Deep sea explorers capture eerie footage of never-before-seen ‘ghost fish’

Just because you’ve never seen it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Scientists this week laid eyes on a never-before-seen live “ghost fish” 8,202 feet beneath the water near The Mariana Trench, east of Guam.

The elusive underwater creature was spotted on a video feed of one of the world’s deepest waters, .

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The translucent fish with unearthly white eyes and gelatinous skin is a member of the Aphyonidae family and was discovered during a deep water National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research mission of marine national monuments,

Some scientists couldn’t identify the rare creature at first glance, but Bruce Mundy didn’t take long to make the stunning realization that he was part of a historic discovery.

“My first reaction was ‘what is that?’

"And then after that, my reaction was ‘oh my gosh, this could be this very rare fish.’ And my third reaction was ‘it is!’

"Previously, the fish was brought up with nets but it wasn’t alive. Many of these animals are pale, at the bottom of the ocean, this could be because of evolution, lack of light, there’s no selection in evolution in the development of colors.

"Also food is very scarce down there, so animals don’t put a lot of energy in pigment patterns,” an excited Mundy told The Weather Channel.

Fish in the Aphyonidae family have been noted to exist ever since the first sea expedition in the 1870s but they are one of the least known fishes. Scientists are still trying to determine where they like to swim.

“Some of us working with the fish have a wish list, you know, sort of a bucket list of what we might want to see, and a fish in this family is probably first on this list for a lot of us,” Mundy said. “This is just remarkable,” .

Despite its eerie name, Dr. Shirley Pomponi, the head of biology for the project, quipped: “Our interns think that this fish looks like Falkor, a dragon from ‘The Neverending Story.’”

Scientist Tara Luke told : “We know more about the surface of the moon than we know about the deep ocean.”