Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Florida’s Trident Tailed Sea Monster

seamonstertail1It has a large, somewhat mammalian head, clawed fins, and a trident-like tail…so they say of Florida’s sea monster, with sightings dating back to the 1800’s. There’s apparently more than one of these puppies, and they have the potential to move quickly with a lot of power. Hours of video footage exist by a guy named Sowerwine showing bits and pieces of the creature.

MonsterQuest went to an ocean-fed coastal lake in Florida to investigate such legends of a sea monster with a forked tail, but the lake was full of sediment, and the divers couldn’t see diddly. They did, however, have an intriguing sonar hit of something about 14 feet long moving quickly, although murky water conditions made it impossible to find the sucker.

One expert feels that the creature is a manatee, although the snout of the beast is skinnier and its eye and head structure appear different. Others feel that the animal is a seal of some kind following the Gulf Stream, possibly a Hooded seal or a Caribbean Monk seal, thought to be extinct.

- via Vulpesffb

The behavior is the same as mating manatees, but that's not a manatee tail.







Update: According to the Underwater Times, this is a manatee with an injured tail:

 
Florida Fish and Wildlife biologists believe that the cold weather has helped to uncover a local mystery; the identity of the mysterious sea monster featured on the TV show MonsterQuest which airs on the History Channel.

As hundreds of manatees huddled to stay warm inside the channel of the Florida Power and Light Riviera Beach Power Plant, one of the gentle sea cows stood out due to a distinct feature of its anatomy.

Thought to have been injured by a boat propeller at some point in its life, the manatee's tail grew back into three separate prongs.

Due to the unusual shape, the manatee leaves three separate wakes on the water's surface while swimming just below.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission believes that this is the source of the sea creature shown during a segment last year on Monsterquest....

via under water times

33 comments:

carycomic said...

Personally, I opt for Indo-Pacific dugongs who entered the Atlantic via the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean, trying to escape all the armed hostilities in Iraq and Somalia. Their tails are more dolphin-like than Floridian manatees. And, injuries from boat propellors and shark bites could more easily produce that remarkable trident shape (than it could in the flat, crescent-shaped tails of the native sea cows).

Yuuki said...

I'm sure it's nothing we've ever seen before.

ant said...

The general shape and size of the creature seem very manatee like. I have two problems with the theory. 1, the general head shape of the creature does seem to be thinner and more elongated than a manatee. 2, the fins are too clean cut to be caused by a prop. especially the trident tail. the proportions are too perfect, the odds are astronomical that more than one specific animal could have the exact same fin wounds.

Matthew said...

I definitely do not think it is any kind of dugong. See how the tail of this creature it longer in the center than on the sides? That kind of shape would be impossible to make out of a dugong’s tail even with intentional and precise cutting. I also think that this creature is most likely a member the order sirenia but perhaps a new family. Ant is correct in that the odds of two creatures having exactly the same scarring patterns on their tail’s is astronomical, so seeing it in reality is amazing. But with all facts into account its one of two things. 1. 2 manatees with the same exact scar patterns that just so happened to resemble a trident like that of ancient see monsters depictions. Or 2. a new, elusive species of marine mammal that has either lived undiscovered for years, or has just recently emerged from earth’s art easel. I personally believe it to be a new creature.

Morgan Mixon said...

I see your point about the propeller injuries or shark bites but when you look at most injuries like that they usually have a more ragged look to them. this looks like this is the sort of tail that the animal was born with. I'm not ruling out mutation but if you look at the old sea monster drawings you see a tail almost identical to that which we see here. An odd coincidence if it is just a mutation or injury

isaac herrera said...

i think yhat it is a dinosaur some trippy stuff

Zuelek said...

Looks like a small whale or manatee with a torn tail, its common for idiots to be going to fast and hurt the manatees so, I wouldn't doubt it being one, as for a sea dinosaur its far to high to the surface I would think with how the climate is different and such for it to be a dinosaur I would think those would be more closer to the sea floor.

Bubba said...

I think it's my wife who's been missing for several years. I threw her overboard one night and she must have mutated.

Kevin O. said...

This is a farce. This guy Sowerwine displays all the characteristics of the usual kook who has been in on a hoax. First he claims to have found an unusual water mamal or fish yet he does not tell an expert, hiding behind the ridiculous notion that "he doesn't want the animal diturbed." Real marine biologists taken to this thing when it is present would have revealed it to be one of two things: a manatee with propeller damage to its tail or it is a complete hoax like the Bigfoot carcass. This is most likely something Sowerwine and his confederates have created. The so-called fin seen in the video looks to be made of wood or some type of composite. When he swears a show like Monsterquest whose episodes are conveniently edited to secrecy, instead of bringing real scientists to the animal, all logic disappears. That tape need to be reviewed by experts to explain its poor edting of the hoax videos.

Morgan Mixon said...

plus like i was saying if you look at old drawings of sea monsters you see the exact same tail. now going back and examining other drawings you can see what animals they were seeing by the similarities. the odds that its just a mutation are astronomical

Mitchell said...

I've worked with manatees quite a bit, and even when BADLY injured, their tail's don't have the sort of dexterity you see in this film. I don't know what that is, but it is not a manatee.

Dennis S. M. Todorovic said...

The way this animal moves and looks is very similar to a small whale called a porpose or a dolphin and probably it is a new spiece. Or it could be prehistoric a hipo like animal that live in a simmilar aria 2.5 million years ago.

Zach said...

This film was taken somewhere in the vicinity of Munyon Island at John D. MacArthur State Park. I know this due to the fact that I kayak there about twice a week and live nearby. I have been visiting this area for many years and I believe that I know the area very well. At its deepest point at high-tide the water reaches about shoulder level. A monster would find a hard time to hide in this area due to the fact that hundreds of boats pass this point every day. The island was the home to a turn of the century hotel, and to this day tourists fish and kayak this area every day. While the water is extremely brackish and difficult to see through, the worst you may see in this area is a nurse shark. Nearby this area there is a Manatee zone sign warning boats of the possibility of manatees being nearby.

jeba said...

This is a caribbean monk seal, they not bee extincting.

chris Mc said...

I think it could actually be an elephant seal and not a monk seal like the cryptozoologist seems to believe. The elphant seal has much more striking similarities to the creature on the footage than the carribean monk seal. Elephant seals are ocean going mammals which means they migrate.

Chris McCourt said...

Also, IF anyone is intersted. here is a link to a picture of a colony of elephant seals off the in land coast of Costa Rica. Anyone see trident tails in the picture?? I do.

http://benaround.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/los-osos-big-sur-041.jpg

matthew said...

if you stupid people look at all the footage not just the crap from monsterquest you can tell its not a mantee, in one clip you can clearly see the body its very long and the head comes to a point. with large eyes it honestly looks like a basilisaurus or a descendent of it or possible a mosasaur,also this guy filmed two diffent animals you can see one of the animals looks completely different than another, the head shapes are different i believe we should interrigate this guy to get the location of the animals so we can find them and document them some more.

matthew said...

this animal is entirely new if it is a mantee its a complety new ancient species because the animals body looks like a manatee but more primitive has anyone looked for any info an ancient sireniens

matthew said...

i figured out what it is its probably a group of stellers sea cow their thought extict but it would explain the shape of the head and the tail stellers sea cows were not dea swimmers they liked to stay in shallow water and on the surface they were fairly large and long anybody agree with me, they used to live in coastal and island waters

Ridiculous said...

The tail is not torn. Tails torn by propellers often get sharper more angular cuts. That is not angular. Google image propeller torn tails they are all at sharp angles. Not only that there even appears to be separate muscle definition for each fan. Riddle me that.

dylan said...

I've been thinking over this. Could it be a Steller Sea Cow?

Brave said...

This water-creature is nothing of that the human eye has ever seen. this is definitely a new species of either the sea-cow or a cross bred Beluga whale that just happened to have a gene splice and have a trident like tail but i highly doubt this. I strongly believe this animal is smarter then any other creature known to man and has lived for probably hundreds to thousands of years. Pirates from the 1800's have drawn pictures and swear on there lives that they saw a 60 feet serpent leap out of the water and grab a sailor and eat him whole, ever since this event hardly anyone would sail the seas at this time. They nick named him Poseidon's guardian. so would you go out in the sea if you heard of a giant serpent thats over 60ft long and eats whole ships for breakfast and was named Poseidon's guardian?

Brave said...

I would like to show a picture of this animal. it was drawn by a sailor in 1721. he swore he never would go out on the sea again after he saw this. It was described to have a minotaur like head with a marine type body reaching lengths of up to 60-65ft long with a smooth trident like tail. look at this i think this is the monster thats been here for thousands of years and there is only 1. They named them the Quinotaur and sailors nearly shat themselves after this guy was attacked by one. look it up. google images, Quinotaur

StormRebel said...

Google is your friend. Try using it sometime.
They found this creature alive and well in January...and YES, it was a manatee. It just had a messed up tail. http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=05329810764

Xeno said...

Nice find!

b said...

you need to read the whole article....the sea monster there still remains a mystery!!

MythFreak said...

I don't how it's a manatee... I mean it swam so friggin fast! manatees... as far as i know, are not that fast. plus the head is too slim, eyes are too big, and the snout is different.

William said...

I saw the show on the History channel tonight and finely placed this thing or things I saw 3 years ago. I live and fish in Jupiter Florida and often fish the Jupiter inlet at night. I'm pretty well versed in the known land and marine animals from hobby self study. I say this in hopeing I don't sound like a crack pot. I was fishing one night in the early spring bait run and around 3:30 am or so we spotted something in the water about 15 yards off the south side of the Jupiter inlet. I shined my mag light in the water and it first regestered in my head as a shark eating a turtle because of the fish like movement of the tail. Then it stuck it's head out of the water and it was a huge seal like head.I could only regester it as 2 animals until the show. Since then I've been thinking about it and it acted like an animal that had eaten to much. Put that with the bait run and it would explain the floping about for ten min's on the surface. It was about 12 or so feet long and around 4 and a half feet across the middle. We watched it go around the front of the south side rocks in to the inlet till we lost sight of it. Till tonight I could never place that animal.

Kitty said...

Looking at the video it shows that the creature has a blow hole. Watch more closely next time. The video shows a long body, a dorsal fin that is close to the back of the creature, a broad head, petorical fins, and the three part tail. The three part tail looks as if the top part is larger and the bottom two parts are smaller. All these descriptions of it tell me it is proably a freshwater gar or a sturgen. There is only one problem with this theroy. Nether the gar or the sturgen can move like the creture in the video. I guess some things are just suposed to be left as mystery.

parrappa99 said...

not funny.

Reginald said...

I watched the MonsterQuest episode and happen to know quite a bit about marine mammals. Manatees are too slow to move as rapid as they do in the tape, the head is too thin, and how would and injury become quite as uniform and pointy as that? Sorry, but it’s gotta be something new, and I doubt it’s a seal. The blueish color of the skin is a little strange, but who knows? I think it’ll prove to be something we’ve never seen before.

Unknown said...

I am is over just and I am telling you that is not A manatee I don't know how come it's so big but when the snout comes up in One frame of the video you can clearly see it is some kind of seal they can close the book and say it's a manatee all they want They are incorrect The exciting thing is no seal has had a Trident tail in 15000 years In the blow up of the tail you can see that each fluke has a row of ridges on it proving creature was born that way When a manatee has an injured tail even a Trident it looks nothing like this which all the flukes are even That front shot with the head popping out of the water is all I need to prove to me it is some kind of seal it doesn't look anything at all like a manatee.

Unknown said...

You're right about that I couldn't put it into words but the Trident till is too uniform to be an injured man ity tail when they have Trident tails the flukes are never even Nor are they pointed as this creature's is plus there's a pile of ridges they goes down each fluke Much much too perfect to be an accident