Visitors to an Australian beach were shocked to see a strange “alien” creature washed ashore.
The Daily Star writes about this.
The reptile was similar to a shark, which was completely colored red. It appeared on the west coast of Australia at a popular beach spot. Social media users and locals were shocked by the amazing sight. The fish had the fins and body of a shark, but the flattened head and belly of a stingray.
Dumped at Coogee Beach in Perth, the animal died in the ocean or near the shore. At first, people didn’t know what to make of him, with some speculating that he looked like an alien.
Leo Guida from the Australian Marine Conservation Society spoke about what this amazing animal was. In an interview with Yahoo News Australia, he revealed that it was a hookfish, or white-spotted guitarfish.
The reason the fish was not well known is probably because the animal is endangered. Numbers are small, but the fish thrives in Australian waters and most specimens can be found throughout the country.
“Australia is a global ‘lifeboat’ for this species. They are not threatened in Australian waters, but are endangered around the world, including next door in Southeast Asia,” he said.
“Commercial trawlers in Australia have ‘turtle exclusion devices’ which have an escape hatch at the top of the trawl net which allows large fish to escape and this has greatly reduced their deaths in Australian waters.”
In the photos, the fish was completely red, which scared many passers-by as some thought it resembled blood. In fact, scientists discovered that the red coloration was due to bruises. He had been dead for several hours, and gravity had caused the blood to pool on his lower body. Although the animal looked like a shark and a stingray, it was actually neither.
These creatures are part of the fish family (rhinidae) and belong to a group of cartilaginous fish known as elasmobranchs, which includes both sharks and crayfish. They are very endangered due to habitat destruction. Their fins are also widely used in the shark fin trade, endangering the lives of many fish.
