Any New Tappie Sightings?

Eleven years ago today, The Times ran a little piece about a male manatee who decided, for reasons unknown, to swim up the East River. Now, the manatee nation appears to have sent another emissary northward, though the sex of this one is unspecified so far. It was sighted several times in the Hudson River last weekend, along the piers in Manhattan and as far north as Sleepy Hollow.

The northernmost location in New York, thusfar, for any sightings is 100 miles upstate from the Manhattan views.

In the New York Times, on August 8, their article, “Was That a Manatee in the Hudson, or Just a ‘Fat Log’?,” actually somewhat skeptically considered if what was being seen was some other kind of animal. The “fat log” in the headline was not part of the theories under consideration, but look at what they did list:

1) Manatee?
Ian Heller, 15, and Jeff Samalot, 16, said they saw the manatee while in their 17-foot power boat heading from Haverstraw to the Shattemuc Yacht Club in Ossining, where they teach sailing.

“We were just off Croton Point and we saw what looked like a fat log in front of us, but then it rolled and swam away,” Ian said. “I’ve never seen a log do that.”

“It was too big to be a seal, and we kind of dismissed it until we heard later that there’s a manatee around,” Jeff added.

2) Tappie?
Mr. Earle, 43, of Croton, and David, his 12-year-old son, heard about the manatee sightings Monday morning and were watching for it while sailing in Ossining.

“We think he’s here because the water is fresher this year, compared to last year,” Mr. Earle said. “It’s not as salty, because of the rain.

“They called the Loch Ness monster Nessie, and the manatee that swam up the Chesapeake Chessie, so I’m calling this one Tappie, because it seems to like it around the Tappan Zee area.”

3) Seal?
At the Croton Yacht Club a week ago Sunday, Joe Consula, 49, and the Buck twins, Larry and Don, 59, saw some kind of large mammal break the glassy surface of the river about 20 feet from shore and then submerge and continue quickly upriver. They don’t agree on what it was.

“I just don’t think it could be a manatee. If anything, I’d say it was a seal,” Larry Buck said.

“I’m going with seal,” Larry Buck said. “Manatee’s too far-fetched for me.”

4) Manatee? Sturgeon? Small Pilot Whale?
“Well, it was blackish, grayish brown,” Mr. Consula countered. “It was too big to be a seal….I saw its face and it’s much bigger than that. I’m going with manatee,” Mr. Consula said.

Mr. Consula said: “It could have been a sturgeon. We get them up to 600 pounds around here. It could be a small pilot whale for all we know. But no, this looked prehistoric and had barnacles. I didn’t say nothing because I didn’t want people to think I was crazy.”

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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