Sea Serpents & Monsters (General; Miscellaneous)

Brazilian fisherman chased by large, dark creature with reflective eyes.
In the video, entitled "Queria me atacar" (It wanted to attack me) the creature can be seen briefly breaching the water and keeping pace with the motorboat, which is going at full tilt.

Whilst not definitively identified, the speculation is that it may have been an unusually large pinniped - possibly a leopard seal, not dissimilar to this one about to p-p-p-pickup a hapless penguin.

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https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/my...ns-boat-heres-what-it-really-was-4723175.html
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
Brazilian fisherman chased by large, dark creature with reflective eyes.
In the video, entitled "Queria me atacar" (It wanted to attack me) the creature can be seen briefly breaching the water and keeping pace with the motorboat, which is going at full tilt.

Whilst not definitively identified, the speculation is that it may have been an unusually large pinniped - possibly a leopard seal, not dissimilar to this one about to p-p-p-pickup a hapless penguin.

View attachment 52134

https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/my...ns-boat-heres-what-it-really-was-4723175.html
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I think leopard seals could be behind a number of sightings.
 
jessica_ said:
Do think this Goliath fish is a sea monster? I've never seen such a overly large fish before. With those markings, and that size! View attachment 54196
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That looks a monster to me. However, something feels a bit fishy. I think a little forced perspective is making this fish look bigger than it is. If nobody else weighs in, when I get time I might try to identify it. (I know virtually nothing about fish.)
 
PeteByrdie said:
That looks a monster to me. However, something feels a bit fishy. I think a little forced perspective is making this fish look bigger than it is. If nobody else weighs in, when I get time I might try to identify it. (I know virtually nothing about fish.)
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It's a Goliath fish as stated and as you say some forced perspective, they normally grow up to a maximum of just over eight foot.
 
It is common to use a wider angle lens in underwater photography than you would on land. Objects near to the camera therefore look larger in proportion to objects in the background. As a former diver, there's nothing about that short film that makes me think "Crikey!"
 
jessica_ said:
Well, you could be right. But it doesn't look filtered or video enhanced in any way. I personally have never seen a fish that size with those markings, and the divers not wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible. It does seem like they are trying to get away from it. But thier movements are slow and paced which I find strange. I know it is as real as it gets because it is murky around the fish. Look around it's mouth... it looks murky like filthy river water. That's how I know it is not video-shopped.
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I certainly don't think there're any VFX there. I think it's just more in the foreground than our instincts on seeing the video suggest, making it seem twice as big as the divers. It's a beautiful beast, and I've no doubt it's huge. The markings are striking.
 
PeteByrdie said:
I certainly don't think there're any VFX there. I think it's just more in the foreground than our instincts on seeing the video suggest, making it seem twice as big as the divers. It's a beautiful beast, and I've no doubt it's huge. The markings are striking.
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That's what it looks like to me too.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
Guardian article today: "From Loch Ness to the Essex Serpent, why are humans so keen to invent sea monsters?"

View attachment 55119

Also features a plug for new drama "The Essex Serpent" (unfortunately only available on Apple TV).

https://www.theguardian.com/culture...why-are-humans-so-keen-to-invent-sea-monsters
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This article mentions:
In 1937 a remarkable survey of schools in Ireland had sought to catalogue such folklore. It was an uncanny version of Mass Observation, an assertion of a new republican state. “Is there a story told in your district of a serpent or large animal which lives in a certain lake or river there?” children were asked. “Are water-horses or water-bulls spoken of? Are stories told of strange animals met by night on roads?” One boy said that water-horses emerged from Drumcor Lough at night to feed, then returned to the lough and turned into animals like eels. “Customs and beliefs in a conservative country like ours,” the survey concluded, “come from the Bronze Age as well as from the early Christian period.”
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The source for this, which must be quite fascinating, appears to be here:

https://digital.ucd.ie/view/ivrla:30350
 
Leaving aside the question of whether there is enough physical space for creatures that big in the lake, I think food is the limiting factor. As the lake is known to be poor in fish and aquatic plants, its ability to sustain a breeding population of 15-meter creatures seems doubtful. Perhaps a detritivore or chemosynthetic species living off of hydrothermal vents might be able to circumvent the usual ecological constraints, but that's a stretch.

I do find it interesting that the lake contains dogfish (i.e. small sharks), suggesting a prior connection to the sea.
 
The "eunuch eel" hypothesis presented in the video is interesting. An unusually large specimen of a much smaller species becoming the literal "big fish in a small pond" would largely resolve the problem of food availability.

We know that cephalopods afflicted with trematode parasites that prevent them from reaching sexual maturity can, at times, continue growing instead of reproducing and dying. This possibility has been brought up in the discussion of gigantic squid or octopodes.

However, to my knowledge, such "eunuch" cephalopods are not known to grow to more than double or triple their usual size, and I have never heard of evidence for similar conditions in vertebrates. An eel that grows to 15 or 20 times the normal length and 3000+ times the usual mass would be quite amazing, to say the least.
 
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