A unknown gruesome looking fish?

Yeah, you're right, maldives. At the same time, the black & white photo depicts a rattail that probably has been started decomposing, hence the eyes falling out and the bloating of the stomach.

Hi again, bulgy stomach could also be due to a distended swim bladder as they are an abyssal species. Not a very nice looking fish, but apparently quite tasty! According to the link that U4ik posted the Russians have been fishing for them for years. U4ik's link - interesting site too -

people.whitman.edu...

Guess there's a possibility that it just died and floated up, or it may have been caught and the fisherman/men were so scared that they just chucked it back in and it got washed up!

Yea Toad Fish is probably right, with the decomposition (eyes bulging, stomach bulging) it is just making the fish look very strange. The spines probably fell out as well because of the decomposition, nice find tho.