Free Republic

Visibly straining as he holds it aloft, a Japanese fisherman grimaces as he proudly displays a terrifyingly large fish caught in the waters off Japan. With a gaping mouth large enough to swallow a small child, this creature - believed to be a wolffish - would not look out of place in a science fiction film. The massive catch was reeled in by Hirasaka Hiroshi, a fisherman who has made a career of landing and then eating unusual fish. Normally growing to about 1.2m in length, the wolffish Hirasaka caught measured close to two metres

PORTLAND, Maine — A ferocious-looking denizen of the deep that can gobble up whole urchins and crabs in a few swift chomps is in need of protection, according to a petition filed with the federal government. The Conservation Law Foundation asked the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday to list the Atlantic wolffish — a species with large protruding teeth and a face that's downright ugly — as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.