Aussies baffled as rarely-seen 'alien' creature washes up on popular beach
The bizarre-looking sea animal has the fins and body of a shark, but the flattened head and ventral mouth of a ray.
Aussies have responded in awe after a rarely-seen creature that exhibits the characteristics of both sharks and rays washed ashore at a popular west coast waterway at the weekend.
On social media on Saturday, a stunned beachgoer posted photos of the bizarre-looking fish, which has the fins and body of a shark, but the flattened head and ventral mouth of a ray.
The deceased animal was found on the sand at Coogee Beach in Perth, sparking an influx of responses from curious locals who didn't quite know what to make of it. Some said the animal looked alien-like, while others questioned how it arrived at the spot.
Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, Leo Guida of the Australian Marine Conservation Society identified the species as a bottlenose wedgefish — or white-spotted guitarfish — which he said are critically endangered around the world, but incidentally thrive in Australian waters.
Critically endangered species thrives in Aussie waters
"Australia is a global 'lifeboat' for this species. They aren't threatened in Australian waters but are critically endangered globally, including immediately next door in South East Asia," he told Yahoo.
"Commercial trawlers in Australia have 'turtle excluder devices' which have an escape hatch at the top of a trawl net that large wedgefish can escape through, and this has greatly reduced the numbers of them killed in Australian waters."
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Guida explained the red colouring seen in the photos is in fact bruising. "The fish has been dead for a little while and the blood is internally pooling along its underside thanks to gravity," he said.
Bottlenose wedgefish are part of the family rhinidae, commonly known as wedge fish, and while aesthetically they do boast features that resemble both sharks and rays, they are not hybrids.
Instead, they belong to a group of cartilaginous fish known as elasmobranchs, which includes both sharks and rays. Bottlenose wedgefish are critically endangered due to overfishing and habitat destruction, with their fins highly valued in the shark fin trade.
Coastal development, pollution, and habitat degradation (like the destruction of mangroves and seagrass beds) have reduced the areas where wedgefish can thrive. Like many elasmobranchs, wedgefish have a slow growth rate, late sexual maturity, and produce few offspring, making it difficult for populations to recover from declines.
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