Contributed by Info Guru Paul Seaburn

I don’t like to fish and I’m not a big fan of seafood, but I’ve never been able to determine why.

Then I saw some pictures of deep underwater creatures and realized that one of my ancestors must have taken a submarine ride and been terrified by these monsters. No amount of batter or tartar sauce could convince me to fry and eat any of water-logged monsters.

Would you?

10. Deep Sea Rat

The rattail or grenadier is one of the more abundant deep underwater creatures, scaring other fish from the Arctic to the Antarctic with their large heads and mouths and skinny rat-like tails. Male rattails make a drum noise to attract females, which also makes them attractive to bigger fish with good hearing.

9. Underwater Basketball

The female deep sea angler, also known as the common black devil or Melanocetus johnsoni, is shaped like a basketball but is only five inches long. It has a thin lighted fin in its head to lure prey. The male angler is only the size of a finger and attaches itself to a female with small hook teeth, eventually becoming a permanent fixture.

8. Big Gulper

Jay Leno would be in awe of the jaw on the gulper eel (Eurypharynx pelecanoides). It’s mouth is hinged to open wide and swallow larger fish that can fit inside the six-foot-long gulper. While probably not good in a rainstorm, for obvious reasons it’s also called the umbrella mouth gulper.

7. Big and Crabby

The giant isopod (Bathynomus giganteus) is the largest known member of the isopod family, which are crustaceans similar to crabs and shrimp. They’re also related to the common garden pillbug and can ball themselves up when in danger. Living on the bottom of the ocean means giant isopods eat whatever falls to the ocean floor.

6. In Need Of A Nose Job

The long-nosed chimaera is both scary-looking and dangerous. This five-foot-long creature is sometimes called the ghost shark and the venomous spine on its first dorsal fin can kill a person … well, any person who first survives diving 8,00 feet down to touch it.

5. Give Them A Hand

Handfish get their name from the hand-shaped pectoral fins which they use for walking along the ocean floor in the coastal waters of southern Australia and Tasmania. They’re also called warty anglers because they’re anglerfish with some nasty scales.

4. The Blob

A fish that lives up to its name, the blobfish is basically a gelatinous blob of fish flesh that is slightly less dense than water, allowing it to float just above the ocean floor and eat whatever floats by. Living off the coast of Australia and Tasmania, blobfish are only seen if they’re picked up by trawling fishnets.

3. Row, Row, Row Your Fish

The king of herrings or giant oarfish is not a herring nor an oar but is actually the world’s longest bony fish. Reaching up to 56 feet in length and weighing over 600 pounds, the king of herrings may be the creature people see when they think they’ve spotted a sea serpent.

2. That’s Some Calamari

At a length of up to 60 feet, the giant squid or Architeuthis dux is the largest invertebrate in the world. Stories of these huge mollusks eating humans right off of small boats are numerous but unverified. However, those long tentacles and strong suction cups make them dangerous to other residents of the deep sea including whales.

1. Bug-Eyed Monster

Bug eyes, needle-like teeth and a light on its dorsal fin to lure prey make the viperfish one of the scariest creatures of the deep. Its fangs curve outside its head so the viperfish can close its mouth when biting other fish.