Fisherman’s photo of weird catch oddly looks like a painting

David Strege
Thu, April 27, 2023


The image of a weird-looking fish caught by a commercial fisherman in Russia had some people thinking it wasn’t real.

“Is this a drawing?” one commenter on Instagram stated. “The hand looks real, but the fish/organism does not.”

“Looks like a painting,” another commenter stated.

“Me thought exactly the same!” one replied.


The photo was taken by Roman Fedortsov, whose trawler boat is based out of the port city of Murmansk in the northwest part of Russia.

A few years ago, he began photographing the bizarre catches made by his trawler and started posted them online. He now has an Instagram following of 652,000.

Fedortsov’s latest odd catch is what he called a big-eyed Macrurus, though perhaps it is a Macrourus berglax, as listed in the World Register of Marine Species.

Also on FTW Outdoors: 112-pound halibut caught through the ice in a unique fishery

Among the other reactions to the image on Instagram:

“Looks like a creature from a Tim Burton Movie.”

“You mean it’s a real fish? I thought it was computer fantasy.”

“I thought it was a drawing.”

It should be noted that the deep-sea creature doesn’t actually have eyes as big as depicted in the photo. While it has large eyes, they bulge out when brought up from the depths because of the change in pressure.

But commenters are right, it does look like a painting.

Photo courtesy of Roman Fedortsov.

Story originally appeared on For The Win