Goodyear said he went to grab the nearly metre-long fish and didn't know what to do with it.

"I thought it was a platypus, because he had that big snout on it," he said.

"It looked like he had wings, and his nose was, it was almost like rubber. I guess it was like cartilage."

Goodyear said no one on board could identify the dead creature.

"I brought it into the fish plant, to the wharf where we offloaded, and nobody in there knew — haven't seen it before," he said.

Goodyear took some photos and later posted one on Facebook, to see if anyone could identify the creature.