A gigantic snake-shaped object appeared on a Australian radar map on Wednesday, leaving meteorologists baffled as to what it could be.

The Bureau of Meteorology captured the mysterious image, which appears about 18 miles off the coast of West Australia,  on February 12. The weather office confirmed that it was not a cloud or rain, due to the strange shape.

For hours after the anomaly was discovered, speculation went rampant on-line. Social media users dubbed it the “#RottNessMonster”, and theories on the origin of the shape ranged from a military experiment to the possibility of a giant sea serpent.

“I, for one, welcome our new giant sea serpent overlords,” Perth Sunrise Prints tweeted.

Initially, the Australian Department of Defense would not respond to ABC News about whether the radar was picking up military drills, but later owned up to creating the shape during a training exercise involving ships and aircrafts.

“The environmental conditions over the West Australian coast at the time of the activity provided a unique opportunity for this routine activity to be visible on the weather radar display,” a spokesman told ABC.