Bizarre monster of the deep washes up at Lake Macquarie
The sea is full of weird and wonderful creatures and this latest offering found on the NSW coast only adds to that theory.
Newcastle dad Ethan Tippa sent social media into a frenzy when he posted this bizarre photo of a creature which is yet to be identified found at Lake Macquarie.
Mr Tippa said the sea monster washed ashore at Swansea near the mouth of the lake.
He simply uploaded the photo to Facebook with the words we would all be uttering: “What the f***k is this?”.
The image has already been shared more than 1150 times, but no expert has been able to come up with a viable explanation.
Skeptics say the image could simply have been a creation from photoshop while others with more faith have put forward that it might be a large hair tail, a member of the cutlassfish family or a pike eel.
News Corp reports that Australian Museum ichthyology manager Mark McGrouther said the creature appeared to be a pike eel, which are known to frequent estuaries and coastal waters.
“They grow to 1.8 metres in length but the angle the photo is taken from probably makes it look more impressive than it is," Mr McGrouther said.
“They play havoc with fishing line when hooked."
This is not the first sea monster of the deep to send social media crazy.
When an enormous oarfish washed up on the Californian coast, observers were rightly stunned.
But we know what an oarfish is (even if we honestly would prefer it didn’t exist). Some of these other horrifying sea monsters seem to confound attempts at explanation.
Are they throwbacks from millions of years ago? Are they Hell beasts unleashed from the depths of Hades by angry gods bent on punishing us?
Or are they just misunderstood cuddly creatures who deep down inside just want to be our friends?
Well, they can find their own friends.
If none of these unholy abominations resurface from the darkness of the Mariana Trench for another five millennia it will be five millennia too soon.
News break – February 16
