Tuna caught with sailfish bill protruding from its head
A north Australian fisho got the shock of his life when he reeled in a tunicorn - a tuna with a large horn protruding from the centre of its forehead.
Fishing
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A north Australian fisho got the shock of his life when he reeled in a tunicorn - a tuna with a large horn protruding from the centre of its forehead.
Angler Kim Haskell said it was one of the strangest sights he’s seen in his years fishing.
Mr Haskell said he was fishing with friends near Osprey Reef, out of Cooktown Queensland, when they made the surprising capture.
“Out there everything is bigger, the fish are bigger, it’s all bigger, you’re so far out you feel like you’re in outer space,” he said.
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As he pulled in the large dogtooth tuna the group noticed there was something unusual about it.
“We could see a funny looking thing sticking out of its head, we didn’t gaff it we got a few people and swung it up on-board.
“When we got it on-board we couldn’t believe it.”
Mr Haskell said the tuna had a 40cm sailfish bill protruding from it’s head like a horn, much like an aquatic equivalent of the legendary horse-like unicorn.
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The anglers theorise that the fish must have narrowly escaped an attack from a hungry sailfish at some point.
“It (the bill) must have snapped off in its skull, it missed the brain and missed the blood vessels and healed over.
“We extracted the thing, it didn’t bleed much, then we released it.”
But it wasn’t the tuna’s lucky day.
“It swam off but we saw four sharks eat it.”
Mr Haskell’s brother sent a picture of the possibly magical fish to the popular ABC radio fishing program Tales From The Tinny.
The out-there catch wasn’t the only bizarre thing Mr Haskell has caught in his years throwing a line.
“I caught a trout recently and it spewed up a cod, and the cod was still alive, it must have just eaten it when it bit my line,
“Then the cod spewed up a little fish - we put the cod back and it swam away.”
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