Mysterious Creature washed ashore in Georgia

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. - A mysterious sea creature washed ashore in St. Simons Island and it has beachgoers scratching their heads.

Jeff Warren and his son were at Wolf Island National Wildlife Refuge just north of St. Simons Island in Georgia Friday when they came upon the creature on a barrier island.

Warren thought it was a dead seal, but said when he got a closer look it resembled more of the Loch Ness monster.

Warren sent the photo to News4Jax and said the creature was about 4 to 5 feet long with two fins, though only one can be seen in the picture. 

The creature has little teeth about one-eighth of an inch long.

Mysterious creature filmed swimming up a Alaskan River (video)

At various times of year, Bureau of Land Management Fairbanks District Office Public Affairs Specialist Craig McCaa likes to go down to the Chena River to share photos of changing Fairbanks weather.

On Oct. 18, he decided to walk his camera down to the University Avenue bridge that crosses the river to snap a few pictures of ice forming on the water's surface.

But instead of finding just snow and ice, McCaa saw a "strange thing" moving back and forth in the current of the murky river.

"It never fully revealed itself," he said in a phone interview Tuesday.

McCaa took a video and posted it to the "Bureau of Land Management – Alaska" Facebook page Tuesday afternoon. By evening it had been watched about 20,900 times. Speculation has run rampant on what the creepy object — or creature — swaying in the water might be.

"I initially thought, and several people thought, it could be some rope that snagged on the bottom of the river with chunks of ice," McCaa said. "Other people have mentioned everything from sea monster to giant sturgeon."

Unknown giant ‘sea creature’ spotted off Antarctica by Google Earth (video)

A mysterious image captured near Antarctica by Google Earth has sparked a frenzy of speculation online with theories about its source ranging from the mythical ‘Kraken’ sea monster to an aquatic UFO. 

 

The image of the elusive being was first spotted off the coast of Deception Island in the South Shetlands on Google Earth on April 9 and shared through a video on YouTube in an effort to solve the oceanic mystery.

It’s estimated the creature measures up to a massive 120 meters in total, prompting some to believe the legendary Kraken sea monster has finally been found.

“That sound like a Kraken to me. Maybe the stories about the giant sea monster of the deep are all true,” Scott Warring from UFO Sightings Daily wrote.

Legend has it the sea monster, similar in form to the giant squid, roamed the waters of Norway and Greenland attacking ships by wrapping its tentacles around them.

Another theory is that the creature is in fact a plesiosaur, a now-extinct marine reptile common during the Jurassic Period.  “When I saw it, it immediately made me think of a plesiosaur fin,” the YouTube user who uploaded the video wrote.

Read Full Article : RT News

Strange sea monster appears in tourist’s vacation photos

A British tourist who took pictures of the sea was left in shock after he discovered a weird "creature" had photobombed his holiday snaps.

Harvey Robertson, 52, was on a boat cruise with his family in Corfu when he captured a number of photographs inside a sea cave.

He held the camera over the side of the boat to take pictures of the sea.

But when he lifted his camera back up, Harvey discovered a mysterious creature had appeared in one of the frames.

Harvey said: "I have no idea what it could have been, I have never seen anything like it.

"I caught the picture by accident. I was in a sea cave on a small boat about 20 miles south of Albania on the west coast of Greece.

"I was trying to capture the water colour and was not looking at the water, the flash went off. I only saw the creature when looking back through my pics."

Read Full Story: BT.com

What would the U.S. military do if Godzilla actually existed

"Godzilla should not be destroyed," says scientist Kyohei Yamanhe in the classic 1954 film. "He should be studied." And how right he was! James Butler, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College, argues that a deeper understanding of Japan's 300-foot-tall, ill-tempered celebrity could be crucial to winning future wars.

You're probably a bit skeptical about Butler's "Godzilla Methodology" (yes, that's what he calls it). But, he wouldn't be the first military strategist to briefly put aside his tattered copy of Sun Tzu's Art of War and instead seek inspiration from popular culture. Max Brooks, author of World War Z, has delivered lectures to Department of Defense officials and the Naval War College about the importance of preparedness. Ender's Game is recommended reading for a proposed U.S. Infantry "Leader Development Plan." And Anthony Cordesman, a prominent analyst at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, once wrote a study titled, "Biological Warfare and the 'Buffy Paradigm'."

So, in retrospect, Butler's meta-analysis of Godzilla has been a long time coming. He begins by explaining the basics:

Since Godzilla first terrorized Japan in Ishiro Honda's 1954 film (appropriately titled Godzilla), this monster has wreaked havoc on civilizations throughout the world. As a fictional creature born from the fallout of atomic bomb testing in the Pacific, this giant quasi-dinosaur has gained popularity as both a destructive monster and as a hero, a defender of friends.

Godzilla had the power to reach out and destroy antagonist forces and protect friendly forces from harm. For example, as an antagonist, he was depicted sinking ships, downing aircraft, and even destroying cities; as a hero, he was depicted as defending friends from imminent destruction by other mythical monsters.

In military-speak, Godzilla is a multipurpose assault weapon. He can be deployed anywhere in the world, either offensively or defensively. He is a walking amphibious vehicle, capable of effectively striking against enemy forces either on land or at sea. He is equipped with formidable anti-aircraft defenses. In short, he can destroy anything, anywhere. 

Read Full Story: i09 

The Evolution of Sea Monsters on Medieval Maps

WASHINGTON — The iconic sea serpents, mermaids and other mythical creatures found on world maps from medieval and Renaissance times splash to life on the pages of a new book.

Chet Van Duzer's "Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps" (British Library, 2013) charts the evolution of the mythical creatures that adorned atlases from the 10th century through the 17th century.

Cartographers used the beastly art to illustrate mysterious, unexplored regions of the globe and the possible dangers of seafaring.

Despite their wild appearance, many of these creatures were based on real animals.

"The creatures look purely fantastic. They all look like they were just made up," Van Duzer, a map historian at the Library of Congress, said here Thursday (Sept. 5) in a talk about his book. "But, in fact, a lot of them come from what were considered, at the time, scientific sources."

Tourists' in shock as Morag monster of Loch Morar makes an appearence

SHE has been quiet for more than two decades without even the hint of a recorded sighting…

But now Scotland’s second most famous Loch monster – Morag of Loch Morar – has made a comeback.

Holidaymaker Doug Christie, a recently retired oil industry engineer not given to flights of fancy, said he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw a solid 20ft black shape in the water.

He and wife Charlotte say they saw the beast three times during a stay at Kisimuil B&B by the loch. Doug, 66, from Brechin, Angus, said: “I could not believe my eyes.

“I am not the type to get excited unduly but this just couldn’t be explained.

“It was a large black shape on the loch that looked just like a bit of a ­submarine and around the same size.

Charlotte said: “I thought it was a whale. We saw it three times in the space of two days.

“The ­longest sighting was about 10 minutes before it submerged again.”

Photographer claims 'black object' glided beneath surface of Loch Ness (video)

A freak wave breaks the still waters of Loch Ness - but could it have been the monster?

Amateur photographer David Elder claims a “solid black object” gliding beneath the lake’s surface caused the sudden ripple.

David, 50, was focusing in a swan at Fort Augustus on the south-west end when he spotted the “creature”.

David, of East Kilbride, said: “Out of the corner of my right eye I caught site of a black area of water about 15ft long which developed into a kind of bow wave.

"I'm convinced this was caused by a solid black object under the water. The water was very still at the time and there were no ripples coming off the wave and no other activity on the water.

"Water was definitely going over something sold and making the wave. It looks like the sort of wave perhaps created by a windsurfing board but there was nobody on the Loch at the time, no boats, nothing.

"It is something I just can't explain."

Horned Sea Monster washes ashore in Spain

The decomposing corpse of a bizarre creature that recently washed ashore in Spain has local wondering what the hell it could be: A sea monster? A dragon? Falcor from The Neverending Story?

The horned beast was first spotted last Thursday by a beachgoer in the Andalusian village of Villaricos.

Photos of the "mutant fish," which is said to be about four meters (13 feet) in length, soon surfaced online, and the local Civil Defense was called in to examine the remains.

But so far, nada.

"We have no idea what it could be, but it smells bad," Civil Defense rep María Sánchez told a local news site.

Several theories have been put forth by experts, including the possibility that it is a type of shark, but the Association in Defense of Marine Fauna says further study is needed.

The biologists have their work cut out for them: As the Civil Defense was forced to bury the creature for "health reasons," the association only has photos snapped at the scene to go by.

Loch Ness monster legend is geology's fault, says scientist

Italian geologist Luigi Piccardi  dismisses veracity of the Loch Ness monster and attributes the infamous creature to a geological phenomenon.

According to an Italian researcher, the infamous Loch Ness monster that appears according to the legend, alongside Earth tremors and and swirling bubbles from the Scottish lake of the same name, is the result of an active fault beneath Loch Ness.

Italian geologist Luigi Piccardi has credited the Great Glen fault system for the alleged sightings of the beast.

"There are various effects on the surface of the water that can be related to the activity of the fault," Piccardi told Italian newspaper La Repubblica adding that the times of the sightings have coincided with periods of seismic activity."We know that this was a period (1920-1930) with increased activity of the fault. In reality, people have seen the effects of the earthquakes on the water."

Unknown monster filmed in Lough Foyle in Ireland (video)

Was shooting in Lough Foyle when this thing went past us. It was massive. Really don't know what it was. 

There have been whales in the Lough before so maybe that's what it was but Matthew was closer than we were and says it was no whale. 

Looks like we have our own Loch Ness Monster?! 

Any experts out there ?

We're still filming so if it shows up again we'll do our best to get a better shot of it.

Our film's called 'Fishing with David Lynch', which was why I was wearing the suit (a David Lynch costume.)

Meet "Nesskie" the Russian Loch Ness Monster

Russian academics are calling for a scientific probe into claims of a 'Siberian Loch Ness monster' in one of the world's remotest lakes.

Researchers using underwater scanners have found evidence of 'Nesski' - measuring up to 33 feet in length - in the deep waters of Lake Labynkyr, says a new report.

Intriguingly, the evidence is at a lake where native Evenk and Yakut people have long claimed an underwater creature lurks.

The evidence includes a picture which, it is claimed, shows the monster, says the Siberian Times.
Known as ‘the Devil', testimony dating back to the 19th century says the monster has enormous jaws.

Associate Professor Lyudmila Emeliyanova, of Moscow State University, told The Siberian Times that on her own scientific mission to Labynkyr she recorded ‘several seriously big underwater objects’ with sonar readings.

Images have also recently emerged from a 2006 scientific trip to the lake when strange objects - one of 21ft 4in (6.5 metres) in length - were recorded on a Humminbird Piranha MAX 215 Portable fish-finder at a depth of 138 to 197 feet.

Based on the sonic readings, researchers drew how the creature might look in real-life on the fish-finder's screen.

Cape Cod Creature "Real or Hoax" ?

This is a breaking story. Is it an unknown or known species? Is it a well-place gaffe, a construction, a hoax? A closer examination is required. Can you help?

An informant has written and forwarded the following photographs, in hopes of identifying what he reportedly saw this week on Cape Cod.

This was allegedly viewed on a beach on Cape Cod on Thursday morning, May 31, 2012.

It appeared to the witness to be “a very strange, large, eel like, prehistoric looking thing…the crows were eating it…it is about 6 ft long.”

It was left there, and, unfortunately, the photographer didn’t think about taking any samples for DNA.

I know where it is. If there is a Cryptomundian on Cape Cod, who can obtain this body or a sample/the skull, please contact Loren Coleman, immediately, by filling out the form here.

*NEW* Ogopogo Sighting in British Columbia's Lake Okanagan

At first glance, it looks like a ripple in the water.


But on further inspection, the dark shadows in British Columbia's Okanagan Lake show what could be seen as the outline of a large sea creature.


Or that is the conviction of Richard Huls, a local man who believes he has captured a video (SEE BELOW) of Ogopogo, Canada's version of Scotland’s infamous Loch Ness Monster.

He spotted the object while visiting a winery with a clear view of the lake.


'It was not going with the waves,' Huls told The Vancouver Sun. 'It was not a wave obviously, just a darker colour. The size and the fact that they were not parallel with the waves made me think it had to be something else.

THE LEGEND OF OGOPOGO

Native Canadian Indian legend told of a beast called Nhaaitk - now known as Ogopogo - living in Okanagan Lake.

The serpent would demand a sacrifice from travellers for safe passage across the lake.

Indians dropped small animals into the water for a protected journey.

A sign by the lake reads: ‘Before the unimaginative whiteman came, the fearsome lake monster N'ha-a-itk was well known to the superstitious Indians.

'His home was believed to be a cave at Squally Point, and small animals were carried in the canoes to appease the serpent.

'Ogopogo still is seen each year - but now by white men.’

'It proves something is down there. Whether it's Ogopogo or not is a different story, but there is something at least down there.'

The shaky 30-second footage shows two slender objects under the water. The shadows, which are about 40ft in length, do not appear to move.

Ogopogo has allegedly been spotted on more than a thousand occasions since 1860.
A handful of grainy photographs and films exist of the 'monster'.


The most common description is a 40ft-long sea serpent with humps. It has been described as resembling a horse or goat.

While some sightings have been witnessed by up to 30 people at a time, they have often been dismissed as animals, such as otters, or objects, such as floating logs.
In 1991, an expedition financed by Japan's Nippon Television searched for the monster using a remotely-operated vehicle and a miniature submarine.

The pilot took the vehicle to the deepest part of the lake, but no monsters – or bones – were found.

Benjamin Radford, from the Skeptical Inquirer science magazine, said he was not convinced by this latest 'sighting'.


He said: 'There are no humps, nor head, nor form – only two long, darkish, more or less straight forms that appear to be a few dozen feet long.


'Perhaps not coincidentally, Lake Okanagan has tens of thousands of logs harvested by the timber industry floating just under the lake's surface.'

Read Link Here: 

Fish farmer claims to have captured picture of Loch Ness Monster

It's been said before and it's being said again .. Nessie is alive under the waves of Loch Ness.

Once more the notoriously shy Loch Ness monster has been reportedly sighted in Scotland's deepest loch. This time close to a commercial fish farm.

Jon Rowe, from nearby Lewiston in Drumnadrochit, took the eerie snaps moments before the mysterious shape slipped beneath the water.

And the stunned fish farmer is convinced that the shapes he saw in the morning light are Nessie.

He said: 'It was a very strange morning. It was misty with a bit of rain and sunny at the same time.

'There was a rainbow so I got my camera out to take a photo and noticed this really large dark shape in the loch with two humps that were barely out of the water.

'My instant reaction was "That's Nessie".'

Mr Rowe has dismissed claims that the shapes he saw in the water were not the legendary beast of the deep said to stalk the atmospheric Highland loch.

He added: 'I have no doubt, I work on the loch everyday and I've never seen anything like it.

Two Humps and a Rainbow

'Almost as soon as I took the shot the shape disappeared under the water and out of sight.

The 31-year-old told how he had not believed that a monster swam the depths of Loch Ness until he captured Nessie on film.

'It can't have been a buoy or a mooring as it's in the wrong place and the ropes would be visible in the water.

'A few people have said it was birds diving under the water - but I didn't see any birds fly by. It can't have been birds - the whole thing went down into the loch.

'It was quite spooky but I think it's really interesting.'

The legend of the Loch Ness Monster began in 1933 when its 'existence' was first brought to the world's attention by George Spicer and his wife. They said they saw an unusual animal cross the road in front of them. 

Countless subsequent searches of the loch over the years using sonar and other high tech approaches have failed to prove that the monster exists and lives in the loch.

The most frequent speculation surrounding the mythical creature states that it could be from a line of long-surviving plesiosaurs, though this has never been proved.

As a result the Loch Ness Monster remains a modern-day myth and sightings are often dismissed by the scientific community as wishful thinking.

READ ARTICLE HERE : 

Documents Show Feds Believed in the Yeti

Newly unearthed State Department documents confirm for the first time Uncle Sam's belief that the Abominable Snowman roamed the mountains of Nepal in the 1950s, a finding that has shocked federal officials including the archivist who discovered the papers.

Long written off as a myth—it was never caught or photographed—the documents provided by the National Archives show that officials in the State Department, Foreign Service, and U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal, not only believed in "Yeti," but endorsed rules for American expeditions to follow when hunting the toothy monster down.

"There are, at present, three regulations applicable only to expeditions searching for the Yeti in Nepal. These regulations are to be observed," said a memo from the embassy written on State Department letterhead.

(PHOTO OF MEMO AT BOTTOM OF PAGE)

The first rule required that expeditions buy a permit. The second demanded that the beast be photographed or taken alive. "It must not be killed or shot at except in an emergency arising out of self defense," wrote Embassy Counselor Ernest Fisk on November 30, 1959. And third, any news proving the existence of the Abominable Snowman must be cleared through the Nepalese government which probably wanted to take credit for the discovery.

Archivist Mark Murphy said he couldn't believe his eyes when he discovered the long-ignored papers written at the end of the Eisenhower administration. "I thought I was seeing things," he said. "These documents show that finding the Yeti was a big deal in the 1950s. It goes to show the government was taking this seriously."

How seriously?

One foreign service dispatch from the Embassy of New Delhi dated April 16, 1959 describes the many American expeditions involved in mountaineering and monster hunting in Nepal.


"American resources in the last two years have been concentrated on efforts to capture the abominable snowman," the record reads.

Tom Slick, a millionaire with a specialized interest in cryptozoology paid for three separate expeditions in Nepal to find the snow beast, immortalized in the 1964 Christmas classic Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Slick never found it and he went onto pursue bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest.

Read Article Here:

Mystery Roadkill in Minnesota has Experts Baffled

Alexandria, Minn. - Minnesota Department of Natural Resources officials have been unable to identify a mystery carcass found in Douglas County with certainty, prompting further investigation.

The dead white mammal was spotted this week on a Douglas County road with five claws, dark tufts of hair on its back and head and long toenails.

Roadkill is nothing new for Minnesotans, but this curious creature got people talking.
Lacey Ilse said she was driving near her home on County Road 86, south of Alexandria, when she spotted the mysterious mammal.

"We saw something in the middle of the road, and we knew it wasn't a dog or a cat, because it didn't have hair. It had a clump of hair and all the rest was just white skin," Ilse said."Its ear was all mis-shaped. To me, it looked like half-human."

Ilse said she soon posted pictures of the animal on Facebook, and rumours and speculation took off.
"It just shot out like wildfire. Everybody was putting it on their Facebook pages. And then, their friends were putting it on their pages," she said.

Noelle Jones sent the pictures to local television station KSAX on Monday, and after posting them on the KSAX Facebook page that night, more than 175 comments have been posted about the unusual animal, with guesses ranging from a skunk, badger, wolverine, wolf, or even proof of the mythical chupacabra.

Folks in Alexandria this week had their own ideas.

"First guess was a badger with like, a case of mange. But then, some other people were saying, like a chupacabra. And after looking at some pictures, I was like, 'You know, it's possible," Jones said.
"It kinda looks like a 10-year-old wolf," Austin Becker of Alexandria said.

"Almost looks like a pig, with paws? I don't know, or a wolf," Kaitlin Van Horn of Morris said.
Glenwood DNR Area Wildlife Supervisor Kevin Kotts used the process of elimination to give his answer.

"It's got five long front claws on each of its front feet, which would be characteristic of a badger," Kotts said. "I ran the pictures past a few other DNR folks that have a lot of trapping and/or fur-bare experience, and they all said, it's hard to be 100-per-cent sure what it is . . . but if it's a Minnesota animal, it's probably a badger."

But Ilse, and just about everyone else who has seen it, isn't so sure.

"If you're looking at the top half, it definitely looks like a dog that's kind of been torn apart. But, I'm not sure what to make of the back part," Igor Simanovich of the Twin Cities said.

"It's a strange animal and I hope we don't have anymore around here," Jane Murphy of Alexandria said.

"You know how they do their government secret testing on animals? And I know it sounds crazy, but I've never seen an animal like this," Ilse said Jason Abraham, with the Department of Natural Resources, said he thinks it may be a domestic dog, but he is still left with questions.
"The head suggests a canine, very likely a domestic dog," Abraham said.

"However, the right front foot appears to have five toes, which is not typical for canines. Also, the long toenails are not typical for an active canine."

Ilse said some of her guinea hens and cats are missing and suspects the animal or others in the area may be to blame. Several burrowed holes ranging from four to 10 inches in size were also spotted near where the animal was found.

Ilse said Kotts was able to check the creature out Wednesday afternoon and said it's similar to a badger but has a much longer tail than usual, and took the carcass in for further testing.

Read Article Here:

Mysterious Skeleton washes ashore on British Beach

Monster Skeleton washed ashore on Aberdeen beach

For centuries they’ve been a part of maritime legend, inspiring curiosity and terror in equal measure. Lurking in the depths of the oceans, shocking in size and appearance, gigantic serpents and prehistoric monsters are as much a source of fascination as ever, especially in Hollywood.

But are such tales of strange sea beasts more than mythology? Is there any evidence to suggest that some of these monsters of the watery deep -  from Jules Verne’s giant squid in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea to the legendary Kraken, a leviathan sending sailors to their doom - might actually exist?

 Certainly, the study of the possible existence of sea monsters and other creatures of legend - known as cryptozoology - remains an area that captures the imagination of scientists and laymen alike. 

Last week I took part in a major debate at the Zoological Society in London at which I and my colleagues wondered whether there might be more to these stories than mere myth.


Only this week, photographs emerged of the large carcass of an unidentified sea creature washed up on the beach near Aberdeen. It is the subject of fevered speculation, with some claiming it is a sea monster and others (more sensibly) saying it’s a plain old pilot whale.

Video footage film in Alaska in 2009

Further fuelling the popular enthusiasm for sea monster lore,  the Discovery Channel screened footage, filmed by Alaskan fishermen, of what appeared to be an immense sea creature — at least 30ft long — with humps on its back, breaking the surface of the ocean.


What may simply be an example of a whale and its wake has been imaginatively recast by viewers as the Alaskan Nessie.

Given that previously unknown large marine animals continue to be discovered, the idea is far from outlandish. It’s perfectly plausible that species of shark, rays and whale still wait to be identified. Indeed, according to some estimates, there could be as many as 50 species of large sea‑going animals awaiting discovery. 

Despite advances in sonar equipment, remotely operated cameras and deep-sea submersibles, only a fraction of the vast oceans that cover so much of the Earth have been examined.   

Megamouth Shark

It was only in 1976, for instance, that the incredible Megamouth shark was discovered. And it was found entirely by chance when one became entangled with the anchor of a U.S. navy ship off the coast of Hawaii. 
    
An unusual-looking, deep-water creature with a large, rubbery head and enormous mouth that can open 4ft wide, the Megamouth is unlike any other shark previously seen. To this day, sightings remain extremely rare.

Equally rare is Omura’s whale, named after a biologist from Tokyo. This creature, around 33ft in length, was first caught by a Japanese research vessel in the Pacific in the late Seventies — yet hardly any specimens have been caught or filmed since.

So we can be extremely confident new species will keep on being found as we continue to explore our planet.

What we don’t know is whether any of these species might match those creatures mentioned in the fantastical tales passed down to us through history or in more recent eyewitness accounts of sea monsters. 

The Roman writer Pliny gives an account of a giant octopus in his natural history books, while sea dragons began to feature on the edges of medieval maps in the 13th century to demarcate the edge of charted waters. 

By the time of the Renaissance, tales of strange creatures sighted on the horizon or washed up on shore were increasingly common.

On his return journey from Newfoundland in 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, an adventurer and half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, claimed to have encountered a strange, lion-like sea monster with glaring eyes. 

By the 18th century, the reports had become more elaborate.

Hans Egede Sea Monster 1734

Hans Egede, a missionary from Denmark, reported a sighting of ‘a most terrible creature’ off the coast of Greenland in 1734. He recorded that ‘the monster lifted its head so high that it seemed to be higher than the crow’s nest on the main mast. It was longer than the whole ship’.

Could at least some of these accounts refer to encounters with real animals?

Research on the reliability of eye-witnesses shows that there are many reasons to be cautious about claimed monster sightings. People’s memories are typically untrustworthy in recalling distances and sizes, especially in the huge, empty expanse of the ocean. 

So what might appear to be a strange creature could just be a wave or a trick of the light, or perhaps just the fanciful vision of sailors stranded for too long in becalmed waters.

Over the years, many accounts of sea monsters have talked of large, slithering marine serpents, apparently utterly different to anything recognised by science.
Egede’s account of 1734 is one of the classics. But it is possible that what people actually saw were nothing more than the penises of courting male whales, for such organs can be more than 10ft long. 

In the same vein, others have spoken of seeing bizarre, dinosaur-like creatures with long necks, deep, staring eyes and whiskers round their mouths. Perhaps these are descriptions of elephant seals, which can reach 16ft in length, have a distinctive proboscis overhanging their jaw (rather like an elephant’s trunk), can move rapidly through water and emit a loud roar which could strike fear into an onlooker.
One common notion about sea monsters is that, if they exist, then perhaps they could be modern-day descendents of plesiosaurs, the marine reptiles that ruled the seas during the age of the dinosaurs. 

After all, the sightings often super-ficially seem to match some of the characteristics — such as a long neck or giant flippers — of these long extinct creatures of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

The belief that the oceans might contain descendants from the dinosaur age is known as the ‘prehistoric survivor paradigm’. 

But there are two central problems with this idea. First of all, what we know of plesiosaur fossils shows that the living animals did not really match the modern sea monsters described by eyewitnesses. 


While the modern-day sea monsters are described as raising their necks high out of the water and even waving them around, plesiosaur necks were far less flexible.
In fact, it seems plesiosaurs were simply unable to raise their massively long necks above the water’s surface. If you have ever tried to lift a heavy pole out of the water from one end, you will know how gravity makes such a task impossible. 
  
The second main problem with the prehistoric survivor idea is that there are absolutely no fossilised plesiosaurs from rock younger than 65 million years old. If some plesiosaurs had survived into our present age, we would expect a continuous fossil record. 
 

Coelacanth

Ah, say those who want to believe these marine giants are still with us, what about the coelacanth — the 5ft fish that was thought to have become extinct at the same time as the plesiosaurs, but in the Thirties was discovered to be living in the seas off southern Africa? 

There were, it is said, no coelacanth fossils younger than 65 million years old, yet it obviously survived down the millennia. 

However, the bones of plesiosaurs are extremely large and tough, which means not only that they remain intact but they are also easy to recognise and classify. 

It is a completely different story with the coelacanths, whose bones are much more fragile, small and vulnerable, so traces are far harder to find.

Whale Shark off Isle Mujeres, Mexico July 2011

Whatever your view — and experts remain divided — it seems that the best biological evidence suggests we are unlikely to discover a terrifying new monster lurking in the depths. But that’s not to say it won’t happen.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE: 

Russia's Mysterious Lake Baikal devours Vessels

Another vessel with people on board disappeared in Lake Baikal. Now a search and rescue team is looking for a pleasure boat "Yamaha" that went into the lake with four men on board on 16 June and still has not returned. Everyone says that the men were experienced sailors. However, some do not believe that the crew will return as it disappeared in the most mysterious area of ​​Lake Baikal.

The boat left a village in Kabansk area of ​​Buryatia with four men on board. They were supposed to return soon, as they went to try a new motor for a small boat, but all contact with them was lost almost immediately after their departure. As reported to "Pravda.ru" by the Main Emergency Center in Buryatia, on Monday the search was conducted by seven rescuers with seven pieces of equipment, on Tuesday the search was continued by a different party near Cape Saint Nose and in the bays of Barguzin Chivyrkuy; searches are conducted by Mi-8 helicopter.

The age of the missing men is from 35 to 63, they are experienced people, and a short way out into the lake should have been easy for them. Why are they gone, and without a trace? Their phones are out of the network (although the reception within the area of ​​the lake is perfect for all mobile operators). The local press has already voiced a theory that they were lost in the fog that came in after their departure.

In any event, the fog has already burnt down, and there were no storms on Lake Baikal since their departure. They could have crashed against the shore because of the thick fog, but it is also unlikely as there is no wreckage on the banks for dozens of kilometers. The boat sank as if in the Bermuda Triangle.

Sea Monsters, Aliens,  And Ghosts have been speculated as the causes of these deaths on the lake & the fresh water lake itself is an oddity. It is the largest by volume and the deepest (5370 feet at its deepest point), in the world, as well as one of the oldest at around 25 million years. 

Finally, recently a theory of the missing boat emerged that actually fits the circumstances. The ship might have sunk in the anomalous zone of Lake Baikal, as have many other small vessels. The locals lost count trying to figure out how many people were lost in the mysterious depths of Lake Baikal. 

This is not including those who perished drifting away on the ice, or fell through the ice on cars or snowmobiles.

Fishermen from Lake Baikal often tell stories about seeing trains and ancient castles, historic ships and boats over the transparent surface of the lake - something scientists call a mirage.

Often, when mirages appear in different parts of the lake, they are accompanied by disturbances in the magnetic fields that lead to failures in the ships' equipment, especially the navigation.

Igor Janushev, PhD., a participant of the annual expeditions to Lake Baikal organized by the sport-tourism group "Slavs" commented on the situation for "Pravda.ru."

"Every year I hear plenty of mysterious stories about the Lake. I usually serve as a doctor in our expeditions, but often have to serve as a psychologist and a psychiatrist: the secrets of the lake can bring a person into a very peculiar state.

Mysterious Ice Circles spotted by the International Space Station in 2009

For example, Lake Baikal has ideal conditions for mirages created by warm air over the chilled water in summer, and clear atmosphere and extreme cold in winter. In the layers of air of different density, the light rays are refracted, distorted, and produce fantastic forms. This could bring the missing men from "Yamaha" God knows where - Baikal mirages are very realistic.

For years there have been rumors and legends about the incredible mirages on Lake Baikal. They are often observed by local fishermen and researchers in such famous places as near the island of Great Ushkan'i, near Cape Sun and the famous island of Olkhon.

In recent years, many famous scientists got engaged with the study of Lake Baikal. They are still in disbelief: how can these numerous unexplained phenomena occur in one place? Near the place where the boat has disappeared, a few dozen kilometers southeast of Olkhon, in the deepest part of Lake Baikal, there is a place called the Devil's crater.

Normally unremarkable, no more than once or twice a year this area of ​​the lake covering two square kilometers becomes unruly. This is when small vessels with crews disappear there.

Lake Baikal "swallows" ships along with people. In good weather and a dead calm, incredible rotation of the water begins here, and soon in the midst of it a large crater emerges, engulfing everything around. Locals claim that this is the opening of a chasm through which the souls of dead sinners go to hell.

The most interesting thing is that this phenomenon has been documented - there are movies, videos, numerous photographs, and eyewitness accounts. Several years ago, some skippers offered to completely close the area of the lake to the boats, but for some reason it has never been done."

It is hard to predict what would be the end of "Yamaha's" story with the four crew members. There were times when the fishermen would disappear for a week, but then suddenly return as if nothing had happened, convinced that it has only been a few hours.

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55 Foot Sea Monster Washed Ashore in China

From MSNBC.com

A massive sea creature has washed up on a beach in Guangdong, China. So badly decayed it cannot be positively identified, the "sea monster" is 55 feet long and weighs approximately 4.5 tons, according to The Sun.

Upon seeing the photo of the beast three marine biology experts — Scott Baker of Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute; Bill Perrin, senior scientist for marine mammals at the National Marine Fisheries Service; and Bob Brownell, senior scientist for international protected resources with the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration's Fisheries Service — all think it's a whale.

Based on its throat grooves, "[we agree] that it's a balaenopterid," Baker told Life's Little Mysteries. "Judging from the reported size of 55 ft., maybe a fin whale. From the photo, however, it does not really look to be 55 ft., and so might be a smaller balaenopterid, like one of the 'Bryde's' whales."

"We all hope somebody collects the bones and a tissue sample for genetic analysis as recovery of whale carcasses is rare along the coast of China," he added.

The beast is tangled in ropes, and locals theorize that area fisherman once caught it but could not haul it in owing to its gargantuan size. According to The Sun, people have flocked to see the sea creature despite its foul stench.