild theories among armchair biologists, with some suggesting it could be a squid or an undiscovered deep-sea creature. Others even claim it resembles the Demogorgon from the hit series Stranger Things. But hold on, because the truth might be much more down-to-earth.
“It’s actually a curled up ray, and it’s male, as indicated by its big claspers,” revealed James Maclaine, a senior curator at the Natural History Museum in London, in an interview.
Further investigation led Maclaine to identify the creature as the clearnose skate, scientifically known as Raja eglanteria. “It’s weird that people are so freaked out by it, considering it’s exactly the kind of thing they were fishing for!” he added.
Indeed, the clearnose skate is not as uncommon as it may appear. While they may not win any beauty contests, these skates are relatively widespread along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the US. Although they are not intentionally targeted by fishermen, they often end up as bycatch during groundfish trawling and scallop dredging.
