Locals baffled by bizarre 'aquatic creature's' skeleton tied to fence

A mysterious skeleton found on a fence in Sydney’s Northern Beaches has baffled locals as to what it could actually be.

Nicole Wedlock, a rescuer and carer at Sydney Wildlife, posted the pictures of the skeleton attached to a fence near the Rowland Reserve boat ramp at Bayview.

“Does anyone know what kind of aquatic creature this skeleton belongs to?” she wrote.

One user suggested it could be a goanna or a lace monitor, but Ms Wedlock was adamant “it’s definitely some kind of fish” and later added “it smelt incredibly fishy and had fins”.

“Pretty sure their fins are cartilage, not actually bone,” one user commented.

Ms Wedlock said, “I’m not sure if it is bone, it was quite fibrous”.

Yahoo7 contacted Mark McGrouther from the Australian Museum to solve the mystery.

Mr McGrouther said “with confidence” the creature was a billfish.

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“The reason that I can say with confidence that it is a species of billfish is that it has overlapping flanges that ‘lock’ the vertebrae together resulting in the spine of the fish being very rigid,” he said.

“Eels swim with anguilliform motion in which the body curves greatly. A billfish skeleton can’t do this. Its structure keeps it rigid.”

James Cook University’s Professor David Bellwood agreed with Mr McGrouther’s assessment.

He added it appeared whoever caught the billfish sawed its nose off.

“Billfish are large trophy fish,” Professor Bellwood told Yahoo7.

“The person who’s caught it has used the remains and placed them on the fence.

“It’s pretty common for the nose to be removed. I was in the Mediterranean as a teen and there were piles of them standing up at a market. I’ve got the nose in my office now.”

He added the structure of the vertebrae and truncated skull were “reminiscent” of billfish and marlin he’d seen in the past.