Questions Remain After Giant Tiger Shark Is Caught off Australian Coast
In late-breaking marine mystery news, a giant tiger shark was caught off the coast of Australia, though exact details as to when and how remain murky.
Buzz around the catch began this week when a man named Geoff Brooks posted pictures on Facebook of the animal, according to the Daily Mail's Belinda Grant Geary.
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Brooks initially claimed the shark was six meters (19.7 feet) long and caught off Lennox Head in northern New South Wales last week as part of some kind of threat-to-society bounty.
"As far as I'm aware, it was a kill order on a shark here on the far north coast that was identified as being responsible for a local attack," Brooks told Geary.
Brooks' initial claims (since edited) stood in contrast to those in a report later published by the Northern Star's Rodney Stevens, who reports the shark was caught "a while ago" in the waters off Tweed Head by a fisherman named Matthew, who says he reeled the four-meter (13.1 feet) creature in after it swallowed a six-foot hammerhead he had on the line.
"You can't turn around and go 'No, don't touch,' to something like [a giant tiger shark]," Matthew told Stevens. "I was fighting the hammerhead shark, and he [the tiger shark] came up and swallowed it. ... I was the one that took that photo, and I was the one that caught that fish."
Matthew told Stevens the shark was sent to the fish market after being caught, and all that remains of it is a set of jaws he kept as a souvenir—a statement that clashes with Brooks' initial claim about the body being turned over to CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization).
Add to this the recent rumors of a secretive shark culling currently being spearheaded by Australian surfers, as reported by the Telegraph's Jonathan Pearlman, and you've got an Illuminati-level shark-spiracy on your hands.
Consider the plot holes: We don't know for sure where the shark was caught. The guy claiming he reeled it in will only identify himself as "Matthew." We don't even know for certain what happened to the body.
Where is the body, Matthew? Where the hell is it??
As infuriating as it is, we seem to only know one thing for sure:
So take all the above claims with a huge, apex predator-sized grain of salt.
As for you, tiger shark, we will get to the bottom of this. Your true story will be told. The world needs to know why you were caught, how only two pictures were taken and why no images from the dock or fish market have turned up.
Because right now, this is a big fish that didn't leave a big trail. It just doesn't add up.
Dan is on Twitter. Deep-sea shadow games are afoot, my friends.
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