St Johns River Monsters: The Astor Monster, Pinky, and Friends

by Cole Herrold

The bodies of water around the world have always been home to monsters. From the Lochs and Loughs of Scotland and Ireland where reports of man-eating Kelpies and then in the modern years' plesiosaur like creatures who shy away from the toils of man. To the oceans where countless monsters supposedly have been reported slithering and attacking vessels. It's in these watery biomes we see a biological occurrence that, if these creatures do exist, would need to happen, and that is the existence of a biodiversity. A biodiversity is simply the variety of different forms of life in a particular habitat. With cryptids and cryptid reports outside of humans witnessing these creatures or potentially the creature's predation on the local fauna, the creatures seen typically are alone or seem to have just popped into our world hence why the interdimensional or extraterrestrial hypothesis has sprung up even in cases where there is nothing to truly suggest this theory. In aquatic biomes, more than any other habitat, we see the most not only of variation of creatures reported but also the interaction of the creatures with their environment. Aside from sasquatch, these creatures are perhaps the most biologically realistic as our oceans, lakes, and rivers makeup to 71% of the planet and are plenty big enough for countless species to live and interact undiscovered.

In the St. Johns River in Florida, we see cryptid biodiversity that is something only a few lakes have encountered, and that is that at least two unique species of cryptids are reported to dwell in the St. Johns River; the first report is by no means the most famous and in many ways is very similar to other river monsters such as the White River Monster of Arkansas which we will get into later. The most famous of the species said to inhabit the river is a creature which some of the locals and newspapers have dubbed "pinky" due to the creature's bizarre skin color. I first came across these marine monsters while doing research on other aquatic cryptids and came across a newspaper article detailing the bizarre account. I was encapsulated by the account and, as many researchers can testify to experiencing dived deep into newspaper archives and book resources for more information on the phenomenon. It is a hunt for a white whale in most cases, as in many bizarre monster cases, the papers are scant or from the 1800s, so follow-ups typically did not occur. With this creature, I found reports dating all the way back to the 50s and, with them, a decently constant string of articles and sightings which lead up to modern times.