Florida Lake Monster?
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on February 8th, 2007
Stranger things have been seen in Florida waters and reported here on Cryptomundo…
Cryptid Mammal Reptile or Prehistoric Seal?
Have dolphins made a home in Lake Seminole?
If so, officials are baffled over how they could have gotten there in the first place.
By ANNE LINDBERG, Times Staff Writer
Published February 7, 2007SEMINOLE – Cue the theme song from Flipper.
A reported sighting of three dolphins in Lake Seminole has city, county and state officials scratching their heads over what appears to be an impossibility for a landlocked, freshwater lake.
The lake does have a weir for outflow, but even then “there’s just no possible way for a dolphin to fit in there,” said Kelli Levy, a Pinellas County environmental program coordinator.
“They would have to swim through a few feet of water under Park Boulevard, then jump like 12 feet in the air over the weir. I can’t think why they would want to do that.”
Alternatively, Levy said, the dolphins could have been swept into the lake at 10015 Park Blvd. if a “big, humongous hurricane” came along.
“It would take something like that,” she said.
Levy was responding to a plea for help from the city of Seminole, which received an anonymous e-mail last Thursday:
“At the risk of sounding a little crazy, I would like to mention to someone in Seminole gov’t. that at 8 am Wed. 1/31/07 I saw what appeared to be three dolphins swimming in the SW corner of Lake Seminole near Park Boulevard. My girlfriend saw them as well. I thought I should at least report it to someone and found this e-mail contact for Seminole.”
It was signed “Concerned Citizen.”
A city official forwarded the note to Levy with this note:
“Have you ever heard of dolphins in Lake Seminole? Is it possible for them to get through the weir from the bayou to the lake? Also, if this is true, we have a problem as these critters are saltwater tolerant.”
Despite her doubts about the sighting, Levy reported the story to the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which dispatched biologist Ken Arrison to the lake in search of dolphins.
Arrison spent four hours walking around the park Friday and saw “a lot of humans and a lot of great birds, but no dolphins,” he said.
If they’re there, Arrison said, it’s likely they’ll be seen again because dolphins have to come up for air fairly frequently.
Both Arrison and Levy hope “Concerned Citizen” will contact them with more information. Thus far, he has not responded to requests for comment to his e-mail address from the city, county, state or Neighborhood Times.
Levy suggested the couple might have mistaken grass carp for dolphin. Grass carp were put into the lake in the late 1990s to eat the grass. They reach 35 to 40 pounds and “they kind of come to the surface and they kind of roll over,” she said.
Arrison suggested the sighting may have been diving birds. When cormorants dive, he said, their backs will break the water.
And perhaps, there’s one more explanation, Arrison posited.
“You never know, maybe Lake Seminole has its own Nessie,” he said, referring to the legendary Loch Ness Monster.
More information
Watch for critters in Lake Seminole
If residents see any dolphins, turtles or manatees (dead or alive) around Lake Seminole, they should call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation hotline toll free at 1-888-404-FWCC (3922) and a biologist will be sent to check out the situation.Anne Lindberg
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Loch Ness has Nessie, Lake Seminole has… uh… Seminie? Let’s hope not.
The fish theory might work, but the bird one? Come on, I’m hoping no one is that stupid. Is this a natural or manmade lake? There are always openings in natural lakes for things to get in there. Getting back to the fish theory, I know a pond here in the foothills of California that has bass as long as a person’s leg. Scared a former navy seal while he was cleaning out the outflow valve. Saw something swim past him at least 40″ long. Anything is possible.
My guess is that any “lake monster” in Florida is going to turn out to be either an alligator, MAYBE a crocodile, or else a caiman, a big python or an anaconda that used to be a pet.
I used to live beside Orange Lake in north-central Florida (back in the early 1970s when it was still a good-sized lake). There was a tale of a lake monster there too. It turned out to be a whopper of a gator.
That was news at the time, as gators were rebounding from near extinction and were still uncommon enough near human habitation to cause a sensation when they were seen.
Tornadoes/hurricanes have been known pick animals up and deposit them other places. It’s even rained frogs and fish from time to time. However, I doubt dolphins were picked up and deposited in the lake.
As for why a dolphin might intentionally jump the weir — they might have decided to become the largest fish in a small pond. Then again, that’s doubtful.
I want to say gators too, but I don’t know. I can’t imagine anyone seeing three gators swimming would confuse them with dolphins. If it was a person on the lake, then they probably would know there is a good chance there are no dolphins there so if there was any doubt, why say they were dolphins of all things? Why not go with what would be the more sensical choice and say they saw gators? Also, from what I see here, the witness made no claims that this was a lake monster, but rather that it was specifically dolphins. It doesn’t seem like an effort to get attention or fame. The theory of grass carp seem sound, but 40 pounds doesn’t sound big enough for me to think of anyone mistaking them for a dolphin, which most people would think of as big. Even if the witness wasn’t sure, why would they confuse a 40 pound swimming creature with a dolphin and report it as a dolphin? What if this sighting is exactly what the witness claims? I am not familiar with this lake so I am still not sure how hard it would really be for them to get in, but perhaps there was something going on akin to dolphins beaching themselves. I wonder if there is any naval base or operation going on over there involving sonar. Is it feasible that sonar could have disoriented them or driven them into some kind of panic and they made a rush into the lake? Very interesting sighting here.
I think a fire-fighting helicopter scooped up the dolphins, just the way it did the scuba diver that was killed in the forest fire.
::OK, just kidding::
Does Lake Seminole have its own Nessie?
I think I’ll give that a SemiNO!
I think the point of the hurricane was not that the winds could have deposited dolphin there, but rather that a large tidal surge could overcome the weir, allowing free access to the lake during the time of the storm. Still unlikely, but just plausible enough to consider.
You have overlooked the more famous Florida Lake Monster from Lake Tarpon. I found it at http://www.LakeTarponMonster.com Not sure if it’s real, but it’s cool to think so.