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?
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)
ReplyDeleteIn 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 !!
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