Norwegian Fisherman Reels in Rare Fish with Alien Features

When 19-year-old Oscar Lundahl, a fishing guide from Norway, embarked on a typical fishing trip, he never imagined he'd encounter something that would amaze not just him, but thousands around the globe. 

As his boat reached waters 800 meters deep, Oscar cast his strong fishing rod into the sea and waited. 

"It was totally unexpected," he recounted when he felt something snagging the line. "I threw in a few hooks and began reeling them in. There were two halibuts, and then I pulled another hook and felt something powerful resisting. It took me a long time to catch it because it was at a depth of over 2,600 feet."

For half an hour, Oscar struggled with the stubborn creature until he finally hauled it into the boat. "When I pulled it up, I almost jumped into the water in shock. I've never seen anything like it in my life; it looked like some sort of dinosaur or something," he writes on his Facebook page. "It was incredible."

"I wanted to release it back into the water, but when I was about to do so, I noticed it was already dead," he recalled. 

It turns out what he caught was a 'ratfish' - a rare type of shark that has garnered significant interest among marine researchers. 

The first time marine researchers encountered this fish was three years ago when an American group from the 'Monterey Bay' research center in California filmed the mysterious fish off the coast of Hawaii, at a depth of 2,000 meters below the ocean surface. 

What do we know about this mysterious fish? Here are some intriguing facts:

• It belongs to the chimaeras family. 

• Also known as the 'ghost shark' and 'rabbit fish'. 

• Has a 'plate' instead of teeth. 

• The first shark found of this kind is extremely rare and named the 'pointy-nosed blue chimaera'.