You may never want to enter the ocean (or Florida, for that matter) ever again. This gigantic shrimp is real, and it apparently lives off the coast of the Sunshine State.
Steve Bargeron watched a fellow fisherman (no doubt in horror) pull this massive monstrosity from the ocean while fishing off a dock in Fort Pierce, Florida. Measured to be 18 inches long, Bargeron says he helped grab the creature by its back like a lobster before snapping pictures for all the world to see and then immediately never unsee.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission posted the photos to its Facebook page and offered a little explanation as to what exactly the massive creature is. So far scientists think the creature may be a mantis shrimp, which, as it turns out, is not actually a type of shrimp but a type of crustacean called a stomatopod.
According to Wikipedia, more than 400 types of mantis shrimp exist, and can be known to grow up to anywhere between 12 inches to 15 inches in length, but usually spend most of their life burrowed into the sea floor or in various holes. If the measurement of the above bad boy is accurate, then this particular crustacean is several inches larger than the norm.
The fisherman couldn't have picked a more badass sea creature to pull out from the depths. Apparently mantis shrimp are the boxers of the sea, with powerful claws that they use to pulverize, spear and dismember their prey. A scientist quoted in a 2006 USA Today story even says that some larger species of Mantis Shrimp are strong enough to punch through the glass of an aquarium in a single strike. That's because the creature can hit at more than 50 mph with a heavily armored "heel," which it sheds every few months and replaces.
Bargeron and his fisherman friend could have gotten in some serious trouble had the mantis shrimp decided it wasn't going to be yanked out of the ocean without fight. No word on what the fishermen did with the creature after hoisting it out of the water, but hopefully they didn't try to sauté it. They probably would have wound up in the pan instead.
