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

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Sunday, August 07, 2011

LINDSAY SELBY: The Ningen, a new cryptid?

Stories about a creature called the Ningen ( translates as “human like” I think) appeared on the internet in about 2007. It is said to be a whale like creature with a human face and some are reported to have arms. There are reports that these creatures live in the Antarctic Ocean. The reports say they are very pale or white and about 60 feet (20 metres) or larger in length. Sometimes they are described as mermaid like. Supposedly they are reported as being seen by crew members of government whale research ships from Japan. One story says the crew members on deck saw what they thought was a submarine but when they got closer it was a live creature which disappeared under the water.



Large rays and some other flat fish can look as if they have a face on the underside and some grow very large. So speculation is that it could be a large flatfish like a ray floating upside down for whatever reason. It reminds me of H P Lovecraft’s Mountains of Madness story or that film The Abyss with the underwater alien. It could of course be a previously undiscovered species of Whale or elephant seal. Will wait and see if the first shaky photos appear.

See here for story and sighting : http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xfrmnu_alien-ningen-sighting-sagami-bay-japan-aug-23-2010_news

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The name is clearly related to the Japanese Ningyo for Mermaid. There are (very reare) stories of merfolk that grow to enormous sizes. Mostly these seem to be anthropomorphic whales and these sound like it too. Whales of course COULD be described as "Human like" on any of a number of criteria.

Perhaps Japanese whalers are developing consciences that are bothering them? One can only hope!

Best Wishes, Dale D.

Jennae said...

OOH! I've just heard about these things, and I find the idea to be fascinating. A giant species of human like entities who make their home in the ocean? That's awesome! Yes, it probably is a misidentified whale or something. But I like to romanticize the idea, and think that these are some sort of mystery people, quietly making their presence known to a few lucky boat crews.

Betsy "Weazul" Johnson said...

ningen is Japanese for human, and everything I've seen about it make me think it's little more than an urban legend, as the original accounts of it can be traced back to anonymous posts on the 2chan forums.