Experts have cracked the case, identifying a mystery fish caught near Newcastle earlier this year as a Japanese sea bass – albeit a big one!
Hunter fisherman Ben Hall caused a social media frenzy when he posted a photo of his catch on Facebook in February.
The fish measured 113 centimetres and weighed 12.24 kilograms.
His post attracted interest from the scientific community and he sent it off to the NSW Department of Primary Industries for analysis.
Experts identified the creature as female, around six years of age and and exceptional in both size and growth rates – just a couple of pounds shy of an all-time record.
The thing is – researchers still aren’t quite sure how it ended up in the Hunter River.
Small numbers of Japanese sea bass have previously been recorded in Sydney Harbour but not this far north!
text will be replaced
