Where do sea serpents come from? Legend and myth, of course. But many scientists think the giant oarfish, which can grow up to 55 feet in length, has been the main inspiration for all those myths over the years. A few oarfish corpses in various unsavory states have washed up on shore over the years, including a 16-footer that was the inspiration for this Harper's Weekly sketch titled "Monsters of the Sea." But no one's ever seen an oarfish swimming in the wild, at least until now. Here's the video:
The fish was recently caught swimming beneath a drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico—the camera was provided by oil companies and run by marine scientists. The collaboration, appropriately enough, is called the Serpent project.