What IS it?

[Unorthodox]

When Newcastle dad Ethan Tippa saw this extraordinary sight near a boat ramp on the shore of Lake Macquarie in New South Wales yesterday morning, he was at a loss to identify it.

He posted a picture of the terrifying-looking water-beast, which has a strange crocodile-like snout, on Facebook and asked, in the typically blunt vernacular of the Australian bloke, "What the **** is this?"

Opinions as to what the answer might be vary. A few commenters identified it as a largehead hairtail, a member of the cutlassfish family. Some believe that the curious creature doesn’t really exist, that it’s a Photoshop concoction.

What can I say?  I'm a sucker for sea monsters. 

[Lorizael]

Reminds me of this and other globsters.

[Unorthodox]

Disagree.  Globsters are generally so decayed as to not have any real identifying characteristics.  (pretty sure there's a concensus they are whales/basking sharks)  The thing above is fairly well preserved.  Probably got caught in a net or a fisherman tossed it back/cut it loose or something.  If it's not a hoax. 

The two leading logical candidates of Hairtail and Pike Eel don't seem to be an exact match (though I'm admittedly not well versed in the physical variation of the mentioned species), but the photo can also be awful misleading as there's little to go on for size reference. 

[Lorizael]

Heh. I only referred to my picture as a globster because wiki did. I assumed that meant the term had wider use than the blobs of whale fat that sometimes was ashore.