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Monster surprise: Rarely-seen deep sea fish found on beach

St Cyrus National Nature Reserve/SNH Sloanes viperfishSt Cyrus National Nature Reserve/SNH
A Sloanes viperfish was among the deep-living animals found at St Cyrus

Conservation volunteers were surprised to find a menagerie of deep sea fish washed up on an Aberdeenshire beach.

The creatures included a fangtooth and a species of dragon fish called a Sloanes viperfish.

Jobrul Chamberlain and Bob Fitzpatrick found the animals at St Cyrus National Nature Reserve, a large area of protected coastline south of Aberdeen managed by Scottish Natural Heritage.

St Cyrus National Nature Reserve/SNH FangtoothSt Cyrus National Nature Reserve/SNH
An impressive fangtooth was also found

The fish were shown to the site's manager Therese Alampo who, along with the two conservation volunteers, were intrigued by how the rarely -seen, deep-living fish ended up on the beach.

It later turned out that a deep sea fish researcher had caught the animals off Shetland and took them home to show his children while on a visit to St Cyrus.

The tide swept the collection of creatures out to sea before washing them ashore again later.

St Cyrus National Nature Reserve/SNH Deep sea fishSt Cyrus National Nature Reserve/SNH
The fish were caught off Shetland

All images are copyrighted to St Cyrus National Nature Reserve/Scottish Natural Heritage.