Mystery Creature Attack
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on June 18th, 2012
An amazing historical piece from Providence’s WPRI Channel 12 news – circa 2007.
What could this have been?
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.
Well, the witnesses are certainly sincere. And the dark on top, light on bottom is standard coloring for marine predators. Anything I search with the description they gave only brings up deep sea creatures like Gulper Eels or Fangtooth. To be honest the Fangtooth does seem very close to the description only they live several thousand feet down and only grow to a few inches in length, not feet. I know fear tends to exaggerate size but not 10 inches to 15 feet.
BTW as I was searching I found a strange animal that is documented to exist and looks a LOT like the description of many lake monsters. The scientific name is Rhinochimaeridae, but it is commonly known as long-nosed chimaeras, supposedly they only grown to 4 1/2 feet but a few larger sized specimens would explain a lot of lake monster sightings if they mistook the nose for the head.
Not about to do a lot of research, but my initial guess would be an American conger eel (Conger oceanicus) . It is perhaps the largest shallow water fish along the New England coast and is rarely seen even by dedicated fishermen. An adult conger can reach a length of nine feet and weigh over a hundred pounds.
Large teeth, countershaded and its dorsal fin reaches its head which the witness may have mistaken for “scales.” And there are documented records of congers breaking the surface though almost always when stressed or dying.
Just a guess.
Well, you can tell she saw something. You can tell she’s scared to death. God bless her. I can’t begin to guess what she saw. Maybe an oarfish? They get very long. But they live in deep ocean. But one could’ve gotton on that beach.
It may have been that mysterious Long-necked Seal mentioned by Parsons, slenderer and larger than any other kind of Atlantic seals. A mottled coloration or wet fur could have been mistaken for scales. The hissing sound make me think it was most likely mammalian.