CATDOLL : CATDOLL: What are deep-sea "sea monsters" like?

On April 25, 1977, in New Zealand waters, a Japanese ocean-going fishing vessel was fishing when the crew dragged up a rotten monster corpse from 300 meters below the sea. It was about 13 meters long and weighed about 2 tons. It had four flippers on its fat belly, a very long tail, and a small head on its thin neck. It looked neither like a turtle nor a fish, but more like a plesiosaur, a close relative of dinosaurs that had long been extinct 65 million years ago. The fishermen on the fishing boat, including experienced old fishermen, could not tell what it was. None of them had ever seen this monster.

As everyone was discussing this, the captain came over. He was worried that the rotten monster's body would cause damage to the fish in the boat, so he was furious with the crew and ordered it to be thrown back into the sea immediately. Before the monster was thrown into the water, a fisherman named Yano Michitani took out his camera and quickly took a few photos.

When the news reached Japan, it immediately caused a sensation throughout the country. Many scientists exclaimed that this was the greatest discovery of the century. Because, what exactly this monster is, is still unknown. If this monster is really a plesiosaur, then the mystery of the extinction of dinosaurs and the mystery of the Loch Ness monster that humans have been exploring for many years has made significant progress. People accused the captain of being ignorant and throwing away the "national treasure", so the Ruben Ocean Fisheries Company ordered all fishing boats in New Zealand waters to rush to the scene immediately and do their best to recapture the body of the monster. However, time has passed, and the vast ocean has been so vast that people have spent a lot of money to fish for it for a period of time, but where is the trace of the monster?

Later, many people also saw such monsters in the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean and the waters near Africa.

When the news of the discovery of this monster spread, at first, some people thought it was a huge shark that had never been seen before; some said it was a big seal; and some said it was a whale. Later, Japanese scientists conducted a long-term study based on the 40 or 50 fins and photos left at the scene, and denied the above speculations one by one and ruled out some possibilities. Japanese scientists believe that this monster is either a marine animal that people have not yet recognized, or a prehistoric animal called a plesiosaur that people thought was extinct long ago.

The research on this monster has aroused the interest of many scientists, and people are also paying close attention to it. Now, some marine zoologists say that the South Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand is likely to be the home of these monsters. It is an area where the cold current from the Antarctic meets the warm current from the north to the south. The water temperature is only about 10℃, the oxygen in the sea is 5 times higher than other waters in the Pacific Ocean, and the plankton is also very rich. It is an ideal living environment, and this is likely to be the area where the monsters live.

There are many similar stories in the ocean, which were widely circulated hundreds of years ago. Even after people knew about the giant squid, there were still legends about this monster in the ocean. People called it the sea monster. Therefore, the sea monster is still an unsolved mystery!

At the end of the 19th century, the French warship "Avalanche" discovered two "giant sea snakes" about 20 meters long and 2 meters thick in Longchuan Bay in the South China Sea. The sailors bombarded them with cannons, and in an instant, the two "giant sea snakes" quickly disappeared in the sea water. After a while, the two giant snakes appeared on the other side of the warship, and the French sailors were stunned. Later, French warships also found traces of giant sea snakes several times in a row.

In August 1817, Captain Solomon Allen witnessed a giant python off the coast of Gloucester Harbor. He described it this way:

"At that time, a creature that looked like a giant sea python was floating about 130 meters from the port. This monster was 40 meters long, with a body as thick as half a beer barrel and a dark brown body. Its head was like a rattlesnake and about the same size as a horse's head. It swam slowly on the water, sometimes in circles and sometimes in a straight line. When the 'giant python' disappeared, it went straight into the seabed and reappeared from the sea surface 180 meters away after a while."

Masiu Gavni, a carpenter on the ship, and his two companions went fishing in a small boat when they also encountered the "giant python". Masiu aimed his rifle at it and shot at it from 20 meters away. He described the scene like this:

"I fired my gun when the monster was about 20 meters from the boat. I am a good shot and I am completely confident in my shooting skills. I aimed at the monster's head and shot, and I was sure it hit. The monster swam towards us at the same time I fired. As it got closer, it dived into the water, passed through the boat, and reappeared 30 meters away. The monster did not swim down like a fish, but sank like a rock, sinking straight down. I thought I hit the target with my gun, but the python was not injured..."

On the morning of January 13, 1851, the American whaling ship "Moigahela" was sailing in the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific.

"Oh, what is that?"

"It's not a whale. I've never seen a monster like this before."

The crew standing on the mast as a lookout cried out in surprise. Captain Sibari heard the crew's shouts and rushed to the deck, raising his telescope: "Well, that's a monster in the sea! Catch it! The ship is gradually approaching the monster."

Immediately afterwards, three small boats were lowered from the ship. The captain personally took his eldest son on the boats and rushed towards the direction of the monster.

What a huge creature! It is 31 meters long, with a neck of about 5.7 meters and the thickest part of its body of 15 meters. Its head is flat and wrinkled. Its tail is pointed, its back is black, its belly is dark brown, and there is a thin white pattern in the middle, just like a big ship; cruising in the sea. The crew members were all stunned! Some said it was a "giant python" of the ocean.

As the boat staggered closer to the monster, the captain shouted at the top of his lungs: "Hurry up and stab!" The crew members on several boats raised their spears and stabbed at it. Suddenly, blood splashed everywhere, and the monster was injured and rolled and struggled in the sea. The sea surface around the boats was stirred up with waves. The crew members risked their lives and fought a desperate battle with the monster. In the end, the monster was outnumbered and died of exhaustion.

The crew dragged this sea monster onto the whaling ship. Captain Hibari cut off its head, sprinkled salt on it, and put it in a pot to squeeze oil. He actually squeezed out 10 barrels of oil as transparent as water!

But, unfortunately, the whaling ship "Moirinhela" was wrecked on its way back, and everything was lost.

On August 6, 1848, sailors from the British cruiser HMS Didals also witnessed a sea monster. They encountered the monster on the sea about 500 kilometers west of southern South Africa on their way back to Britain from India.

"We found a monster on the side of the ship, approaching us!" The intern Satris on the observation deck shouted. The captain and the sailors rushed to the deck, and saw a monster with its head raised about 200 meters away from the warship. The part of its body exposed above the water was more than 20 meters long, and it was swimming towards the west. The captain took out a telescope and stared closely at this rare monster. He recorded the details of everything he saw that day in the navigation log. When it arrived in the British log, he handed it over to the Navy Command along with the portrait of the monster he saw with his own eyes. There are countless similar incidents of witnessing ocean "pythons":

In 1875, a British cargo ship discovered the "Anaconda" in Lockheed Martin while it was fighting with a whale.

In 1877, a yacht spotted the "giant python" in Gloucester, circling in the water 200 meters in front of the boat.

In 1905, a steamer named "Polohara" was sailing in the Gulf of Brazil when it discovered that the "Anaconda" was sailing alongside the ship. After a while, it sank like a submarine and disappeared into the sea.

In 1910, a British trawler discovered a "giant python" at Cape Lodari. It was raising its sickle-shaped head and attacking the ship.

In 1936, eight passengers and two sailors witnessed a giant python on a regular ship sailing off the coast of Costa Rica.

In 1948, four tourists on a tourist boat sailing on the sea of ​​the Shoalwood Islands discovered a "giant python". It was more than 30 meters long and had several tumors on its back.

It is said that before 1875, King Alber I of Morocco built a special expedition ship to capture the ocean "python". The ship was equipped with a 5 cm diameter, several thousand meters long steel cable and a huge hook that could lift a 1 ton object, and 12 pigs were used as bait, but unfortunately, they returned without catching any.

In addition, at the beginning of this century, a monster was discovered in the sea near the east coast of Africa. It is said that this monster is glowing blue, is 20 meters long, has a wide and flat body, and is covered with a layer of gray armor, which looks very scary.

In some overseas legends, there are "giant pythons" and "giant snakes" on the ocean. These monsters are really amazing. From a 16th-century copperplate engraving, we can see a "giant sea snake" attacking a ship. Its body is longer than the ship and it swallows people like a tiger swallows a butterfly. To this day, the legends of "giant sea snakes" and "sea pythons" that are hundreds to thousands of meters long are still talked about with great relish.

So far, although many people have witnessed the giant snake and python in the sea, and although people have described it vividly, they have never been able to produce convincing evidence, let alone display the real thing for everyone to feast their eyes on. What kind of animal is this sea monster?

For more than 100 years, the mystery of sea monsters has attracted countless explorers and scientists, who have searched everywhere for traces of sea monsters; sea monsters have also caused some people to speculate, some say it is a "giant sea snake", some say it is a "giant sea python", some say it is a giant octopus or a giant squid, and some say it is a giant eel. In the past, some newspapers and magazines around the world often published reports on sea monster remains, some of which were accompanied by photos, but after experts identified them, they found that these strange things were usually the bodies of large sharks.