Giant Turtle or Fish?

 

A Giant Turtle?

The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is said to the home of a large sea creature called the Moha Moha.

 It is described as  8 feet wide( 2.7 metres) and about 5 feet high(1. 6 metres) with a long-necked and  a large, dome-shaped back ending in a  huge  tail.Some say it is 30 feet(10 metres) long. Locals say it is aggressive and had attacked and killed tribe members.

James Cook was said to have seen it in the 1770s swimming around the ship.

In 1890 a school teacher called Lovell saw it on Great Sandy Island.It was reported as being seen 9 times over the following days. In January 1891, an article about the sighting was published in Land and Water Magazine.It stated the Moha-Moha had a saurian face with teeth. The skin was glossy and smooth  and it had no visible nostrils,Its colour varied from greeny white to shades of grey.

In 1964 Jacob Lack reported seeing a decomposing carcass on the rocks of the Moha Moha.There is no proof of this.

In general the sightings were treated with derision but the locals believe it exists.It appears to be a combined fish and turtle. I was reminded of the first descriptions of plesiosaurs from fossil remains as a snake threaded through a turtle .Food for thought perhaps.