Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology

Sea Serpents

A sea serpent or sea dragon is a type of sea monster either wholly or partly serpentine.

Sightings of sea serpents have been reported for hundreds of years, and continue to be claimed today. Cryptozoologist Bruce Champagne identified more than 1,200 purported sea serpent sightings. It is currently believed that the sightings can be best explained as known animals such as oarfish, whales, or sharks (in particular, the frilled shark). Some cryptozoologists have suggested that the sea serpents are relict plesiosaurs, mosasaurs or other Mesozoic marine reptiles, an idea often associated with lake monsters such as the Loch Ness Monster.

Reported sea serpent sightings on the coast of New England have been documented from 1638 onwards. An incident in August 1817 led a committee of the Linnaean Society of New England to give a deformed terrestrial snake the name Scoliophis atlanticus, believing it was the juvenile form of a sea serpent that had recently been reported in Gloucester Harbor. The Gloucester Harbor serpent was claimed to have been seen by hundreds of New England residents, including the crews of four whaling boats that reportedly sought out the serpent in the harbor. Rife with political undertones, the serpent was known in the harbor region as "Embargo." Sworn statements made before a local Justice of the Peace and first published in 1818 were never recanted. After the Linnaean Society's misidentification was discovered, it was frequently cited by debunkers as evidence that the creature did not exist.

A particularly famous sea serpent sighting was made by the officers and men of HMS Daedalus in August 1848 during a voyage to Saint Helena in the South Atlantic; the creature they saw, some 60 feet long, held a snakelike head above the water, and Captain Peter M'Quahe's report said "something like the mane of a horse, or rather a bunch of seaweed washed about its back." The sighting caused quite a stir in the London papers, and Sir Richard Owen, the famous English biologist, proclaimed the beast an elephant seal. Other explanations for the sighting proposed that it was actually an upside-down canoe, or a giant squid.

Another sighting took place in 1905 off the coast of Brazil. The crew of the Valhalla and two naturalists, Michael J. Nicoll and E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, saw a long-necked, turtle-headed creature, with a large squarish or ribbon-like dorsal fin. Based on its dorsal fin and the shape of its head, some (such as Bernard Heuvelmans) have suggested that the animal was some sort of marine mammal. A skeptical suggestion is that the sighting was of a giant squid swimming with one arm and fin visible, but this is problematical, as there are no reports of squid swimming in such a manner, and no apparent reason why one would.

On April 25, 1977, the Japanese trawler Zuiyo Maru, sailing east of Christchurch, New Zealand, caught a strange, apparently unknown creature in the trawl. Photographs and tissue specimens were taken. While initial speculation suggested it might be a prehistoric plesiosaur, analysis later indicated that the body was the carcass of a basking shark.

On October 31, 1983, about 2:00 p.m., five members of a construction crew saw a 100-foot-long sea serpent off Stinson Beach, which is just north of San Francisco, California. A flagman named Gary saw it first swimming towards the cliffside road which the work crew was repairing. He radioed another member of the work crew, Matt Ratto, and told him to grab the binoculars. Ratto began looking at the sea serpent when it was 100 yards offshore and less than a quarter of a mile away. Ratto said, "The body came out of the water first." He added, "It was black with three humps." He continued, "There were three bends. like humps and they rose straight up." He further described it as a "humpy, flat-backed thing". He also made a sketch of the animal which appeared to be a round headed, blunt nosed, snake-like creature followed by 3 vertical arches or coils sticking out of the water. Another eyewitness, Steve Bjora, said "The sucker was going 45 to 50 miles an hour." He also described the animal saying, "It was clipping. It was boogying. It looked like a long eel." Marlene Martin, the Caltran safety engineer who was over seeing the work crew also saw the animal. She said, "It shocked the hell out of me" adding, "That thing's so big he deserves front page coverage." She went on to say, "It was hard to describe how big it was. I have no creative imagination. It was a snake-like thing that arched itself up and was so long it made humps above the water." Martin first saw it near Bolinas and saw it swim the whole way to Stinson beach then watched it turn around and head towards the Farallone Islands. Martin said, "It had a wake as big as a power boat's and it was going about 65 miles an hour. It looked like a great big rubber hose as it moved. If someone had gotten in its way it would have plowed right though them." Before it went underwater Martin saw it lift its head and a portion of its body directly behind its head out of the water then open its mouth. Martin said, "It was like it was playing." She described the animal as a "giant snake or a dragon, with a mouth like an alligator's." She continued, "It was at least 15 or 20 feet in circumference, but it was hard to tell how long it was. I mean, how long is a snake? Marlin Martin concluded by saying, "He should have the whole damn ocean. It's his territory. He's the King of the Sea!"