Bizarre see-through fish plucked from New Zealand waters
A New Zealand fisherman has been left baffled after reeling in a completely see-through creature just off the North Island's coast.
Stewart Fraser was fishing around 70km off the Karikari Peninsula with his two sons when he spotted what he though was a translucent shrimp floating near the top of the water, according to London's Daily Mail.
"I was in two minds whether to haul it in, but curiosity got the better of me and I decided to take a closer look," he told MailOnline.
"It felt scaly and was quite firm, almost jelly like, and you couldn't see anything inside aside from this orange little blob inside it."
Fraser and his friends were left mystified by the odd creature and still haven't come any closer to determining what it actually is.
"We have no idea what it could have been but it was quite something and I'd never seen anything like it before," Fraser said.
However, Paul Cox, director of conservation and communication at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, is identifying it as a Salpa maggiore ( Salpa maxima ).
According to Cox, the salp is barrel-shaped with a gelatinous body that helps pump water so it can move around.
“In common with other defenseless animals that occupy open water—jellies and hydroids, for example — the translucence presumably provides some protection from predation,” Cox told MailOnline.
“Being see-through is a pretty good camouflage in water.”
It is presumed Fraser threw the bizarre sea creature back into the ocean.
