Hook Island Sea Serpent
By Cole Herrold
There are very few pieces of
Cryptozoological evidence out there that have lasted the test of time. Often
many of them are debunked, proved to be misidentified, or are examples of
pareidolia. While we cannot expect clear photos for every cryptid encounter like
the Sandra Mansi Champ photo or the Patterson Gimlin Film, there are some
photos that just seem to be too good, and this leads into controversy. One of
perhaps the most famous and controversial pieces of evidence of all time was a
series of photos that were taken off Hook Island by Robert Le Serrec. These
photos are stone-cold classics in the world of cryptozoology and are a toss-up
as while many researchers feel the photos are hoaxes; others continue to think
that there is something real and tangible just below the surface.
On December 12, 1964, Breton Photographer Robert
Le Serrec might have captured one of the best pieces of evidence for the
existence of an aquatic cryptid we would call a sea serpent. Le Serrec, his
family, and his Australian friend Henk De Jong were shipwrecked on the Great
Barrier Reef and decided that during this time that, they would purchase a
motorboat and spend about three months on Hook Island. While out one day near
Stonehaven Bay, Le Serrec’s wife noticed a dark form seemingly resting on the
bay floor and proceeded to bring the figure to the attention of the rest of the
party. The group, upon coming close to the object which at the time they
thought was a mere 30ft but as they came withing shocking closeness they
noticed in utter horror that it was a strange unknown creature. The group
having more courage than arguably they should, proceeded to take a series of
photos, each more interesting than the last. They were shocked at what was
below the waters for the creature they photographed in the waters of Stonehaven
Bay around Hook Island in Queensland, Australia, had an appearance similar to a
black tadpole or American eel. The creature had eyes located either on the top
or near the sides of the head with slit-like pupils and had an incredibly long smooth
serpentine body that was black in color with brown transverse stripes. The most
incredible aspect of this is that the creature, however, is not arguably its
appearance, but instead of its initial 30ft length, the creature turned out to
be an astounding 70-80ft long. One member of the party or another individual
had managed to take a boat out towards the tail of the creature, and this gave
a sense of just how colossal the creature was. It was in this position that they
noticed a large pale region which they thought was a wound that was visible on
the right side of the tail. Le Serrec and Henk De Jong were completely
perplexed by this creature and, thinking that the creature was dead, decided
that they would film it underwater. The two had just started to film the
creature when the creature, in a sudden change of pace, began to move. The two
watched in utter horror as the creature opened its mouth, revealing a white
mouth and throat, and proceeded to move towards them; half expecting that they
would be consumed by the colossal monstrosity, they began to swim back to the
assumed safety of the boat and began to clamor ashore, and as they turned to
look back into the water to see if the creature was hot on their heels they
were surprised and relieved that the creature had disappeared. As the group was
rationalizing their thoughts, they felt that the creature was resting in the
bay because of the wound to its tail, which they felt might have been caused by
a ship's propeller.
In March of 1965, Le Serrec, in
Australia's Everyone magazine, came forward with the photographs of the serpent
and proceeded to tell the tale of how he caught it on camera. It was around
this time that the claimed photos and story caught the attention of
Cryptozoologists Ivan T. Sanderson and Bernard Heuvelmans. Ivan T. Sanderson
heard about the case in February of that year as Le Serrec had initially attempted
to sell the photos to several media outlets, yet these outlets would not give
him the price he had wanted. Sanderson, however, would later write about the
photos in an article for True Magazine. After this, the case was written
about by both researchers as well as other cryptozoologists years later, such
as Loren Coleman and Karl Shuker. The general consensus is that the photos are
more than likely a hoax; however, some researchers to this day do think that
there might be something more to the footage.
Now there is some controversy over this
footage, as with just about any cryptozoological evidence, and this deals much
less with the photos themselves and more around Robert Le Serrec. As time went
on, when researchers Loren Coleman and Bernard Heuvelmans investigated Le
Serrec and the Hook Island Photos, they had found some issues with Le Serrec’s
character and the possibility of talks of creating a hoax. In their books In
the Wake of the Sea Serpent and Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea
Serpents, and
Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep, the two-state Le Serrec was in great
debt. In fact, during the time the photos were taken, Le Serrec had left France
to go and avoid his creditors and that Le Serrec was even wanted by Interpol,
and Heuvelmans, in general, felt that he was not very trustworthy. Heuvelmans would
later discover as well that Le Serrec, in 1959, had allegedly told several friends
in France that he was about to go away on an expedition and “another thing in
reserve which will bring in a lot of money… it’s to do with the sea serpent”. Adding
to these seemingly damning character traits and backstory, Heuvelmans, upon
looking at the photos, felt that there were problems in regard to the anatomy
of the creature since the eyes of the creature appear from what we can tell
near the top of the head and not near the side or closer to the snout. Yet
there are species out there with eye placements similar to the creature.
Ivan Sanderson felt that the photos were
most likely hoaxed and felt that “the object was either a plastic bag used by
the US Navy “for experiments in towing petrol” or a deflated skyhook balloon
which had become covered in weed, or a roll of cloth which had been tied
together in places." Heuvelmans had his own idea as to just what was the
answer to the photos Heuvelmans thought that the creature in the photo was a
carefully shaped expanse of plastic sheeting weighed down with sand into the
form of a colossal serpent. When one looks at the close-up photos of the head,
researchers like Darren Naish point out that one can see covering four certain
portions of it as though someone had “placed handfuls of sand on top of the
edge of the creature: exactly what you would do if trying to weight down a
monster-shaped sheet of plastic." Yet Le Serrec would claim that this was
because the creature had slightly buried itself in the sand. Other researchers
later had pointed to a possible shoal of fish, yet there are several problems
with this since there were close-up photos, as well as the fact that while fish
shoals can form basic shapes, they do not stay in these shapes for long periods
of time, and in such a complex shape, all of this tends to point to one of two
possibilities either some sort of material shaped and placed as a hoax or a
biological creature.
While Sanderson and Heuvelmans were very certain that the creature was a hoax, they both entertained as well the possibility that the creature may have been real. Sanderson, for example, later on, felt that "the creature might be a giant synbranchid or swamp eel. Synbranchids are long-bodied acanthomorph teleosts, mostly of freshwater and estuarine habitats, well known for their ability to breathe air and undertake terrestrial excursions”. Synbranchids, however, are exceptionally small, however, usually being about 60 cm long, so if the Hook Island photos are an example of this, it would be the largest example known. Heuvelmans, however, was arguably more certain than Sanderson that the creature was a hoax and said should this creature be authentic, it could be "some kind of gigantic eel-like selachian." Paleontologist and Cryptid Enthusiast Darren Naish felt the reason he chose this possibility is due to a possible connection to sightings of an incredibly long-bodied shark. Another possibility often pointed to for another answer to the Hook Island Serpent is mastodonsauroid temnospondyls, a Triassic and Jurassic amphibian, yet the problem with this hypothesis would be the creature's lack of limbs.
One cannot help but mention that
Heuvelmans created nine different categories in which different sea serpent and
lake monster sightings could be categorized as. Loren Coleman and Patrick
Huyghe would also utilize and update this for their own book, fixing some of
the discrepancies and problems with Heuvelmans original model. Of the original
9, however, there was one category of a sea serpent which curiously is very
similar in shape to the Hook Island Sea Serpent but is described as the Yellow
Belly. Essentially it is, as the name suggests, a yellow-bellied tadpole-shaped
creature with brown stripes along the back and a tannish-green colored body.
Some researchers feel that Le Serrec, if he hoaxed the serpent chose the design
of the creature from this entry, yet this is not possible, seeing as how the
publication of Heuvelmans book was four years after Le Serrec took the photos.
Other researchers felt that Heuvelmans included this entry solely because of
the Le Serrec photos, but obviously, this was not to be the case since the
appearance does not match really. Heuvelmans based the Yellow-Bellied type of
Sea Serpent on a sighting aboard the ship Nestor in 1876, which took
place in-between the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Now I must say I have problems with the
hoax aspect of the Hook Island Sea Serpent case. For one thing, to pull off a
hoax of a creature this size, it would take a great deal of time and energy.
With a hoax of this caliber, one would think that someone would have seen them
creating it. Now granted, Hook Island is basically uninhabited with some
exceptions and is a national park, so perhaps if this was a hoax, it was done
in a much more secluded area to avoid notice, but by creating a creature in the
water as large as the sea serpent, it would stand to reason that someone would
have seen them stretching out the balloon or bag and packing it in the sand. Also,
as with other famous pieces of footage like the Patterson Gimlin Film, there
are always people who come from the woodwork to claim that they were involved
or that they caused the footage, and with this set of photos, nobody, as far as
I’m aware came forward, and Le Serrec continued to state the film and footage’s
authenticity. We can add this even to Le Serrec’s family, who was with him
during the filming; when infamous hoaxer Ray Wallace passed away, his family
immediately released a statement saying that they hoaxed countless footprints
and videos, yet in Le Serrec’s case, if he has passed away there’s been none of
that adding to the overall strangeness of the story. Now again, Coleman and
Heuvelmans stated that Le Serrec was a rather untrustworthy individual, and there
are two ways to interpret this one can look at his claims and automatically
dismiss them or that everything he experienced did, in fact, happen. The point
of it truly is the following is that if a phenomenon is real, people of all
sorts of merit can still encounter the unknown it just makes it more difficult
to accept their claims.
In 2003 Le Serrec was said to still be
living and currently residing in Asia. Once this was revealed, there was a
sudden rush in attempting to interview him about the sea serpent, yet no
interview currently has been conducted. I would love to hear his thoughts now since
it's some 60 years later if he is still alive. Or if any of the others who were
around with him during the photographing of the creature. While there’s currently
no further investigation into this case, and for most researchers, the case
seems to be closed, I think that there's enough ambiguity that would warrant a
follow-up. Yet as with most older cases, chances are this will not be the case,
but until then, we are left to ponder just whether or not this series of photos
is authentic or not and it's a mystery that will last for countless years until
an example is either captured or that other members of Serrec’s family finally come
forward and claim either that it really is a hoax or that it’s the real deal.
Quick Facts:
Species/Potential Species:
Location: Pacific Ocean, Stonehaven Bay, Hook
Island, Whitsunday Islands, Queensland, Australia
Sighted: December 12, 1964
Works Cited:
Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology By Michael
Newton
Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents,
and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep By Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe By
Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe
Hunting Monsters: Cryptozoology and the
Reality Behind the Myths By Darren Naish
In the Wake of the Sea Serpent By Bernard
Heuvelmans
Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to
Cryptozoology Volume 2 By George Eberhart
Darren Naish "The amazing Hook Island
sea monster photos, revisited" Scientific American November 23, 2013.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/the-amazing-hook-island-sea-monster-photos-revisited/.
Accessed June 26, 2022.
Laura Rowton "5 Lake and Sea Monsters
Supposedly Caught on Camera" The Paranormal Scholar. February 9, 2018.
https://www.paranormalscholar.com/5-lake-sea-monsters/. Accessed July 8, 2022.
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