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Sea Serpents & Monsters (General; Miscellaneous)

Lived near Lake Erie for years never heard anything about a lake monster, but perhaps they were referring to the giant Lake Sturgeon. These used to grow up to 9' long.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/l/lake-sturgeon/
Seems that some of these manufactured monsters are well known locally as hoaxes and ignored but cryptozoology tomes tend to amplify and exploit them for content. The Pennsylvania monster of Raystown Lake and that of Silver Lake, NY comes to mind.
 
It sounds like that Nestor sea serpent, if real, would be the biggest animal in existence.
 
Lived near Lake Erie for years never heard anything about a lake monster, but perhaps they were referring to the giant Lake Sturgeon. These used to grow up to 9' long.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/l/lake-sturgeon/

Huge sturgeon may account for many lake monsters in North America and allot of historic ones in Europe. However Huso huso, the beluga is now so rare that giant ones straying into lakes in Europe are probably a thing of the bast. Over-collection of eggs, damns and hydro-electric schemes. Their swim bladders are also used to clarify wine and beer..
 
Looks like the back of a grey whale or a Greenland shark but both are saltwater dwellers. Maybe a photoshop.
 
Posted to Facebook by David Waldron. Interesting historic reports pf maned sea serpents.
Victorian Goldfields history and environment

JgttfduSsnponnseod rmu2ed0 ·
Miners and the Mindye - Gold miners see a 50 foot long snake 20 inches thick.
John Garibaldi Roberts in his 1930 Ballarat Courier article, quotes men who encountered the fearsome Mindye which was sent by Bunjil, the Aboriginal Creator God, to kill evil doers.
Roberts received a letter from a friend, Mr. P McGrath of Newtown, Scarsdale, "I personally have come in contact with four White men who told me they had seen the creature.
"One was Mr. G. E. Roberts, a farmer, near Minyip, in 1879 or 1880, a most truthful man, incapable of prevaication, and I was intimately acquainted with him for over eight years:
"I went into the Pyrenees Range prospecting. My mate and I were camped on a gentle rise with heavy timber all round us, and miles away from anyone, when one day my mate said, 'Look, Roberts; so help me God! I haven't touched a drop of liquor since we came in here three months ago, and you don't touch liquor at all.' I looked to where he had pointed, about 30 yards away and there was the most monstrous snake I ever saw.
"It was over 50 feet long, of a changing colour, due to glints of sunshine falling on it. Its body was much thicker than a man's, apparently about 20 inches through, and all the way down its back was a mane seemingly about a foot or eighteen inches long, like the mane of a horse.
"I had seen pythons and monstrous snakes in London, but they seemed piccaninnies compared to this one. 'That must be a Mindai Jack', I said. 'for God's sake, keep quiet; we can't fight him?'
"My mate was a runaway sailor, and after the reptile had passed he said, 'Roberts, you don't believe in the tales of the sea serpent, but look here, I believe them and that's one; he has come on shore for a look round, and is making back to the sea."
"The second person was an old bushman named Edward Stanford, who said he and his mate were splitting posts and rails for John Bull station, in the Bolemgrem Ranges. One day his mate happened to look round and yelled, 'Oh, my God!', and jumping over the log they were sawing started to get behind a tree near by.
"'What the devil's the matter with you?', I said, 'Has a snake bit you?'
"'Look over there', he said, pointing to a clearance a short distance away. I looked and there was a snake which seemed to be near a hundred feet long, moving slowly down. It was thicker than my body and had a mane all down its back for all the world like the mane of a horse, but much longer. I dropped down behind the log and I don't want to be any closer to the Mindi than I then was."
"The third person who told me he had seen it was a storekeeper at Donald named Waddell. His yarn was 'I was riding near Donald on the west side of the township on a nice summer's evening when my horse shied, wheeled round and nearly threw me off. After a short distance I pulled him up and turned back to see what he had shied at, and there across the road was an awful big snake. Its head was against the fence on the river side of the lane (a one chain one), and its tail was not [yet] over the other fence [ie longer than 20 metres], and all along its back was hair like a horse's mane and about 18 inches long. I wheeled my horse round and went home by another lane.'"
"The fourth person was my cousin, John McGrath, then about 17, in 1881, whose father had a farm near Cope Cope, about 4 miles from Donald. He was a cool intelligent lad and truthful. His tale was almost identical with Waddell's, save that the snake was going west instead of east, and that he saw only about half of it as the tail part was over the fence on the west side of the township, ... I have never hear of any Southerner speak of the Mindai, and 'tis only the pioneers of the north who had mixed much with the Blacks that ever I heard speak of it."
J.G. Roberts averred: "Mr. P. McGrath's own truthfulness and sobriety are beyond question."
From "Cape Clear" by J.G. Roberts republished by The Woady Yaloak Historical Society, (with minor edits in good faith that the booklet is a reproduction of the original out of copyright article).
As seen above, a sailor prospecting thought the Mindye was a Sea Serpent come ashore. This link to Sea Serpent Mythology shows a similar creature to the Mindye in Viking mythology: "On bright summer nights this serpent leaves the caves to eat calves, lambs and pigs, or it fares out to the sea and feeds on sea nettles, crabs and similar marine animals. It has ell-long hair hanging from its neck, sharp black scales and flaming red eyes"
https://mythology.wikia.org/wiki/Sea_serpent
Image, Library of Congress "The great sea-serpent, found in Hungary Bay, Bermuda, on January 22, 1860" Wood engraving, from a sketch by W.D. Munro.
A Bunyip is another mythical creature according to Aborigines, which quite a few White men have attested to seeing. Has anyone seen the Mindye?
1Richard Freeman
 
Translation, some of it seems to be lost in translation.
She took in the Great Lakes Beast.

And she looked into its eyes and gap.

Now Ellen Lund, 92, Östersund, can tell about what she has never wanted to publish before.


Ellen Lund's unique testimony differs from most observations of the Great Lake Beast. Nor is the story an afterthought in the autumn of age. Her children have lived with the incident for 60 years. It has only been mentioned at some point in the family circle.

There, as with many others who have seen the beast, there is a caution because there is a fear of being ridiculed. Now Ellen Lund thinks she can tell. This is not a matter of small wave motions and any unidentifiable bud floating across the water.

Eye to eye

Ellen has been face to face with the Great Lake Beast. And she has taken it around and looked straight down at her throat.

- Hood! I will never forget that fish. It was the worst fish I've seen. I think it was longer than the boat. Think they can exist! says Ellen who now lives at Björkbacka in Östersund.

The family place, on the other hand, is located in Dillne, Oviken, on the western shore of Storsjön where it goes down to Svenstavik. It was at Dillne that it happened about 60 years ago. And Ellen talks about the fish.

- If there is a large lake monster, it was that one, she says.

We are sitting in the sunshine by the farm in Dillne together with some relatives of hers. The waves hit the beach which is a short distance down from the yard. It was out there in the bay that it happened.

Midsummer Eve

Ellen Lund was in her 30s and it was Midsummer's Eve sometime in the mid-1930s. She does not remember the exact year.

The four children had been born in a close succession. The family lived on small farms but also on fishing. Ellen Lund talks about it as an extra twist next to the night shifts at the knitting machines. When there was no coffee or other necessities in the house, she sold fish to the steamboats or other customers in the village. The long foxes were whitewashed daily. That was what she and her husband Ville, who died in 1975, would do that morning. They would hurry because it was midsummer. Ellen and Ville had come out a bit from the bridge in Dillne.

- We were worried about what was holding the boat. We rowed and would whitewash and we saw the head of something strange. It moved next to the boat and far out.

It was the same animal and it had its tail far out, says Ellen.

"Put on the hook"

Probably the animal had swallowed some fish that was sitting on one of the longline's 90-100 hooks.

- Yes, he was sitting on the hook so he only appeared occasionally. But they did not dare to pull anything because then he could have let go (!), Because it was so big. But it was just that he had to play himself into the boat. It was a big mess because he was so big, says Ellen.

From the beginning, the fishing couple saw the bait as an ordinary fish that it was important to get in the boat.

Pretty soon they came up with other ideas.

- The fish gaped and it had the reef in it and shook its head. Because it wanted to be free the fox.

I remember it so well.

- He kind of went backwards.

I saw the reef far down his throat because he was gaping. It was a desperately big fish. He pulled the boat with him because he had the reef in him, says Ellen. And when she talks about how the fish gaped, she shows with her hands how it did.

- The gap was probably as big as a bucket or switch as they said. I looked at Ville and he at me and was kind of worried about how that would end and how we would dare. And we could not say anything.

- I remember so well. I see it whenever I want: How it shook its head and gaped and sort of went backwards.

Struck with the tail

Ellen talks about how the fish hit its tail and how the water sprayed straight into the air. As it lay next to the boat, Ellen tried to get around the fish's body.

- But the arm was not enough.

We were afraid he would get under the boat.

OP: Can you describe what the head looked like?

- Yes, it was like a fish head but much bigger. Big eyes too.

She calculated the fish's body as longer than the boat. So longer than six, seven meters.

OP: Did it have ears?

- No, it was smooth as a fish.

OP: What color was it? How did it feel?

- It was like an ordinary fish in color, a little shiny. It was as smooth and the mountains lay in one direction. The tail looked like a fish tail even though it was very large.

Like a fish

OP: It had no legs?

- No, it was like a fish.

- And it was not like a snake.

OP: What did it look like in your mouth?

- It looked fresh. Yes, the nets themselves, the ones that the fish have in their throats, looked healthy. They were like cut and light red.

OP: Did you think it was the Great Lake Beast?

- Yes, we said that if there is a large lake monster, this is it.

OP: So you can still see this in front of you?

- Yes exactly. I just sit down and think about that fish. Yes, it was a terrible fish.

- It just dropped, shook its head and disappeared. You will never see such a fish again.

Remember cut parents

The daughter Ingrid Göransson, Fåker, remembers very well when the severed parents came ashore after the dramatic fishing trip that took up the whole morning. Ingrid was then five to six years old.

- Yes, I remember that. They said we children could have been orphaned this morning.

I do not think we then understood that the fish had been so big. But I remember thinking about what would have happened if Mom and Dad had died. It was for the moment that we reacted to it, says Ingrid Göransson.

OP: Have you talked a lot about the event over the years?

- No, it has been some time now and then it has come up. This has not been something big, something you should do something about.

- And Dad never wanted to talk about that.

- No, as soon as I mentioned that, he said quietly, Ellen interjects.

Shortly afterwards, the fish became known in the area.

- We talked about which fish we got but, see. They did not believe us.

They could not believe that there was such a thing there. But if you think about what depths there are in Storsjön, it's not so strange, says Ellen Lund.

- I have seen it with my own eyes so I have to believe in it.

Tommy Johansson
 
The large mystery creature that washed up on a Welsh beach.

Even marine experts aren't quite sure .

A mysterious creature washed up on a Pembrokeshire beach and people aren't quite certain what it is.

1608647703079.png


A pelvis, vertebrae and flippers appeared to make up part of the large grey mass which was found on Newport beach in Pembrokeshire.
Julie LaTrobe made the discovery on Thursday, December 17 at around 3.15pm.
She said: "It was quite a find, we poked at the remains trying to work out what it was for quite a time. It looked like a vertebrae that was the size of my fist.
"It didn't have a head we could see, but a very definite pelvis and what looked like flippers. It didn't seem like bone, rather cartilage, much paler and softer.
"It made a very interesting culmination to a beautiful wild walk along the estuary." <snip>...

Some people on social media suggested it might be some sort of shark, seal or even a sheep.
(C)WoL. '20





I reckon its a Walrus.
 
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