In the rivers, lakes, and off the coast of the Pacific Northwest of North America there are monsters. Reports of unexplainable unidentified creatures have been reported hundreds of times since the area has been colonized by Europeans and stories of the creatures go back to the indigenous people who inhabited this land for 1000s of years.
What is the PNW?
The PNW is the Pacific Northwest of North America. There isn’t a single definition of what area the Pacific Northwest includes. For PNW Water Mosters, we will adopt a definition that takes into account the bioregion associated with the area, called the Cascadia Bioregion. The Cascadia bioregion extends for more than 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from the Copper River in Southern Alaska, to Cape Mendocino, approximately 200 miles north of San Francisco, and east as far as the Yellowstone Caldera. It includes all of the state of Washington, parts of California, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, and Montana. It cross country borders and includes part of the providence of British Columbia, Canada.
What is a water monster?
One of the most interesting things about reading thru the reports and stories of unidentified aquatic creatures of the Pacific Northwest is there seems to be multiple types. While we are always open to adding more categories, based on new reports or discovery of past information, we will start with these types of water monsters.
Cadborosaurus
The Cadborsaurus is often considered the ‘Classic Sea Serpent’ and named after Cadboro Bay in British Columbia, where there have been many reports. Reported physical descriptions are similar to the extinct basilosaurus,a giant predator relative of the whale thought to last roam the earth’s oceans over 30 million years ago.
Cadborsaurus have been described as ranging from 10 to 100 feet in length. The front flukes or flippers resemble those of a whale with an extended slender body with humps and a fan-like tail. The head has been described as similar to a horse, camel, or even described as “serpent like”.
While Cadboro Bay has hundreds of reported sightings of the creature over the past 200 years, something matching the description are not limited to British Columbia or even the Pacific Northwest, having similar reports coming from all over the world, including San Francisco Bay, off Cape Lookout in North Carolina, Casco Bay in Maine, Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, and Alesund, Norway.
Colossal Cephalopods
Some Pacific Northwest Water Monsters are described as having tentacles!
In classic zoology, Cephalopod literally means “head foot” from Greek and includes cuttlefish, octopus, squid, and nautilus. Colossal Cephalopods include extremely large, out of place, and sometimes aggressive creatures with the characteristics of Cephalopods, which include 8 or 10 arms or tentacles, a mantle covering their body, often large eyes, and sometimes a beak. Examples of Colossal Cephalopods include abnormally large Humbolt Squid, Giant Pacific Octopus, the Kraken, and the Devil’s Lake Monster reported near Lincoln City, Oregon.
Merhorses
The merhorse, water horse, or water dragon are described as long necked, with a rounded single or double humped body, a tapering tail, and a head. In the past, more described the head as horse like. More recently witnesses describe as serpent or dinosaur like head. Some reports have the merhorse as having a mane and sometimes being covered with hair and whiskers. Some sightings include horns or knobs on their heads as well.
Creatures from earth’s past that look similar to the merhorse include the nothosaur and the plesiosaur.
While the Loch Ness’s Nessie is the world’s most famous example of the Merhorse, they have been reported all around the world, including Norway, Argentina, Vermont’s Champ in Lake Champlain and the Pacific Northwest, including Ogopogo in Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada.
Mermaids and Merpeople
With the upper body of a human or humanoid and the lower half of a fish or marine creature, merpeople appear in folklore around the world. The current western of concept of merpeople is heavily influenced by the Sirens of Greek Mythology. The most famous Mermaid sighting in the PNW is probably the 1967 Mayne Island report.