A big fish washed ashore in Sliema earlier today, surprising bathers out to make the most of the summer weather.

Times of Malta reader Joseph Damato sent in these photos of the giant creature as its carcass drifted towards the shore close to Sliema Point Battery.    

Marine biologist Alan Deidun reckoned that the fish was most likely a tuna. He noted that the tuna fishing season was ongoing and that the St Paul's Bay tuna fish farms were not so far away from the Sliema coastline.

Reader Hans Kessler also sent a picture of a relatively freshly cut off head, presumably tuna, rotting away some six metres underwater. He expressed surprise that the fish was not being eaten but was rotting away.

He said that, on the other hand, ha dead black whipsnake of at least a metre in length in an underwater cave in Mgarr Ix-Xni was completely devoured by fireworms within several days, leaving only the skin behind.

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