Needed: Marine Cryptid Sighting Net

What marine cryptozoology needs is a worldwide network of observers reporting to one central location.

Can you imagine it? A coordinated effort of spotters – academics, amateurs, whalers, oilers, boaters, captains, and others – could all send in their sightings to one site. Then analysis and cooperation between researchers and eyewitnesses could begin to take hold.

Thanks to timely notice from volunteer members of the Chilean Marine Mammal Sighting Network, organized by the Whale Conservation Center, new information has come to light this week concerning the presence of a Southern right whale (Ballena franca austral, Eubalena australis) mother and calf off the coast of the Region of Valparaíso.

The population of this particular species in Chile and Peru has been classified as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature this year.

“An excellent example of an adult female Franca Austral whale with a calf some 8 meters long was spotted off the coast of Algarrobo between the morning hours and noon of Friday, November 21st,” announced José Luis Brito, who is the Curator for the Municipal Museum of Natural Science and Archeology in San Antonio.

“The San Antonio National Fishing Service and the Whale Conservation Center were quickly notified to record the sighting in the species database for Chile,” stated Brito.

Meanwhile, the Captain of the Port of Algarrobo, Hermes Valdebonito Jamett, indicated that “the sighting of the two Franca Austral whales was a great surprise and provoked much joy for those who were able to witness their presence”.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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