diff --git a/src/components/P2P/index.ts b/src/components/P2P/index.ts
index b56906f8b..68062ac6b 100644
--- a/src/components/P2P/index.ts
+++ b/src/components/P2P/index.ts
@@ -591,8 +591,8 @@ export class OceanP2P extends EventEmitter {
   }
 
   async findPeerInDht(peerName: string, timeout?: number) {
-    const peer = peerIdFromString(peerName)
     try {
+      const peer = peerIdFromString(peerName)
       const data = await this._libp2p.peerRouting.findPeer(peer, {
         signal:
           isNaN(timeout) || timeout === 0
diff --git a/src/components/httpRoutes/getOceanPeers.ts b/src/components/httpRoutes/getOceanPeers.ts
index 0cf4e25d0..5ed5caa05 100644
--- a/src/components/httpRoutes/getOceanPeers.ts
+++ b/src/components/httpRoutes/getOceanPeers.ts
@@ -31,7 +31,8 @@ getOceanPeersRoute.get(
       const peers = await req.oceanNode
         .getP2PNode()
         .findPeerInDht(String(req.query.peerId), parseInt(String(req.query.timeout)))
-      res.json(peers)
+      if (peers) res.json(peers)
+      else res.sendStatus(404).send('Cannot find peer')
     } else {
       sendMissingP2PResponse(res)
     }