[COLOR=purple] my first time posting here I was scavenging through cryptozoology sites and found this photo of a sea monster carcass netted by a Japanese trawler off the coast of New Zealand...........

cant really tell wut it could be, but i think i have seen that pic else where.

yeah but usually the other versions are zoomed out with less quality this is the best I could find and also since I'm new I'm not aware of photos you've already dicussed

That's a very good pic, alleycat. First time I've seen it in color.
The "sea monster" was caught by the Japanese fishing vessel Zuiyo Maru off the coast of New Zealand on April 25, 1977. It weighed in at about 4000 lbs and measured 32 ft. Photos and tissue samples taken by Michihiko Yano, assistant production manager of Taiyo Fisheries, Ltd, were taken back to Japan to baffle scientists.

REF: Oceans, 10:56-59, Nov - Dec 1977

Note: the tissues were later DNA tested and the "monster" turned out to be a relative of the shark. (unconfirmed)

schadeaux

Cat,

You'll find a very detailed article at this website CLICK HERE that clears up the mystery behind this story and identifies the creature pictured.

Welcome to the forum by the way.

Magikman

i remember this. it turned out to be a decomposing shark, right?

EWWWWW.....COOL LOOKS LIKE A SEA MONSTER....BUT IT'S A SHARK RIGHT?A LIKELY STORY BEHIND AN AWSOME FIND....GO ON RUIN THE FUN!

Looks sugar coated to me

WoW ... that thing is very big ... I thought that it was a shark at first ... then when I visited the website ((MM)) put and it was compared to a shark there ... hmmm

Oh! by the way ... Welcome to the forum ((AllyCat))

ewwwww raziel

A new twist in the tale... CLICK HERE

That is the most digusting piece of carnage I have ever seen.

Looks like something that would accompany a fur-ball that your cat upchucks...

OH, and welcome to the site AllyCat!

That carcass is a basking shark. Those pictures in that link leave the gills and fins on the sharks that the pics are compared to. Also I would think ifa carcass that big had been in the ocean for amonth, then it would have been nibbled some by other fishes. That link compared the carcass to a basking shark's to show it wasn't that. But they didn't compare it to a pleisiosaur's skeleton. They also said that pleisiosaurs have eyes at the front of their heads and basking sharks have them on their sides. I dida little drawing to show that basking sharks have eyes at the front of their skulls and on the sides of their heads.

hi i'm new:)
Looking at the Gust comparison of a Basking Shark skeleton and the "Plesiosaur", whilst they say there aren't any similarities, if you remove the jaw/gills and most of the tail fin it resembles the Japanese find quite a bit. We must remember that there was still a fair bit of rotting tissue on the carcass to give it proportions that look differently to the clean basking shark skeleton