Given the world’s sudden propensity for the unexpected (see: Donald Trump becoming president), you’d be forgiven for hardly batting an eyelid at this unsettling sight.
On first look it looks to be an ordinary, if slightly creepy shot of a couple locked in a tender moment, on an ocean viewing platform.
Looking bleak and overcast, with the Herne Bay offshore wind turbines in the distance, it could be any British seaside scene.
Notwithstanding the cackling sea monster bursting out from the waves to the right of this love tableau, of course.
Graphic designer Michael Green captured the moment the beast broke cover in June last year.
Green, 56, said: “I took some photos of Herne Bay Pier and as I was walking along the seafront saw a couple on the blue viewing point opposite.
“I took seven pictures of them, it was a nice picture and I thought the theme of love or affection might come up in our photography club.
“This was the second one and there was nothing in the others.
“I take thousands of photos and it’s not the best picture I’ve ever taken, so its only been seen months later.
“I didn’t notice the item when I took it at all, but I was going through them on Saturday and spotted it.
“I had no idea what it could be, I thought maybe it could be a dolphin or a shark but I had no idea what, I just knew there was something in the water.”
Green, from Staverton, Northants, was baffled by the image, as was wife Lindsey, 51.
But the bizarre beast was soon revealed to be a seagull flying towards the pier, with what looked like disturbed water revealed to be its body, with the ‘eye’ a marking on the wing.
Green added: “My wife didn’t know what it was either, it was very puzzling.
“It’s an optical illusion - it looks like it’s behind the couple in the water but it’s actually in front of them.
“I thought it was blurred and in distance, but it’s just how you see it.”