09/05/2014 AT 12:15 PM EDT
A fisherman in Florida has nabbed a rare and scary-looking 18-inch shrimp, USA Today reports.
Steve Bargeron was on a dock in Fort Pierce, Florida, when he noticed another fisherman pull up something from the deep that few have ever seen – a giant shrimp more than a foot long that dangled monstrously from a fishing pole.
Photos of the monster shrimp taken by Bargeron were posted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission on Facebook and the sizable crustacean looks more lobster than the peel-and-eat variety commonly pulled from Florida waters. Scientists suspect it could be from a species known as a mantis shrimp, which the FWC noted aren't really shrimp at all but are creatures known as stomatopods, an ancient species of marine predators who may be distant cousins to lobsters and crabs, which typically grow to around 11 inches or larger.
Whatever the catch turns out to be, readers were captivated by the unique sea creature story, sharing the photos posted by the FWC Thursday more then 7,800 times. Noted one Facebook poster: "THIS is why I absolutely love the ocean. Considering we only know about 5 percent of what's in the sea, you never know what you might find under the surface & I find that completely captivating."
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