The 11ft monster is measured by a museum worker in SwedenIt certainly wouldn't fit on a piece of toast and would fill a thousand jars if marinated, but this is a giant 'herring' that washed up off the Swedish coast.
The monster measures more than 11ft and was at first thought to be an enormous piece of plastic floating in the sea.
The Regalecus glesne, known as the King of Herrings or Giant Oarfish, was found dead in the small fishing village of Bovallstrand on Sweden's west coast, about 140 miles from the Norwegian border.
The herring was found in Bovallstrand, a small fishing village on the west coast of SwedenIt is the first such fish found in the Scandinavian country in more than 130 years, marine experts said.
Kurt Ove Eriksson, the passer-by who found the fish, said: 'Down at the water, there was something big floating. At first we thought it was a big piece of plastic. But then we saw an eye. I went down to check and saw that it was this extremely strange fish.'
The rarely seen regalecus, the world's longest bony fish, can reach up to 40ft-long.
Now if that was split from tail to head, gutted, salted and cold smoked that would be one huge kipper.
'The last time we saw a King of Herrings in Sweden was in 1879,' said a spokesman at the House of the Sea museum in Lysekil, where the fish is being stored.
'We don't know much about the species but believe it lives in deep waters, at least 3,000ft deep, and many believe it's at the origin of the sea serpent myth or stories of mythological sea creatures like the Loch Ness Monster.'
The dead fish, which was frozen at the museum, had a deep cut through its body and was missing its beautiful, typical back fin, the museum said, adding the fish might be added to an exhibit on sea monsters planned later this year.
This 11ft-long 'King of Herrings' was washed up on the west coast of Swedensource: dailymail
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