World / 'Pig-faced' shark caught by sailors in Italy, pics go viral

Rome: A group of Italian sailors were left baffled when they came across a fish that looked like a bizarre cross between a pig and a shark. The unusual fish was spotted floating atop the water in the Darsena Medicea, which is in the town of Portoferraio on the Italian island of Elba.

The sailors of the naval vessel got the strange creature out of the water only to discover that it looked as if it had the body of a shark and the face of a pig.

When the fish was closely inspected, it turned out that the animal was actually an angular roughshark - Oxynotus centrina.

The deep-sea creature is sometimes known as the pig-faced shark.

pig fish

The angular roughshark is currently listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), however, locals say that it shows up on the surface on occasion.

The discovery was made on August 19, however, the photos went viral only recently after they were shared on social media.

The sailors took the fish to the harbour office where it was studied and eventually disposed of.

Yuri Tiberto, from the Elba Aquarium, said that though the angular roughshark are rare, it isn't that unusual for them to be spotted in the area.

"It is commonly called a 'pig fish' because when it comes out of the water it emits a kind of grunt. In the sea of the Tuscan archipelago, so rich in biodiversity... it is not uncommon to find this fish, and I can safely say that I often receive reports telling me of 'pig fish' that have ended up in local fishing nets," he was quoted as saying by LADbible.

He added, "I also tried for a period to host it in one of the tanks at the aquarium, but soon I gave up because I saw that it is a species that does not adapt to captivity."