Their son had misheard the name of the canal and thinking he was visiting a place called Shark Ness, was eagerly pointing out what he thought may be shark fins to his parents. Thinking it to be just the imagination of a child at play, they didn’t pay it too much mind until around half past 12 when Caleb said:
“Daddy, it’s a crocodile.”
John looked over to where his son was pointing to humour him not really expecting to see anything out of the ordinary but sure enough, Caleb was right! There was a crocodile basking on the top of the water. John Palmer estimated the creatures length to be between 4 ½ and 5 feet long and Natalie estimates the creature was 6 feet in length. The head was estimated to be about 10 inches in width.
Although some sightings of crocodiles made in Britain are misidentified pike, which have similar colouration and share the crocodile’s habit of basking at or near to the surface of the water during warm days, John is adamant that the creature he saw was not a pike not only because he was able to see the animal’s feet, head and bumpy back clearly, but also because he has fished in the canal for 20 years and knows exactly what a pike looks like. When the creature swam off and submerged it did so in a manner that reminded John of the way newts swim rather than any fish.
John was quite concerned as he had seen the creature very near to the rowing club so he reported his sighting to the skipper there who informed John that it was not the first time this creature had been seen in the vicinity and that a similar beast had also been seen by a gate keeper further up the canal. Several years ago a bridge keeper named Richard Lacey saw a crocodile near Steller’s Bridge. This may be the sighting the skipper alluded to, which was investigated by Andy Stephens on behalf of the CFZ. Andy’s investigation can be found here: http://www.cfz.org.uk/expeditions/03croc/gcroc.htm
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