A family's terrifying encounter with a "ginormous tadpole-like" beast has been considered one of the world's "scariest" sea monster sightings.
Eerie photographs show what appears to be a creature with a huge oval body and broad tale lurking beneath the water surface.
The images caused a stir when they were first published in the 60s.
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Since then, the tale of the Hook Island sea monster has baffled many, leading them them question whether it could be one of the most credible cryptid encounters ever recorded.
It was December, 1964 when French phoographer, Robert Le Serrec reported having spotted the critter while sailing a motorboat with his family and ship hand in Stonehaven Bay, Hook Island, Queensland.
His wife spotted the "strange object" on the bottom of the lagoon and after taking pictures, Le Serrec and his crew mate decided to jump into the water to film the creature.
But as he got closer, Le Serrec said the 75-80ft monster opened its mouth and started moving towards them and so they swam back to their boat in terror.
By then, the creature had fled, but Le Serrec reported seeing a wound on its right side and came to the conclusion that might have been injured by a ship's propeller, hence why it was resting in the shallows.
He also described it as having pale eyes with slit shaped pupils on the top of its head. It was mainly black with stripes, its skin appeared smooth and had no teeth.
In an article describing his encounter, Le Serrec was quoted as saying: "As the monster was lying on the sandy bottom, we could not see the color of its belly.
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"The creature was about 90 feet long.
"Behind the head the body was about 2ft 4" thick and remained that way for about 25 feet, then it gradually tapered into a whip-like tail.
"The general color of the body was black with one-foot-wide brownish rings every five feet, the first starting just behind the head. The skin was smooth but dull.”
Many different theories emerged after the publication of the photographs with some suggesting it could have been a huge swamp eel.
Experts also waded in on the debate with some branding the images as fake but others while, skeptical, were open minded.
However some believed it to be a monster-shaped sheet of plastic weighed down to create the shape.
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