What is it? 20ft sea 'monster' washes up on tourist beach in Mexico

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Tourists and locals looked on in awe after a creature from the deep washed up on a main beach in Mexico's holiday resort of Cabo San Lucas.

The sea creature is actually an oarfish, something that typically lives 3,000ft below the surface of the ocean, and is rarely, if ever, seen by humans.

However, they reportedly come up to the surface if they are sick or injured.

piscesfleet.blogspot.co.uk

The one that washed up on Friday was around 20ft long, but oarfish can grow up to 50ft in length; they are not thought to be dangerous as they do not have any teeth.

The Pisces Fleet Sport Fishing blog reported that some locals jumped in to help the fish away from the beach, but it kept drifting back to the sand.

The blog said that park wardens quickly responded, scooping the fish out of the water, and dumping it back into the sea about two miles out before scientists could get there to take samples.

According to the Daily Mail, the National Marine Fisheries Servies The NMFS said that the first known video of a live oarfish was shot by divers in the Bahamas back in 2001.

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