Man Kills Sea Monster with Bow and Arrow

Rating: 7.0/10 (23 votes cast)

Don’t let reality TV fool you: there are many things to be found on the Jersey Shore, and not all of them involve alcohol-fueled sex. Unless, of course, you can picture yourself making out with the creature pictured above.

The photo was taken by a New Jersey man on a fishing trip after he managed to kill the sea monster with a well-aimed arrow shot from the bow that he packed with him. The arrow caught the creature through the midsection, killing it after a short struggle in the water, and allowing the man to drag its carcass on board the boat in order to pose for a few shots.

Hunting accolades aside – anyone who can take out a relatively small and skinny water animal with a bow and arrow deserves a bit of kudos – the most important question surrounds exactly what the beast is. Well-bloodied from the kill shot, measuring about four feet in length, and sporting big, swollen lips over small, jagged, and very dangerous-looking teeth, the animal looks like something out of a horror film, but scientists who have seen the picture are tentatively identifying it as a sea lamprey, a large parasitic eel that lives in the North Atlantic – though, at four feet, it would be a very large specimen of that species.

Whatever it is, it’s not something that I’d be keen to bump into while out for a swim!