The scariest animals live on the bottom, the most bizarre - off the coast of Africa
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We are used to this world. There are many amazing and beautiful things in it, but behind the everyday monotonous rhythm of life, everyday worries and difficulties, we do not notice anything around us. Calmly pass by a rare flower bud and ignore the northern lights overhead.
Roman Fedortsov from Murmansk made a small revolution in social networks: he made thousands of people look at photographs of unusual marine life and remember about Mother Nature. "Komsomolskaya Pravda" talked to a sailor whose pictures the whole world knows. But few imagine who makes them and how.
"Not scary, but interesting!"
Roman has been sailing for 17 years. In 2000, he graduated from Moscow State Technical University with a degree in Fish Industry Technological Engineer, and then he was assigned to the Murmansk Trawl Fleet.
I always liked to photograph unusual underwater inhabitants, - says Roman Fedortsov to "KP". - For a long time he worked in the Central-East Atlantic, off the coast of Africa: Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau. Those waters are rich in bizarre fish. Now I work in the Norwegian and Barents Seas. Here, too, sometimes interesting specimens come across. Photographed, sometimes posted on Instagram. But popularity came after he registered on Twitter and began to upload photos there.
Roman publishes many of his photographs directly from the ship, where there is the Internet. Some pictures appear already from land - so much material is collected in one flight that upload it and upload it. By the way, Roman himself is not photographed.
The popularity of the pictures of unusual fish, which often look like aliens from other planets or the heroes of pagan legends and traditions revived, was similar to the acceleration of a racing car. The photos instantly spread across the network, in a matter of days they were published by dozens of media outlets and thousands of users in Europe, USA, Asia. The Japanese and Chinese, who love everything unusual and creepy, were especially delighted.
- Roman, are you not afraid and disgusted to take these fish in your hands? It is impossible to look at some of them without shuddering.
I will say it differently, interesting! Previously, it may have been scary, but now it is interesting! The only thing I can say is that you need to be careful when handling the catch in the fishery off the coast of Africa. There are many poisonous fish in those waters.
By the way, some fish actually look quite normal. Just watch popular science films about sea inhabitants, for example, about commercial fish. Smooth scales, normal sized eyes, ideal body proportions for swimming. But when the fish are dragged from the depths to the surface by a trawl, a sharp and large pressure drop is obtained. The case when the eyes come out of the orbits, the belly swells up or, conversely, decreases. And it turns out a monster. As Roman says, even the usual halibut can be photographed in such a way that you do not recognize it as a valuable commercial fish. But many of the heroes of the sailor's pictures look alien and in their native habitat.
- Where are the most strange fish? In the northern seas or the southern ones?
The farther south, the more amazing and beautiful fish you can find. In my work, I met most of all interesting specimens in the fishery in the Atlantic Ocean, in the Guinea-Bissau region, Africa, - says the Murmansk citizen.
By the way, sometimes other things fall into the trawl. For example, whale bones or an empty 200 liter barrel. Sailors do not like such greetings from the blue world, because they can break the tackle, especially if the trawling takes place in bad weather, which is not uncommon in the work of fishermen.
Throw out or eat?
Roman Fedortsov often photographs inhabitants of great depth. How do the fish living in the kingdom of darkness and cold end up in the trawl along with those that swim almost at the surface? As Roman explained, fishing can go at great depths. For example, in the Irminger Sea off Greenland, trawling takes place at a depth of about 950 meters. Enough to catch the monsters. For them, getting into the net is certain death.
Due to the sharp drop in pressure, almost all "monsters" do not survive, - explains Roman Fedortsov. - Accidental catch, such as chimeras, are thrown overboard.
The fishermen do not taste the taste of monsters. Probably, their colleagues from Asian countries would not mind such a culinary adventure, because the fish that seems inedible to us may turn out to be a delicacy in Japan. But Russians have their appetite for familiar dishes.
Sailors are resourceful people! - Roman laughs. - They can cook unusual fish if they want. But we didn't experiment. Although they ate grenadier and salted caviar. There is more than enough food on the ship, and for fish soup there is no better perch, halibut and cod.
Where fame and talent are, there is always a dangerous mediocrity. As soon as Roman Fedortsova's social networks became popular (only Twitter has more than 119 thousand subscribers, Instagram - 190), those who wanted to cash in on it immediately appeared. Murmansk's accounts were hacked, and the network was flooded with fake pages.
It's unavoidable. It’s unpleasant, but these are the realities. Much, by the way, depends on the support services of a particular social network. For example, on Twitter, it responds very quickly to requests to remove fake pages. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the Instagram support service, - the sailor is judicious about the situation.
See the real accounts of Roman Fedortsov in "Verified KP".
There is no life without the sea
It is possible that someday in the trawl of our sailors, and at the same time in the lens of Roman Fedortsov, a fish unknown to science and considered extinct (read "Competently") will come across. This happened more than once, when, for example, a prehistoric shark was accidentally discovered in the field. So far, the sailor has been able to recognize all his characters, including thanks to the users of the World Wide Web, among whom there are many specialists in marine flora and fauna.
Roman's subscribers are waiting for his new photos - the army of fans of fantastic fish is growing every day. And the sailor himself promises that there will be pictures.
For 17 years I have become accustomed to such a mode of work and way of life, and it is with great difficulty that I can imagine how I would work on the shore. More precisely, I have no idea yet, - says the Murmansk citizen.
By the way, Roman loves to photograph beautiful fish and seascapes. So we will wait for new pictures from him for an entertaining extracurricular lesson in natural history.
COMPETENTLY
Even scientists who, it would seem, have seen this more than once, are looking at the photos of the sailor with interest.
The novel may also come across a species unknown to science, the discovery of which will be devalued by the lack of information about the full appearance of the fish and its location, - says Senior Researcher of the Murmansk Marine Biological Institute (MMBI) Oksana Kudryavtseva.“Therefore, we would like the photographs of these rare or unusual fish to contain not only individual fragments of the body, but also the whole fish with spread fins, from all angles.
When a fish is brought to the surface by a trawl, it often changes its appearance due to pressure drop and "crush". Photo: Roman FEDORTSOV
Many fish in Roman Fedortsov's photographs live at depths under high pressure, where there is little light, and the water temperature drops to -2. Because of this, they look so strange, but as Oksana Kudryavtseva explains, there are no "pathologies". All features as in the textbook:
Large head, but slender body, thinning towards the end like a tail;
Large teeth and stomach;
Muscles and bones are soaked in water so that it does not hurt from the pressure (but if such a fish is pulled to the surface, it will swell, its eyes will bulge, and the insides will come out);
CHECKED "KP"
Roman Fedortsov's official pages, where you can follow his photographs.
A resident of the Vologda Oblast, who caught a "hefty ide" at one time, now has a serious competitor in popularity. The Murmansk fisherman became famous abroad, and he was already called an "Internet hit". Such major publications as Mirror, The Independent, The Sun, Mashable and others have written about him and his catch.
Screen from x \ f "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"
Let's not waste time and present the translation of the article. Daily mail about the fantastic creatures of the Murmansk fisherman. But I warn you right away that these inhabitants of the water depths are not very photogenic:
Scary alien creatures from the depths:
Russian fisherman becomes internet hit
after posting his strange catch on twitter
.Murmansk resident Oleg Fedortsov unveiled a terrifying catch
... A fisherman works on a trawler in a port in northwestern Russia
... The catch consists of eight-legged arthropods and fish with dagger-like teeth.
It's easy enough to forget that another world lives right below us - a mysterious ecosystem of the deep ocean, under the surface of which creatures from your nightmares lurk. But the feed of one twitter account will make you think twice before dipping your feet in the water on the beach.
Murmansk resident Oleg Fedortsov showed a terrifying catch from eight-legged arthropod fish to fish with dagger teeth.
A fisherman working on a trawler in a port in northwestern Russia has shared his amazing finds he discovered earlier this year, according to The Moscow Times. In addition to his Twitter account, Fedortsov also shares images of his catch on Flickr.
Among the many creatures, the frilled shark was discovered - an elusive eel shark with rows of fearsome teeth. Due to the presence of primitive features, the frilled shark is called "living fossil". The angler also posted a photo of the chimera, a fish known as a ghost shark.
Chimeras are known for their winged fins and long, whip-like tails - images taken by Fedortsov show their glowing green eyes. But this glow occurs only when exposed to light. In the darkness of the sea, ghost sharks seem to have sunken, "dead" eyes.
Like sharks and rays, chimeras have a cartilaginous skeleton. Fedortsov, perhaps, is better than most versed in deep-sea sea creatures, but some of the prey even baffles him.
Under a photograph of a strange creature with a massive jaw and sharp teeth, the angler wrote: "People are still arguing ... who is this?"
On Twitter, many joined the discussion. Many have argued that the specimen in question is Malacoste black, a deep-sea fish from the Malacosteus genus.
But not all he catches is fish.
One photograph shows a huge orange "sea spider" - a marine arthropod with long, thin legs about the size of a human hand.
Similar creatures have recently been discovered in the Arctic and southern oceans, where they have a paw span of 25 centimeters.
These sea "spiders" are actually pycnogons, a type of primitive marine arthropod. They grow to enormous sizes as a result of a phenomenon known as "polar gigantism," but scientists do not know why.
A frightening fish with large teeth is also on the list of amazing fish caught in the trawl. According to Fedortsov, this is a coal saber fish.
Another strange fish, with bulging red eyes and lips, has been identified as a species of longtail.
It is also known as grenadier and can be found deep under water almost everywhere (from the Arctic coast to the Antarctic).
While deep sea creatures tend to have an alien appearance, it is also known that changes in pressure can affect the appearance of some creatures when pulled to the surface.
Thousands of feet below pestilence, deep sea creatures are exposed to extremely high pressures.
Some of the creatures can withstand significant vertical migrations, but the lower pressure of the upper world is known to cause metabolic problems in other creatures, and may even affect their shape.
This effect is clearly seen in the example of a drop fish - a creature that has become the "ugliest animal" in the world according to polls.
Roman Fedortsov, a seaman from Murmansk, who works on a fishing vessel, continues to post on his social networks photos of fish that he comes across in the field. The inhabitants of the seabed in his photographs are one more terrible than the other, although Roman sees in each of them a special beauty.
Now you can follow the fisherman in the telegram, where he publishes a photo of not only the fish, but also the insides of the ship.
Since the time that Roman became famous throughout the country for his shocking pictures, a lot of interesting things have happened in a man's life. Firstly, Roman is trying to keep up with the trends of our time, and therefore started a Telegram channel called "Notes from a Bottle". There now he publishes not only photos of terrible creatures from the bottom of the sea, but also talks more about life on the ship itself.
This, for example, looks like a galley on their ship.
And so - the everyday work process.
Roman started the Telegram channel on January 1 and with the first message notified all his subscribers (and there are 1 626 of them so far) that he was forced to celebrate the New Year on the ship, all at work.
Admire the expressive eyes of this sea bass, for example.
And in the eyes of this fish, you can generally drown. After all, her pupil is a copy of Saturn.
The fish's glance below proves that cats aren't the only ones who can be unhappy. Even the grumpy cat Merlin may still have to train to reach that level.
In a frilled shark, a chip is its teeth, from which not a single prey will escape.
Some fish are beautiful in such a specific way that we will probably never appreciate it.
Halibuts, for example, completely break all stereotypes about the appearance of fish (just like body-positive models with a beard) and flaunt eyes that are not entirely symmetrical.
Despite the fact that we are so different with the fish, from the photo of Roman you can see how much we have in common. Isn't that what we look like when we overdid it with an invigorating drink?
And this fish is clearly Monday, and she did not get enough sleep.
American hydrolag, according to some users, looks like a rapper.
Some animals rather resemble some kind of mythical characters. For example, this is how a goblin fish looks like (yes, that's its real name).
And so - the Japanese spider crab, which allows algae and small crustaceans to live on itself. It looks a bit like Davey Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean.
And here the dragon drove up. As Roman clarifies, there is no retouching at all in the picture.
It happens that cuties such as anemones, similar to persimmons, fall into the hands of Roman.
New artifact for Stalker. Disgusting beauty from the depths.
It "s alive
New artifact for the Stalker.
Living ghoulish beauty from the bottom of the sea- Roman Fedortsov (@rfedortsov)