Comments on: That Mystery Fish Postcard

By: Steve1337

Steve1337 — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 11:56:45 +0000

Hello, I joined this site just to make this post. =)

I was listening to coast2coastAM tonight and Loren Coleman was guest speaking.

Anyhow, I apologize if this has been covered already, I tried to read most of the posts…

My belief or best guess is that this creature is a GIANT SNAKEHEAD FISH or called PONGEE here in Hawaii. These things are native to Asia, so that fits the photo. US troops were all over Asia during that time period. I did a quick search and the record is just under 10kg for sport fishing. Not too far of a stretch maybe…? If you look up some pics of the fish I’m talking about you can see that the head shares similar placement of eyes and “nostrils”. Remember that fish get really ugly as they get older and bigger. lol

One thing that conflicts is that I don’t see any fins behind the head of that creature. Maybe just not visible in pic? Maybe got cut off? Maybe I’m blind?

By: quill

quill — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:25:38 +0000

Looking at the picture closer, I can see the shadow on the structure behind the fish on the screen of the windows. It’s faint, but it’s there. The person looks like he may be shading his eyes.

By: sgentry2k2

sgentry2k2 — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 06:02:37 +0000

It definitely appears to have a snake head, the markings on it’s side remind a little of the markings on a large mouth bass. As for the location, it could be on Paris Island in S.C., I spent a year there training recruits and it definitely looks like that place to me. There’s land and broken areas of water in the background, which what it looks like on Paris Island facing the mainland. The animal looks like a giant snake that was cut in half, but are there ANY snakes anywhere in the world that grow to that size? Two of the men in the photo are marines, (the two on the left), because of the uniformity of their trousers, and the uniform issued web belts they are wearing, and also the uniform type boots.

By: youcantryreachingme

youcantryreachingme — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 00:17:38 +0000

Maybe they took the picture because it was a big fish.

By: joppa

joppa — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 03:40:56 +0000

I think it looks like one of those giant potato, giant jackrabbit hoax postcards from the fifties. Paste on a snake head photo and tada you have you mystery fish.

There’s a mystery sea creature photo floating around the net taken during the Civil War, of a bunch of Union sailors standing next to some kind of giant squid. This reminds me of that.

By: kittenz

kittenz — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 20:57:43 +0000

I disagree purricat. I think that the shadow looks like the shadow a fairly large person who is standing a couple of feet away from the shed. The shadow of the head and arm are clearly visible.

By: purrlcat

purrlcat — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 02:45:53 +0000

The disembodied arm at the right is casting a shadow where his hand is. I really don’t think the body attached to the arm would be in a position to be making the ‘shadow’ on the shed and certainly not that shape. Looking at it (the original card) with a 10X loupe, it really looks like paint or stain and that could have been applied to the post as well.

I ‘googled’ the Eusthenopteron, like SPCBAT242 mentioned, and found several artists renditions of it. Maybe.

Also, has anyone mentioned that maybe the reason the guys took a picture of this fish is that it is some kind of albino?

By: DARHOP

DARHOP — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:44:04 +0000

Kit, there is shadow in front of the man in the middle going in the same direction as his shadow. It starts under the fish’s chin. There is no shadow in front of the guy on the left. Just behind and angling to the left. Looks like the fish is casting a shadow to me. As far as the shadow behind the fish to the right, it almost looks like some kind of stain to me. The fish in the photo looks almost like a giant lung fish to me.

By: kittenz

kittenz — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 20:52:20 +0000

I don’t buy the theory that the dark spot on the shed is a stain, because not only does the shadow continue partway up the post supporting the shed roof; there is also a shadow on the ground right about where the guy’s feet would be, and the “fish” is ON TOP of that shadow.

By: MojoHotep

MojoHotep — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 19:26:19 +0000

It was a big fad in the fifties to produce these HOAX postcards. It is not impossible that old card stock was used to print the picture on. Alot of things during and after WW2 were in short supply. There are assumptions being made about this card that are way off base. These guys could be french foreign legion. Just check out the boat neck/bateau neck tshirts, and in case you don’t know, those guys weren’t stuck just soldiering in France. So those palms could have been ANYWHERE. On the flip side these guys dont HAVE to be military at all. I cannot even buy into the earlier than 1918 thing. Look at these guys, maybe it is 1918 if they had a time machine. If the back of the post card is pre 1918, then I theorize that somebody had a bunch of extra card stock and decided to use it in 1948.

These guys look like your average Joe from my collection of old hunting and fishing magazines from the 40′s and 50′s. As far as the fish, it still drives me nuts.