Deep Sea Discoveries: You’ll Never Believe The Photos This Russian Fisherman Took

The open ocean: a world of mystery, terror, and the most bizarre forms of life. Humans have imagined and feared what lives below the waves since the days of Homer, and even with modern diving technology, we still do not fully know the answer.

Though no one has mapped out aquatic life in full, deep sea fishers have a strong sense of what lies under the sea, having reeled a variety of unusual and intriguing marine animals aboard their ships. One such fisher, Roman Fedortsov from northwestern Russia, recently decided to share his discoveries with the world, posting them in a series of tweets. His pictures provide a glimpse of subaquatic life, but fair warning: they aren’t for the faint of heart!

 Oceanic Observations

Scientists and explorers have long published photos of what they’ve found deep in the ocean, and the results often look like the stuff of nightmares. Take the angler fish, pictured here: if you could either swim with this or with a great white shark, I bet you’d choose the shark!

 Scientific Separation

As terrifying as these images are, however, scientific photos are always somewhat detached. You can look at a picture in National Geographic and feel safe, knowing that these frightening fish are thousands of leagues away and miles below the ocean’s surface.

 Facing It Physically

Fedortsov’s photographs disrupt that scientific barrier, exposing us directly to the terrors of undersea life. Here you can see him holding one of his discoveries by hand, with no separation between himself and an unknown creature. It’s hard to feel safe when you see someone so close to an unstudied and seemingly deadly form of life.

 At Times, It’s Comforting…

Granted, scientific photos create their own illusions of terror that Fedortsov’s tweets help to dispel. The fang tooth fish, for example, look like the deadliest animal in the world in professional photos, but here you can see it is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Terror is often just a matter of scale.