Scientists have spotted for the first time a living “ghost fish,” an eel-like creature in the family of Aphyonidae. The roughly four-inch long fish has eerie white skin and a tadpole-like tail, and was captured on camera on a ridge about 8200 feet underwater in the Pacific.

“I am sure that this is the first time a fish in this family has ever been seen alive,” Bruce Mundy, a fisheries biologist with NOAA, said in the video. “This is really an unusual sighting.” Mundy added that the find helps scientists answer a question: do these creatures, which have only been found dead before, dwell in the water column, or down near the bottom of the ocean? FULL REPORT