What the Hell Is This Enormous Fish?

A fish so huge and unrecognisable it took the breath away from the couple who found it has washed up on the shores of Bundaberg, the ABC reports. It looked to be about two metres long and around 150 kilograms, according to John Lindholm, one half of the Victorian couple lucky enough to stumble across its gaping maw.

A veteran charter skipper who really knows his fish, Lindholm also told the ABC he had no idea what species it was:

"I've seen a lot of fish, and a lot of big fish, but I've never seen anything like it," Lindholm said. "I thought it might have been a groper, but looking at the head shape it still may be a groper, but it just doesn't seem to fit with what other people up here have told me."

"It was a big, big fish," he added. The couple went back for a gawk the next day but the fish had vanished. Meantime, their call out on social media drew suggestions of cod, groper, and "one guy I think might have nailed it when he said it was what they call a tripletail," Lindholm said. A spokesperson for Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol (QBFP) told the ABC it had shown images of the fish to experts from the Queensland Museum, who in turn said the "condition of the fish made a definitive identification difficult" but that they thought it could be a Queensland groper.

May its grey, lumpen mass rest in peace.