Although the pictures and details of this story are fascinating the fact that this majestic fish is no longer swimming in the ocean is tragic.

Apparently this magnificent beast was caught three weeks ago off Nine Mile Beach in Byron Bay, in the northernmost corner of New South Wales. After two pictures appeared on Facebook appearing to detail the sheer size of the shark, various conservation groups tried to get to the bottom of the story.

This is where things get a little murky, the man who originally posted the images to his social media account claims that the shark was hunted and killed intentionally, following a local attack. Shortly after that claim local newspaper Northern Star published an interview with a fisherman known only as Matthew who stated he was the man who landed the shark, and that he was in the process of catching a Hammerhead when this colossal beast rose up and ate his catch in front of him. Matthew stated:

“I was fighting the hammerhead and he came up and swallowed it. You can’t turn around and go no, don’t touch, to something like that…I’ve dived with sharks bigger than that, it’s only a little one. I’ve seen tiger sharks 24-feet-long (7 metres) off Tweed.”

It’s not illegal to catch a Tiger shark this size so an investigation into the landing of this beast will not be carried out, but conservation groups are concerned that without proper regulations in place to safeguard the future of some species of shark in the New South Wales area, some of them could be fished out of existence.