You have heard the saying from Edgar Allen Poe “Only Believe half of what you see and Nothing that you hear.” This post and picture proves that advice true! -SF
It looks like a bizarre monster from the deep, but a photo going around taken in Lake Macquarie is likely all too terrestrial. The sea animal some have been calling “the Swansea monster” and suspecting is some kind of crocodile relative is likely just a pike eel.
The photographer who took it, Robert Tyndall, told the Newcastle Herald the actual fish is about four-and-a-half feet long, but the angle makes it seem much, much bigger—part of why it took off on the Internet like a neo-Montauk monster. Biologist Julian Pepperell confirmed the creature as a pike eel, and said they frequently end up in fisherman’s net.
4.5 feet is a big enough B! in my book… and they’re all over the world. The locale discussed is New South Wales, Australia.