Pictures of a pink and translucent seeming fish are circulating on Facebook. No one has been able to identify it correctly. Some think it resembles a jellyfish, while others call it a sea slug. A strange, mysterious alien-like creature washes up on Queensland Beach.
The deep-sea is a mystery for us and so are the alien-like creature living down there. Time and again these strange creatures resurface and leave us confused. The strange alien-like blob was discovered on Urangan Beach in Hervey Bay, Queensland, in southern Queensland. A curious bystander shared a photo of a mystery, sand-covered lump on Facebook, asking if it was a “threatening stonefish.”
Many responses say it looks like ambergris, a rare and valuable component used in the production of perfume. Ambergris is a hard amber-like substance. It is in high demand by perfume companies and worth up to £18 per gram. Others speculate it to be a jellyfish, the body part of a whale or shark. “If it’s ambergris it’s worth a lot of money but I think it’s harder than it looks but sure worth exploring,” one person replies.
National Geography claims it’s a nudibranch, a bottom-dwelling, jelly-bodied member of the sea slug family. With over 2,000 species of nudibranchs reported. New ones are in reports daily. It becomes difficult to determine the species it belongs to. The experts at The Australian Museum are excited to find a nudibranch that has made its way to QLD and identified it as a “Melibe japonica”.
“Interestingly, another one was also photographed in Bermagui. “That’s two in a short period and then nothing for years, sometimes decades with these animals!” Matt Nimbs, the research scientist from the School of Environment Science and Engineering, tells Yahoo News Australia.