We decided to go fishing,
and try out our recently acquired boat.
My husband, son and I were fishing at
Ballina NSW, on the Richmond River.
It was around the change of tide,
I had my rod in the rod holder,
when suddenly the line took off,
the rod bent over and I nearly fell over
trying to get to it before the rod went in!.
and try out our recently acquired boat.
My husband, son and I were fishing at
Ballina NSW, on the Richmond River.
It was around the change of tide,
I had my rod in the rod holder,
when suddenly the line took off,
the rod bent over and I nearly fell over
trying to get to it before the rod went in!.
I grabbed the rod, hooked it up and started
to reel her in!
About half an hour later,
after pulling the boat around a bit,
I finally got whatever it was up to
the surface and realised that it had
gotten caught up in our anchor rope,
Damn!.
to reel her in!
About half an hour later,
after pulling the boat around a bit,
I finally got whatever it was up to
the surface and realised that it had
gotten caught up in our anchor rope,
Damn!.
My husband grabbed the camera
and started taking pictures of what I caught,
we haven't seen anything like it before!.
At first we thought it was some kind of Ray,
but it had no tail,
instead it had what looked like the front
of a Manter Ray?
and the head was different to a Ray.
Unfortunately we didn't get it in the boat
to have a really good look at it,
and had to cut the line because of the
Anchor rope.
Check out the pictures and see if you know what it is?
and started taking pictures of what I caught,
we haven't seen anything like it before!.
At first we thought it was some kind of Ray,
but it had no tail,
instead it had what looked like the front
of a Manter Ray?
and the head was different to a Ray.
Unfortunately we didn't get it in the boat
to have a really good look at it,
and had to cut the line because of the
Anchor rope.
Check out the pictures and see if you know what it is?
Here is an enlargement of the picture above.
WEIRD FISH??!!
6 comments:
A juvenile sunfish?
My guess: Long-nosed Skate (RAJA OXYRINHUS)
I sent the picture to the Australian Museum for identification and here is there reply...
Dear Louise
I showed your photo to our Ichthyology department and it has got them baffled!
The closest fish they could suggest is an eagle ray although the colouring is not right and some parts of the ray’s body seem to be damaged.
Ichthyology suggested you look at our website, particularly these links: http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfacts/fish/anarinari.htm and http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfacts/fish/maustralis.htm (see lower image).
Since you saw the fish yourself you may recognize the features in some of our online photos.
Very interesting!
Regards
Vanessa Barratt
I think it may be the Pacific Cow-nosed ray Rhinoptera steindachneri although I agree that the rear end looks somewhat damaged. It is definitely not a sunfish or skate and probably not an eagle ray.
Cheers, Dr Daniel Bucher
Senior Lecturere Marine Biology
Southern Cross University
sunfish
It appeared to be in reasonably good condition and undamaged.
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