Kendra Luckow is used to finding creatures on Race Rocks but her recent discovery has left her perplexed.
She works as an “ecoguardian,” formerly known as the lighthouse keeper, at the Race Rocks protected marine area off the southern tip of Vancouver Island.
“I'm on a rock in the middle of the ocean,” she said.
On any given day, seagulls and other birds drop plenty of surprises for her, from shellfish to starfish. But while out for a walk on Oct. 26, Luckow stopped and looked down at something different: an animal with dozens of teeth.
“I’ve never seen so many teeth on any animal — ever,” she told Glacier Media. “This is probably up there as far as odd things go.”
Snapping a bunch of photographs she shared images of the creature on Facebook and with colleagues trying to determine what it was.
Her social media post in the Field Naturalists of Vancouver Island group has garnered more than 200 comments with people chiming in on what they think the animal is.
"I think it's definitely a fish, given the rows of teeth,” said Luckow.
Many people suggested the animal was a lingcod; one person even said it “looks like the Alien.”
Maria Cornthwaite, head in the groundfish data unit at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said the image, which shows teeth and a shrivelled body, make it impossible to say for sure what the fish is.
"I think this one would be difficult even if we had the specimen, as it didn’t look like there was much left of the head or body,” Cornthwaite said.
Examining the teeth, she said it could be a ghostly grenadier — a deep-water group of fish with rat-like tails Cornthwaite has sometimes seen during research surveys off the coast of B.C.
The specimen could be either a ghostly grenadier or rough abyssal grenadier (Coryphaenoides yaquinae or C. leptolepis), she said. The fish usually have bands of teeth rather than two distinct rows.
As for Luckow, she enjoyed seeing everyone try to guess what creepy animal had fallen into her life, and is thankful to faculty staff and volunteers from Metchosin's Pearson College who raised funds to keep a guardian on the island.
Without them, Luckow said, she wouldn’t be "out here finding creepy skeletons.”
