HÃ¥kon Brandvik made the rash decision of trying to catch a massive monkfish underwater with a knife. The result was a 15-minute battle to the death with a 56-kilo (123.5-lb), 1.5 meter (59-inch) fish armed with a massive mouth full of long, pointed teeth. "I was terrified. It could have taken my entire head in its mouth," Brandvik told newspaper Sunnhordland's web site. Brandvik was shaken long after his ordeal, which started when the 27-year-old was out diving with colleagues at Sveio in Hordaland County in western Norway. He encountered the beast at about 12 meters (39.3 feet) deep. Brandvik made the sudden decision to try and capture the fish using a knife, and stabbed it between the eyes - without getting the expected effect. "Then it started to try and bite me. That was when I started having regrets," Brandvik said.
Brandvik's colleague Elena Zhichkina from Stord Underwater Service was the dive leader, and saw the drama from aboard their boat. "It was really quite shocking, even though I knew how large the fish was. It was about my size," Zhichkina told Aftenposten.no. Her friend's fight against the massive fish took a quarter of an hour.
"The fish was incredibly strong, after a while I my arm started to cramp," Brandvik told the newspaper.