Expert: Strange creature likely an oarfish

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DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Jan. 12 (UPI) -- A Florida biology expert says a strange creature photographed after washing up on shore in Delray Beach was likely an oarfish.

Carolyn Hoffman said she was walking along the beach Jan. 5 with her fisherman husband, Harry Furrevig, when they happened across a long, ribbon-shaped fish with a large, bulging eye that neither of them recognized, The Palm Beach Post reported Thursday.

"It just rolled up on the beach in front of us," Hoffman said. "I've never seen anything shaped like that."

Ray Waldner, a Palm Beach Atlantic University biology professor and ichthyologist, a scientist who studies fish, said the animal in the pictures is probably an oarfish. He said the fins on the fish do not exactly match an oarfish, but they may have been worn down by time in the surf.

"It's not that rare to have one of these things wash up on the beach," Waldner said.

Waldner said the fish may have also been a dealfish.