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Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

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Thursday, July 01, 2010

ROBERT LE SERREC PHOTO SPOOFED

Below is one of those irritating viral videos which everyone seems to send to each other. However, what is amusing about it is that it spoofs a well known part of cryptozoological sea serpent history.




I'm sure Darren won't mind if I pinch this from his account of the Le Serrec case:


"Wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef with his family and Australian friend Henk de Jong, Le Serrec and family had bought a motor boat and had decided to spend three months on Hook Island (one of the Whitsunday Islands). They were all crossing Stonehaven Bay on December 12th 1964, when Le Serrec's wife spotted a strange object on the lagoon floor. It proved to be a gigantic tadpole-like creature, estimated at about 30 ft long. They took several still photos, gradually moving closer [the image shown here is a mockup I found on the web]. Eventually Le Serrec and de Jong plucked up the courage to approach it underwater in order to film it. It proved larger than first thought, with its estimated length increasing to 75-80 ft. It didn't move and they suspected it might be dead, but just as Le Serrec began the filming it opened its mouth and made movements toward them. They returned to the boat, and by this time the creature had moved off."

read what else the good doctor has to say..

I remember hearing about the case on Redifusion Radio in Hong Kong in 1965, in what was probably my first exposure to the world of cryptozoology. I never imagined that nearly half a century later I would be writing a critiqueof the case based on a mildly amusing viral video. Funny old world innit?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had cause to mention the Le Serrac case under the heading of "Yellow-Belly" recently. I did not think that Le Serrac had legitimated photographed or filmed such a creature-Heuvelmans points out the whole affair was quite suspicious and I think the creature has prominent pectoral fins from the other reports. However, when Tim Dinsdale was discussing the case, he did mention several legitimate reports from the area which sounded about like what Le Serrac was representing and so those reports are what I was relating to the Yellow-Belly category (slightly different colour phase)

Bernard MICHEL said...

In the first seventies , between 71 and 73 ,we met the Le Serrec family , with some friends , in Nantes , Britany , where they exposed their journey !!It seemed they sailed from somewhere in Britany , with an old (18 to 22 meters ?) fisherman !! They counted that story to everybody , and earn some money with that !! And knowing that we were planning to get out of France by sailboat , they invited us to their place , somewhere in a small town near Saint Étienne , not far from Lyon (S-E of France) !! So , some months later , we visited them , and spend some hours , in their house, and spoke a lot about navigation , and a lot of other things related with sea !! And , after boozing some , they explain us that after breaking their boat somewhere in a reef in the middle of the Pacific Ocean , they HAD to discover a way to go out of the reef where they were stranded , and try to survive in the civilized world , since they were broke ! So , they invented , and fabricated a sort of Sea snake , with old tyres !! That is the story they counted to us at that time , laughing a lot about all that peopel who paid to lisen to their hoax !!