Horned Sea Monster Washes Up On Spanish Coast
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on August 22nd, 2013
Maria Sanchez / EFE / Spanish Civil Protection via EPA
A series of pictures provided by Spanish Civil Protection on Aug. 16 shows the creature found by residents in the Spanish coastal village of Villaricos. The carcass, measuring four to five meters in length, was in an advanced state of decomposition.
The latest in a string of “sea serpent” stories has sparked an online buzz in the past few days, thanks to the gnarly-looking pictures that surfaced in the Spanish press last week. The carcass washed up on Luis Siret Beach in the Andalusian village of Villaricos, according to the local publication Ideal, and sparked jokes about the Loch Ness monster and mutant fish.
“A lady found one part, and we helped her retrieve the rest,” Civil Protection coordinator Maria Sanchez was quoted as saying. “We have no idea what it was. It really stank, as it was in the advanced stages of decomposition.”
What is that sea monster?
Sanchez said conservationists with the Program in Defense of Marine Animals, or Promar, were trying to identify the remains. However, Europa Press quoted a coordinator of the group, Francisco Toledano, as saying that any identification would have to be made on the basis of the images — because the decomposing remains were buried by sand.
Toledano said the preliminary analysis suggests that the 13-foot-long (4-meter-long) carcass came from a “species of fish,” but he wasn’t more specific. Almeria24h.com said some experts speculated that the creature could be a thresher shark (also known as fox shark, Alopias vulpinus, or “peje zorro” in Spanish). Such sharks have a distinctive caudal fin that can stretch out as long as the shark’s body itself.
Read the rest of the article here.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
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I know that the vast majority of the ocean is undiscovered and there are new forms of life found on a regular basis, but this photo looks completely hoaxed.
Craig where d’you say this was discovered?
A Spanish coastal village called Vilhilaricos?
@Cryptidcrazy: how do you know it’s a hoax? What evidence are you using to determine that?
A hoax? Possibly. What it is, is proof that liquefaction distorts carcasses beyond recognition? THAT one.
They say it’s a shark.
Thanks for the post! My guess would be that it was an oarfish. It’s really the tail that convinces me. (And now that I have read the rest of the nbc article, it looks as though the author there concurs…) A better shot of the head, or what’s left of it, and those “horns” (or fins?) would be nice, though, because those look thicker than the sort of growths an oarfish would normally be sporting on its head. Not that I’m claiming to be an oarfish expert or anything…
Has anyone found a photo from an angle that shows more of the head?
I guess the consensus now is that it was a shark?