A professional angler is giving folks the creeps after posting on social media that a giant tuna taken off Australia had unusual scars.
Jason Moyce, also known as the "Trapman Bermagui," shared a picture of the fish on October 29.
It revealed that at least a half-dozen portions of flesh were missing from its side and belly.
The wounds were too similar to be random, too far apart to be bite marks, and too circular to be claw markings.
Blogger Moyce is well-known for capturing unusual animals off the coast of southeast Australia. Still, in this instance, his 208,000 followers were focused on what he missed: the culprit.
More than 1,100 people have reacted to and commented on his picture on Facebook, with some remarking that the "voracious" predator produced something resembling "Swiss tuna."
Cookie Cutter Sharks Explained
According to Moyce, it was a cookie-cutter shark, a species of shark that only consumes its victim by nibbling at it. The Miami Herald, citing the experts, think cookie-cutters are among the world's most peculiar and "lesser-known" shark species.
In 2019, three attacks on persons were caused by cookie cutters, just around 18 inches long. A cookie-cutter latches on to its prey with its strong lips, pierces the flesh with its teeth, twists, and cuts off a perfectly round or oval piece of meat.
Most commonly found in deep water, cookie cutters only reach a maximum length of 17 to 22 inches. At night, they move closer to the surface to eat. Each day, they move vertically in the water column, swimming 2 kilometers up to eat and back down. Additionally, it has been noted that they are bioluminescent or shine at night.
The Australian Museum claims that cookie-cutters eat by suction-mounting their mouths to their enormous prey, then rotating to utilize the animal's razor-like rows of hard teeth to slice a lump of flesh off it. Their bite marks typically measure 2.75 inches in length and 2 inches in width.
The tuna Bermagui depicted has several wounds all over its body.
How These Creatures Live
According to University of Delaware shark biologist Aaron B. Carlisle, fish on fishing lines are easy prey for cookie-cutter sharks.
"Likely, the tuna was on the line when it was attacked, so it can't get away. You see this all the time in fish markets, as fish caught on longlines and brought to market are often snacked on by [cookie-cutter] sharks. At the same time, they are vulnerable and can't escape," Carlisle told Newsweek.
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