Plesiosaurs Killing Seals and People

A sea serpent described as being like a huge eel with antennae was seen at the Skidegate Narrows, Queen Charlotte islands, in July 1939. It was throwing seals up into the air to kill them by breaking their necks, something which killer whales are also well-known for doing. (Mary Moon, Ogopogo, 1977, p. 162)  Apparently about 30 feet of the dark-coloured "Eel" was visible and Bernard Heuvelmans would definitely classify this as a Longneck because of the "antennae."

 In the case of the Plesiosaur-shaped creature off Cornwall related in Tim Dinsdale's book Monster Hunt (above), the creature was also seen fighting seals from above, and in a similar tradition relating to the Icelandic Skrimsl, the monster was characteristically said to decapitate seals. Putting these observations together, it seems that Longnecks can feel antagonistic (territorial? defensive?) against seals and sea lions, and it deals with them by throwing them up into the air to break their necks.

snap!

 

Since a common type of Sea serpent sighting seems to be a fishing posture striking down from above, it is not too unusual that the usual depiction of Longnecks attacking humans shows the creatures bearing down on the humans from above and grabbing them headfirst by their mouth

 

This also seems to be the usual attack mode of the congo dragons. Fairly early on I read in On The Track of Unknown Animals that such creatures as the Mokele-Mbembe were often said to kill humans but not eat them and to leave the bodies untouched. I wondered then if the peculiar emphasis on leaving the bodies untouched meant that they bit the heads off. Later on I did get confirmation from other traditions in other parts of Africa which stated explicitly, "He takes the head off and then hurls the rest of the body away from himself in disgust, since he wants nothing more to do with it" This is putting the matter rather more plainly and I suppose the more common version wants to put the matter more delicately than that because it is a matter distressing to the listeners. However back in the 1970s when I first noticed the odd statement I also noticed that the Icelandic water monster the Skrimsl (Comparable to the Loch Ness Monster) was stated by Heuvelmans characteristically to "decapitate seals and sink ships" There seemed to me to be a connection between the way the Longnecked creatures treated seals and the way they treated people.

 

Mesoamerican Khan (Snake) and Quetzalcoatl depictions also showed them attacking people by taking them in the mouth headfirst. Yet for all of the intimations that Longnecks are dangerous creatures one thing seems to be true: They can't eat people or more precisely, they cannot swallow them, because their throats are not large enough to get a person down. And they can't eat things like seals, whales or manatees either, which probably is the reason why the Congo dragons are also said to kill any number of other things like crocodiles, hippos and even elephants but not eat them. It was a sort of a blanket rule in some places and probably got confused with other kinds of animals, too.

 

As another line of evidence confirming this, many kinds of dragon depictions, both from the Orient and from Europe, show the dragons with human heads or skulls (ONLY) in their mouths.

 

What I think is happening is this: similar to great white sharks and some other large predators, Longnecks do not see much difference between humans and seals, since they are about the same size and shape in the water. Because of that, the Longneck's preferred method of attack against humans is to seize them headfirst and hurl them violently through the air  to break their necks. This apparently can lead to decapitation of the victim. In the case of either seals or people, the Longneck thereafter cannot actually  eat the body and so then ignores it. which leads to the very peculiar reputation the Mokele-Mbembe and other Congo Dragons have of regularly killing things but not eating them

 

Longneck Seal-killing move as applied to the human body can lead to accidental decapitation

Bonus: chart of the seals, sea lions and walruses of the world for reference.

Icelandic Sea Monsters

Since the subject of Icelandic Sea Monsters came up again on the regular CFZ blog, I decided to go back and reprint some material which I found whan the matter came up before.

http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_life/?cat_id=16568&ew_0_a_id=364245


27/06/2010 10:00

Of Monsters and Men


Last summer, I travelled for the first time to the West Fjords, that marvellous cluster of rough and rugged fjords. One of the destinations was Bíldudalur, on the southern side of Arnarfjördur fjord.

This village of 200 is best known for three things. Firstly, green beans – an Icelandic Sunday lamb essential – used to be manufactured here. Secondly, a singer has turned his home into a shrine to Icelandic pop music. Then there's The Icelandic Sea Monster Museum, which funnily enough, is located in the old green bean factory. Arnarfjördur fjord has in fact established a reputation as being the habitat of sea monsters, with more than 200 documented sightings through the centuries.

The museum, which opened its doors last year, is a vast black space, broken up in the centre by a tall glass case containing books, photographs, letters, seashells and other items related to the theme. Plasma screens on the walls show interviews with people describing their monster sightings, mixed in with eerie images of an angry sea.

The museum's pride is a sizeable interactive glass table containing an old style map of the fjord. By moving a glass sphere over the place names, somewhat like playing spirit of the glass, related monster stories pop up.

Visiting Arnarfjördur bore a special significance to me. On a farm in a secluded valley overlooking the fjord, my late grandmother was born and raised. I felt myself getting closer to my roots.

Excited as a child on Christmas Morning, I slid the sphere across the map, placing it over her valley. Sure enough, an account of a monster sighting appears on the screen.

I could hardly believe my eyes when I realized that the eyewitness was her brother. My granduncle.

It was the year 1927 and he was fourteen years old. On a dusky autumn afternoon, he noticed a maroon-coloured beast standing on the beach. It was at least ten feet long and the height of a calf. Its head was large and ugly; it had huge protruding eyes and a tangled mane, resembling that of a lion. The beast appeared to be covered in seashells; its arched back was wide and cylindrical; its large tail narrowed downwards. It was turned away from him, snooping about in the seaweed. But when he threw a rock in its direction, it slowly turned around, raising its ugly head and staring at him.

Beholding its jaws, he panicked and ran all the way home.

When he got home and told the shocking tale, an old man gathered that this had been a malicious sheep-like creature called fjörulalli, infamous for trying to drive humans into the sea.

Luckily enough, my great uncle managed to escape.

Heading towards our next destination, my grandmother's valley, the sea monsters remained on my mind, especially the one that my uncle claimed to have seen. While realizing that these are mythical creatures, deep down inside I can't help believing in their existence.

To me, the West Fjords are a place where anything can happen.

Ásta Andrésdóttir – asta@heimur.is

[--This is possibly of the same category as the Irish Master-otter, but its coat seems thicker than usual. It also could just possibly be something like the Hoy SS since the ears are not mentioned, but a tail is also mentioned and it is said to be large. It is possible that the ears are folded down as they are sometimes said to be.--Best Wishes, Dale D.]




Reconstruction drawing of the "Scaly Monster" or "Shelly Beast," The Skeljaskrimsli






Here is my reply to Jon Downe's notice of Saturday morning:
Re: [frontiers-of-zoology] SUNDAY AT THE CFZ: Icelandic beast, sea monsters, piasa, anti capitalism, Sidney Sime, conjoined twins, Haunted Skies, Yesterday's News Today

http://grapevine.is/Home/ReadArticle/Claims-Sea-Monster-Lives-In-Fjord

http://www.grapevine.is/Travel/ReadArticle/You-Will-Believe-In-Bildudalur-Visiting-The-Sea-Monster-Museum


The Icelandic monsters are interesting, I have noted a report of the "Skeljaskrimsli" in this group before and it seems to be a sort of a Master-otter again, the one in the report having shells and beach debris in its fur from wallowing on the beach. And the "Merhorse" creature as described is the Scandinavian (and Scottish) Merhorse all over again.
I might make a blog posting of this. The "Skeljaskrimli" is reportedly about ten feet long and it seems to be another one of those "Scaly otters" with the fur that sticks together in locks. Several features are worth noting: A) the feet are clawed, webbed, and held clomsily for walking on land: B) the snout is elongated and projects foreward a good deal beyond the front teeth, and C) the tail is flattened out and broader at the end (Several reports say the tail is MUCH longer than this illustration shows)

Some reports also give it multiple legs, after the fashion of the Pal-Rai-Yuk. There used to be equivalent reports from Greenland, but not for many years now.

Best Wishes, Dale D.

And I also made up a comparison of the reconstruction with a Pacific Sea Otter, which sometimes has a "Grizzly" effect to the fur and can look "Scaled" when not evenly wetted all over:








The stance and the proportions look similar to me, and the illustrator of the Scaly Monster only had descriptions to go on, he hadn't seen it himself.







...And for the curious, here is a stamp illustrating the NW Coast version of the Sea Wolves:













...And then again something else that also turned up on the photo search, a large otter pretending to be Caddy (Cadborosaurus) Perhaps a Sea Wolf? The head is turned at such an angle that you cannot make out is features very distinctly.












Best Wishes, Dale D.