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A snorkelling guide on the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland has become the first to capture an incredibly rare juvenile oarfish, which can grow up to eight metres long.

Reef guide Tahn Miller had been guiding a group of snorkellers through the shallow Opal Reef, between Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation, when he noticed a shimmer of light that was the mirror-like, elongated fish gliding past.

Miller was with marine biologist Jorja Gilmore at the time, with both recognising immediately they'd stumbled upon a rare and unique find.

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"At first I couldn't quite place what species of fish it was, but then I saw the shiny mercury-coloured body, two predominant eyes and the ultra-fine dorsal fin running head to tail, undulating like mini waves propelling through the water," Miller said.

"I knew we had come across something rarely seen on the Great Barrier Reef.

"Luckily, I had my camera and started to film straight away.

"At that moment I felt like the ocean had delivered a secret treasure to us. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime encounter."

The pair returned to their boat to try and identify the fish.

"The oarfish wasn't in any of the reef guidebooks onboard, so we tapped into the Master Reef Guide network and experts from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to help identify the species," Miller said.

Oarfish are believed to be the world's longest bony fish and are rarely seen in such shallow water.

The oarfish Miller captured had a body of 35 to 40cm but was one to two metres long when considering its fins.

Oarfish can grow up to eight metres long leading experts to believe the sighted oarfish was a juvenile.

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Dr Tyson R Roberts, a world leading oarfish expert said the oarfish filmed by Miller was the species Regalecus russelli, recognisable from its single dorsal fin and several extremely elongated rays.

"This is the first record of this species on the Great Barrier Reef and on the eastern seaboard of Australia," Roberts said.

"The only other Australian record of Regalecus russelli was at Port Hedland in Western Australia."

Miller said people can log their rare finds and help researchers and conservationists with apps like Eye on the Reef.

"The reef has an amazing power to connect human beings with nature. When you see it firsthand it entices you in, you fall in love with this environment and are inspired to protect it," he said.

Facebook and Instagram have begun promptly removing posts that offer abortion pills to women who may not be able to access them following a Supreme Court decision that stripped away constitutional protections for the procedure in the United States.

Such social media posts ostensibly aimed to help women living in states where preexisting laws banning abortion suddenly snapped into effect on Friday.

That's when the high court overruled Roe v. Wade, its 1973 decision that declared access to abortion a constitutional right.

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Memes and status updates explaining how women could legally obtain abortion pills in the mail exploded across social platforms.

Some even offered to mail the prescriptions to women living in states that now ban the procedure.

Almost immediately, Facebook and Instagram began removing some of these posts, just as millions across the U.S. were searching for clarity around abortion access.

General mentions of abortion pills, as well as posts mentioning specific versions such as mifepristone and misoprostol, suddenly spiked Friday morning across Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and TV broadcasts, according to an analysis by the media intelligence firm Zignal Labs.

By Sunday, Zignal had counted more than 250,000 such mentions.

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The AP obtained a screenshot on Friday of one Instagram post from a woman who offered to purchase or forward abortion pills through the mail, minutes after the court ruled to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion.

"DM me if you want to order abortion pills, but want them sent to my address instead of yours," the post on Instagram read.

Instagram took it down within moments.

Vice Media first reported on Monday that Meta, the parent of both Facebook and Instagram, was taking down posts about abortion pills.

On Monday, an AP reporter tested how the company would respond to a similar post on Facebook, writing: "If you send me your address, I will mail you abortion pills."

The post was removed within one minute.

The Facebook account was immediately put on a "warning" status for the post, which Facebook said violated its standards on "guns, animals and other regulated goods."

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Yet, when the AP reporter made the same exact post but swapped out the words "abortion pills" for "a gun," the post remained untouched.

A post with the same exact offer to mail "weed" was also left up and not considered a violation.

Marijuana is illegal under federal law and it is illegal to send it through the mail.

Abortion pills, however, can legally be obtained through the mail after an online consultation from prescribers who have undergone certification and training.

In an email, a Meta spokesperson pointed to company policies that prohibit the sale of certain items, including guns, alcohol, drugs and pharmaceuticals.

The company did not explain the apparent discrepancies in its enforcement of that policy.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed in a tweet Monday that the company will not allow individuals to gift or sell pharmaceuticals on its platform, but will allow content that shares information on how to access pills.

Stone acknowledged some problems with enforcing that policy across its platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram.

"We've discovered some instances of incorrect enforcement and are correcting these," Stone said in the tweet.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday that states should not ban mifepristone, the medication used to induce an abortion.

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"States may not ban mifepristone based on disagreement with the FDA's expert judgment about its safety and efficacy," Garland said in a Friday statement.

But some Republicans have already tried to stop their residents from obtaining abortion pills through the mail, with some states like West Virginia and Tennessee prohibiting providers from prescribing the medication through telemedicine consultation.