A video shows a curious animal inspecting a Coast Guard craft off the coast of Louisiana. What was it?

Off the coast of Louisiana, a U.S. Coast Guard crew came upon a weird animal that resembled a gigantic mouth with fins and was heading right for their boat.

In the encounter’s video, the black figure ultimately identified itself as a large manta ray, a species with a maximum width of 20 feet.

The U.S. Coast Guard Station in Venice (Louisiana) posted a picture of a “giant curious creature” that the crew had discovered on Facebook. Who was more surprised, the crew or the manta ray?

The ray approached the crew’s 45-foot boat and looked to be inspecting it before disappearing underneath.

The crew of a “response boat medium” reported that six to eight manta rays were observed eating around their boat on Saturday, June 17, close to the mouth of the Mississippi River.

The crew calculated the manta ray’s breadth to be 8 feet, but in person, they said, it appeared considerably larger.

Although such encounters are not uncommon for U.S. Coast Guard vessels, they may nonetheless be breathtaking for sailors, according to officials.

Picture Courtesy: Google/images are subject to copyright