Heuvelmans' "Super-eel " was a dustbin category but did contain good reports of evidently local, well-defined forms of outsized eels. The specific categories included a giant conger about 20 feet long seen off of Singapore (Heuvelmans indicates Charles Gould as a source and multiple local sightings), a type of "camoflage" eel in the Mediterranean and a much larger form with fins at the side of the head like a titanic conger with a characteristic dark top and light bottom (unlike the smaller forms). In the 1970's, I statistically separated the category and called the larger well-defined form Titanoconger and the smaller conger-like form Megaconger; the two apparantly are also different in habitat and coloration. I leave Heuvelmans' "Camoflage" eel the way it was without further comment. The more clearly-defined animals were the ones with eellike fins behind the head, but there was also evidence of a different giant eel with a blunter head and an unusual bichir-like set of backfins, but this was not so clear [The St. Olaf creature would be in this category and the original SITU document suggested the name Pluripinnium].
James Sweeney in his book Sea Monsters also indicates a well-defined form of Giant green moray, 20 to 30 feet long and centered around Fiji.
Similarly the reported sea monster that allegedly attacked Brian McCleary and companions rafting off of Florida in 1962 may have been a similar type of giant green moray eel in a completely different location.
The rest of the reports are difficult to categorize. However, once the sorting had progressed to this stage, it became evident by statistical comparison that the "?LN?SE" category had the proportions of the Longneck's neck and not the proportions of the forepart of a Super-eel's body. The eellike forms are much thicker cylinders per length, the thickness typically being 1/10 to 1/12 of the total length. A good number of Heuvelmans' longer-bodied reports in this category turned out to be wave patterns as in the many-humped and super-otter categories.
The Pauline case merits special attention. In checking this report, it became evident that ALL the mesurements were very severely off. Three male sperm whales were seen together, and each one was not only large, each one was unusually large. This statement alone is highly suspicious, given what is known of sperm whales. In order to be constricting the whale with two coils of its bodyand have 30-foot sections in front of this and after,the eel does indeed have to be 140-160 feet long; other commentators have not done the math on this. The original writer also evidently said "girth" (circumference) for diameter, unless the diameter was actually intended to have been less than a yard.
The dismissal of the Dana leptocephalus as a notacanth fish was premature: the reported conformation of the fins definitely did not correspond to that classification. In any event, the determination was made on paperwork when the actual specimen had gone missing. This opinion does not deserve the air of authority it is often given in the literature.
Giant eels, Freshwater division:
When he was advancing the theory that the Loch Ness monster was a giant eel, Maurice Burton noted several reports of river monsters that were like giant eels in Britain and on the continent, seemingly France and Germany. Sometimes, these were reported with doglike heads and serpentine bodies. no individual reports and no further details were given. These might be the same as similar reports from Scotland, Ireland and possibly Scandinavia, but these are mostly in the small "Monster" size range, 10 to 30 feet long. These would include animals called Horse-eels, Bethir and Lindorms. Occasionally, the conger-like small fins behind the head are noted and definitely described as rayed fins, hence they must needs belong to the Osteichthys. The number of segments in these fins seems to be about the same in the larger and smaller congerlike forms (8-9 rays being consitently cited)
Similar "eel" reports in a similar size range are mentioned as coming from Eastern Canada, including a report by a diver in Lake Memphremagog. Very Likely reports of "Primor'ye snakes" in far Eastern Siberia are also of the same sort.
James Sweeny[ibid] was told by Dr. MacGregor of Loch Ness investigation of the remains of a purported giant eel 40 feet long found in a lake in Uruguay, but it is safer to call this an outsized Anaconda, even though the reported length is unusual. There is no indication that any of the local witnesses knew enough to accurately identify the skeleton of a giant eel.
There is as so far no direct connection between saltwater and freshwater reported forms of giant eels. The freshwater reports are however consistent with the "Megaconger" category, averaging 20-30 feet long with a more or less even overall medium graybrown coloration.
PS, Heuvelmans In The Wake of the Sea Serpents is the primary source. My statistical analysis was my own work, of course. Eberhart should indicate most of the rest: Burton's reference was written before he did his book on the Loch Ness Monster.
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