By Tim Binnall
A woman on a fishing trip in Alaska reeled in a bizarre sea creature that looked like something from another world. The unsettling catch was reportedly made by Sarah Vasser-Alford as she was fishing with friends and family off the coast of Prince of Wales Island last month. Hoping to snag some halibut, the group was aghast when they caught a strange orange creature sporting long tentacles that slowly undulated in the open air.
Vasser-Alford promptly posted a video of the weird denizen of the deep to Facebook, where it quickly went viral and viewers likened the oddity to the infamous 'facehugger' from the film Alien. Fortunately for the fishing party, the creature was not an intergalactic monster as it was soon identified by astute observers to be a type of echinoderm known as a 'basket star.' And, for those wondering, Vasser-Alford says that they released the oddity back into the water, where it is presumably currently swimming around blissfully unaware that it is an internet sensation.