STRANGE SEA MONSTER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 23 February 1931, Page 3

STRANGE SEA MONSTER

CAPTURE OFF CAPE EGMONT FISH LANDED AT NGAMOTU BEACH PUZZLE TO FISHING PARTY Estimated to be anything from 600 to 800 pounds in weight, a fish of unknown species was landed on the Ngamotu beach, New Plymouth, last Thursday afternoon (says the "News”). Ten feet from nose to tail and six feet in girth at its broadest part, it had the mouth and tail of a shark but neither Air W. Smith, who has been fishing on the coast for over 30 years, nor any of the other fishermen could classify it. Captured after a most thrilling fight near Cape Egmont it was eventually towed to New Plymouth by Mr A. L. Allen’s launch and exhibited on the Ngamotu beach. Mr Matthews was fishing from the launch with a six ounce hapuka line when he received a bite that convinced him he had hooked no M’dinary monster. “Hullo,” he said, “it seems I have got the bottom of the ocean here.” The fish began to fight furiously, lashing the water this way and that. Mr Matthews gave the line to Air Allen who continued to play the capture, but it was not until hours had e.'apsed that it could be drawn to the surlace of the water. The excitement was by no means over, however. A lassoo was diawn round the monster’s head and another over its tail and, harnessed in this way, the fish drew the heavy 35ft launch 'for half a mile towards the shore before it could be brought under any sort of control. It was much too heavy to pull aboard, so it had to be towed all the way to New Plymouth, where Mr Hmith dragged it ashore behind his dinghy. Owing to its weight, many willing hands had considerable difficulty in hauling it on to the beach. It was then still alive For some time the fish was the object ot much interest. Fashioned like a hapuka, its body was covered with a coarse, dark-brown skin. A black line ran along the back from the nose to the tail. A most curious feature of the flesh was that it was very soft, so soft that pieces could be nulled off with the hand. “In fact,” said Mr Matthews, to a reporter, “it was so tender that when we put the gaff through its nose the thing was torn out with the flesh attached.” The fins were more like flappers than fins. The head, measuring from 18in to 2ft across, was blunt and thick, with a cruel-looking V-shap-ed mouth underneath.

The head was cut off, apparently as a souvenir, by one of the men from a Home boat in port. It is understood that the rest of the fish was subsequently towed out to sea.