Nightmarish goblin shark found off coast of Florida not the only frightening inhabitant of the deep

IT’S the stuff of nightmares.

Prawn fishermen have pulled a freakish and extremely rare goblin shark from the waters off the coast of Key West, Florida.

This is only the second time in history that the frightening beast has been seen in the Gulf of Mexico, the Houston Chronicle reports.

With a long, flat snout and serrated teeth, the 5.5m shark was caught by accident while fishermen were trawling for prawns last month.

After a good gawk and a few pics, they returned the fish to the water and it swam away.

This is not the only nightmarish creature lurking in the ocean.

Here are five other horrors of the deep:

1. THE BARRELEYE FISH

Ever wanted to see right into someone’s brain? Well the wacky barreleye fish has kindly obliged, with its completely transparent head. Its tubular eyes encased in its see-through dome allow it to look in multiple directions at once, which it uses to detect the silhouettes of its prey swimming above.

2. THE BLOBFISH

It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry looking at this guy. The unfortunately named blobfish, who incidentally has his own Twitter account and is the mascot of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, is a freaky fish we can call our own, residing in the deep waters off the coast of southeast Australia. The gelatinous mass (or should that be gelatinous mess?) doesn’t waste energy on swimming, choosing instead to float above the sea floor swallowing whatever tasty morsels drift in front of it.

3. THE FANGTOOTH

Why someone hasn’t made a horror movie starring these guys is beyond me. The fangtooth — which also goes by the cuddly monikers of the ogrefish or the common sabertooth — has the largest teeth of any fish, in proportion to its body size. Its bottom chompers are so large it has special sockets at the roof of its mouth for them to slide into when it closes its jaw. It puts its teeth to good use hunting squid and other small fish. They live up to 5000m underwater.

4. THE SNAKEHEAD FISH

This little beauty is considered more dangerous than a piranha and will eat anything it comes across. Perhaps most frightening is that this southeast Asian monster can crawl on land and survive out of water for up to four days. Once referred to as “Fishzilla” by National Geographic, snakeheads are an invasive species because they have no natural enemies outside of their native environment.

5. THE HATCHETFISH

More ghoulish than freakish, they may be only small, measuring between three and 15 centimetres, but the hatchetfish has large, piercing, tubular eyes that point upward. They also can pull off the nifty trick of glowing in the dark, thanks to a process known as bioluminescence. They get their name from their weird skinny-but-deep body shape, which emulates a hatchet.