Sea Creatures

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Dalehas provided us here with an overview of previous work on the seacreature phenomenon particularly as done by Paul Leblond.
WhatI am comfortable with is that there are outright sea serpents outthere with external gills on their heads. These have been seen upclose and personal all over the world. I am unconvinced that we havepleiosaurs out there though. The argument that we are mistakingother creatures for this is well taken and nicely shown by some ofthis material.
Onthe west coast, there were 300 individual reports of cadosaurus andone I read and posted here some years back could hardly be closer andbetter.
Dalesuggests that we may also have a large mammal out there although Ifind that to be a stretch simply because it would be surely confinedto the surface making discovery inevitable. The sea serpent livesmostly in the deep well away from then surface.


Paul LeBlond Sea Monsters
THURSDAY, 22 NOVEMBER2012
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.ca/2012/11/paul-leblond-sea-monsters.htmlhttp://mythicmysteriesmiscellany.devhub.com/blog/910407-identifying-the-unidentifiable/
I found this on aphoto search yesterday and I found it EXTREMELY interesting.
IDENTIFYING THEUNIDENTIFIABLE  
July27, 2012


The three types ofunidentified sea creatures described by Dr. Paul LeBlond. (LindaGodfrey)
Ancient myths paintunknown sea creatures as true monsters, or beings that combinecharacteristics of different species and that may possesssupernatural powers. But the modern view of sea“monsters” isusually that they are unknown, natural animals. But what kind ofanimal are they? Reptile? Amphibian? Mammal? Some researchers haveanalyzed as many eyewitness accounts as possible and created modelsthat most closely match all these descriptions.
The task itself ismonstrous, given the many stories reported over the years by hundredsof people in all types of weather and light conditions, from varieddistances and points of view. Creatures that resemble giant whales,squid, or other known ocean dwellers demand separate categories. Andthose that most closely fit the public’s mental image of seamonsters have been described with many combinations of long necks,“humps,” flippers, headsranging from turtle-like to horse-like,lengths from 20 to over 100 feet, and skin both scaled and smooth.Yet most classifiers have managed to boil them down into some basicsubtypes.
In 1963 Frenchzoologist Bernard Heuvelmans wrote a classic book, In the Wake of theSea Serpents, that attempted to place sightings from around the worldinto nine categories: long-necked, merhorse, many humped,super-otters, many-finned, super-eels, marine saurians, yellow-bellies, and fathers-of-all-the-turtles. While it is now alleged thatHeuvelmans skewed data to fit his own ideas in some cases, he isstill known as the “father of cryptozoology” for his pioneeringwork on unknown species.
Inspired partly byHeuvelman’s work, scientists Dr. Paul H. LeBlond of the Universityof British Columbia’s Institute of Oceanography and Dr. John Sibertlooked at reports of large, unknown creatures inhabiting the watersof British Columbia and found three subtypes that sound much like seamonsters reported around the world. These were repeated in a 1980book by biologist and author Roy P. Mackal, who cautioned that thethree categories may not represent separate species and in fact mightsimply show differences between male and female:
1. A creature withlarge eyes set laterally on a horse- or camel-shaped head mounted atthe end of a long neck. This animal is a fast swimmer, has short,dark-brown fur and no mane. It is probably a mammal and may berelated to seals.
2. An animal similarto the first type but with small eyes, sometimes described with hornsor mane. Both types are not only fast, but also smooth swimmers,submerging vertically as if pulled under.
3. A long, serpentineanimal, showing loops of its body above water and swimming fast, withmuch thrashing. Its head is described as sheeplike with smalleyes, and it has a dorsal fin running along part of its back.
I can identify eachof these creatures quite easily but they do not ordinarily come soassorted. Usually the more normal animal-shaped creatures 1 or 2 arealso trailing a length of tail or wake which gives the appearance ofnumber 3. In fact the sheeplike head of number 3 is comparable tonumber 1 or 2. In assorting these categories out, 1 and 2 are fairlysmall animals although they can be reported as being larger (again,according to how long of a "Tail" they are trailing.) 1 and2 are obviously the same sort of creature and they can becharacterised as "Plain" #1 and "Fancy"#2, withthe latter embellished by mane or beard, horns or floppy ears.(DD)
But here is anotherview for clarification:
http://theworldlink.com/news/local/hunting-sea-beasts/article_b27b6ae2-bcee-11e1-ab27-0019bb2963f4.html
HUNTING SEA BEASTS
 How to spot asea monster
2012-06-23T07:00:00Z2012-06-26T08:26:41ZHuntingsea beastsDaniel Simmons-Ritchie, The WorldThe World
June 23, 2012 7:00am • Daniel Simmons-Ritchie, The World
Sighted a sea beast?Contact the British Columbia Cryptozoology Club:www.bcscc.ca/cadborosaurus.htm
Too muchsilliness? Read a British paleontologist’s article debunking theCadboro-saurus:blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/2012/04/16/the-cadborosaurus-wars/
COOS BAY — My editorcalled me insane.
“I need money,”I said. “I need a boat.”
My editor, as abroad rule, does not believe in sea monsters. Even those, like theCadborosaurus, that have been seen by over 300 seafarers.
If I’m insane, Iargued to my editor on a Friday afternoon in The World office, then Imust be in good company.
No more than 60years ago, a fishing crew watched an unknown creature approach theirship off Cape Arago.
If those men wereinsane, so too perhaps were the fishermen who recorded a humped beastin Alaskan waters in 2009. Footage later appeared on the DiscoveryChannel.
If we are insane,then our ringleader must be Paul LeBlond, an emeritus professor fromthe University of British Columbia. For 50 years, LeBlond hascollated hundreds of monster sightings.
Commonly describedas a “horse-headed megaserpent,” the creature has all thehallmarks of the Loch Ness Monster. In the Pacific Northwest, expertsknow the beast by a different name: The Cadborosaurus.
Skeptical? LeBlondasks doubters to read about the Cadborosaurus before brushing itaside.
“This isn’t like UFOs that are a stretch of theimagination,” LeBlond said. “This is a zoological possibility.There are still animals being discovered in the ocean.”
In theinterest of pushing the zoological frontier, I wanted to charter aboat in search of the Cadborosaurus. My dream was to be the first manto lay claim to the brute.
It was the hunt for the leviathan.
Expedition
I set sail fromCharleston Marina on the 14th of June with a five-man crew, pressedbetween 15-knot winds and the allure of the unknown.
The odds wereagainst us. While the Cadborosaurus is sighted from California toAlaska, it has been more than 50 years since one was spied off CapeArago.
Among experts,British Columbia is known as ground zero for Cadborosaurus sightings.In the 1930s, the beast was named after its frequent sightings inCadboro Bay, Vancouver Island.
But even in the heart of “Caddie”country, the serpent is elusive. Despite several expeditions, LeBlondhas never seen one in real life. In late May, a National Geographicfilm crew at his side, the Canadian made another unsuccessful search.
LeBlond didn’trate the chances of my own expedition.
“You wouldbasically keep your eyes open and go to sea without a strongexpectation of seeing anything, because the creature is rarely seen,”he said.
But he offeredsome advice: Keep your camera ready. Too many photo opportunitieshave been missed by distracted observers.
“They standthere ogling the creature and forget about their camera,” he said.“One good photo is worth a lot of eyewitness observations.” 
My crew was up forthe challenge. Although my editor was absent, I had a Worldphotographer at my side.
I also had Mel Campbell of the Wild Womenof Charleston. When Campbell heard of The World’s expedition, sheinsisted on joining.
“I just havethis feeling, a good feeling that today is the day. Don’t you?”said Campbell, as our boat churned through the brackish water of theCharleston channel.
And, unlikeLeBlond, I had the eagle eyes of Margie Whitmer, the owner of BettyKay Charters.
Fate had broughtme to Whitmer, a red-haired woman with a warm, motherly charm. When Ifirst called, she not only agreed to reserve me her 47-foot boat; shealso told me, unexpectedly, that her father had sighted aCadborosaurus off the coast of Washington.

Margie recountedthe story: It was 1956. Whitmer’s father was salmon fishing withfour friends on a foggy day in Neah Bay. A creature appeared, whichhe described as “long, dark, bigger than a boat.”
“He said,‘I’m never going out again in an open boat, a small boat, forsalmon,’” Whitmer said. “It scared him that much.”
I asked whetherher father might have been joking.
Whitmer shook herhead.
“He was justvery serious, to the point that you know he was rattled,” she said.“And he was a big strong man and nothing could disturb him. Butthat sure did.”
Sea
After 30 minutes,we reached open water. We were alone now, two miles from land, acrouton in a teal soup.
Our boat churnedtoward Cape Arago lighthouse, our eyes probing the horizon.
An hour passed andour hopes began to fray. No necks. No humps. No fins.
Compoundingmatters, seasickness began to take hold of me. I could barely hold myharpoon.
We charted acourse homeward.
Return
As our boat pulledinto the marina, a sea lion lazed on the pier. In a search built onhearsay and dreams, its flesh, so blubbery and tangible, taunted me.
Be it Cadboro Bayor Loch Ness, few monsters appear to those who search for them. Mostwitnesses, like Whitmer’s father, stumble on the beast by accident.
Sadly, thosesightings are never enough for the insatiable appetite of thescientific record.
Jan Hodder, aCharleston-based marine biologist from Oregon State University, sayswhile little is known about many deep sea creatures, those closer toshore are well-documented.
“Just think ofhow many people are on the ocean all the time,” she said.
ABritish paleontologist, Darren Naish, is less polite. He saysCadborosaurus mavens, like Paul LeBlond, have created a compositecreature based on body parts from different sightings.
“Accounts usedto support the reality of ‘Cadborosaurus’ likely represent ahodge-podge of seal and deer sightings, as well as sightings of otheranimals and phenomena,” Naish wrote in his blog for ScientificAmerican.
These comments arefuel to the fire of unbelief. While I remain empty-handed today, I amcheered by a 1933 editorial in the Victoria Daily Times by ArchieWillis, an editor more imaginative than my own.
“Any fool candisbelieve in sea serpents,” he wrote.
Reporter DanielSimmons-Ritchie can be reached at 541-269-1222, ext. 249, orat dritchie@theworldlink.com.

Basicallyyou have a situation with sightings assumed to be in the shape of thenewspaper article's sketch. Creatures with necks 3-6 feet long needto be separated out from the more definitely Longnecked category ofcreatures reported with necks 6-12 feet long (and perhaps twice thatactually.) and a body length of 10-20 feet long to go with theshorter-necked category but 20-40 feet to go along with the longernecks 12 feet long or so. (That is, the LongNecked creatures are upto 30-50 feet long total, length of neck assumed about 1/3 to 1/4 oftotal length, and shoter-necked creatures in the range of 10-20 feetlong total with a head like that of a horse or camelreported on both categories, only a neck reported as half aslong in the smaller category. The larger sized longer neckedcategory now matches with Tim Dinsdale's Reconstruction of the LochNess Monster in its basic measurements and proportions.)

We can nowreturn to LeBlonde's creatures listed above.
His long bodiedcreature is clearly the same as "THE GREAT SEA SERPENT"Otherwise reported World-wide in all bodies of water, freshwater andsaltwater, and described in similar terms all over. It is alsoillustrated as the tail section of the newspaper article's monstersketch (DD)