A flat sea creature with two tails which washed up on Ninety Mile Beach excited a reader who sent a photograph to the Herald.
A marine life expert believes it is just a dead electric ray, also known as the New Zealand torpedo, that had choked on a fish.
"It looks like an electric ray which has swallowed a fish, probably snapper," said Phil McGowan, Kelly Tarlton's general manager.
"This [photo] view is of its underside as opposed to the top."
The New Zealand torpedo, or torpedo fairchildi, is endemic here, and Maori know them as mata and whai repo.
