AN 'ELL OF AN EEL?

  Just how big can moray eels get? A vintage illustrationof the Mediterranean moray (aka Roman eel) Muraenahelena (public domain)

Extra-large,even giant-sized, eels are frequently cited as potential identities for allmanner of freshwater and maritime monsters around the world, including Britain's very ownNessie. Down through the years, I've documented a fair few of these reports,from such disparate, far-flung locations as North America, New Zealand, and theMascarene Islands. Now, another location, Vietnam, can apparently be added tothat list.

LongstandingLoch Ness Monster researcher Steve Feltham hosts a very interesting andinformative public Facebook group entitled 'Steve Feltham, Nessie Hunter,Interactive Collective', which acts as a forum for sharing relevant informationrelevant to this pre-eminent cryptid. On 13 October 2022, group member MikeGavan from New Zealand posted the following fascinating account of what mayhave been a truly gigantic eel encountered underwater off Vietnam by one of hisfriends:

I’ve just had a visit from an older friend ofmine, Tim.

Tim was a deep sea diver in the 1970s, workingfrom a bell at an average depth of 200 m [656 ft], his work was in the area ofundersea recovery, maintenance for the oil industry world wide.

Around 1974, Tim was diving on a recovery jobat 220 m [722 ft] off the coast of Nha Trang, Vietnam.

His job was to recover a length of specialpurpose ducting that had been lost overboard, he was to locate it, tie it andawait a winch.

About 10 minutes into his dive from the bellTim saw what he believed was part of the ducting and proceeded towards it, [but]as he got close enough to touch it he realised that it was not ducting!

"It was soft and felt like an eel or fish,the girth was around 6 ft, when I did actually touch it a large head lookinglike a snake or reptile appeared in my lamps, I contacted the top and asked ifthey were seeing what I was seeing as I had a camera attached to my dive suit,yes was the reply. ”Go to the bell now Tim, repeat, go to the bell now!” wastheir reply, I estimated the creature to be over 100ft, possibly 120-130 ft inlength, I turned and headed bell asap, which wasn’t quickly due to my dive suitand gear, it was terrifying and I never looked back, I’ve seen giant sharks,strange lights etc but that snake thing was the weirdest thing I ever saw in mytenure as a deep sea diver!"

Tim is now 78 years old, honest andtrustworthy & also sound of mind.

He lives on a back country farm of 4000 acresin solitude now.

This was relayed to me literally 2 hours ago.

Thecreature that immediately came to mind when I read this report was a moray eelor muraenid, of which there are over 200 species found in tropical andtemperate waters worldwide, often in coastal regions, and are famouslyserpentine in appearance. However, the longest known species, the slender giantmoray Strophidion sathete, is 'only'up to 13 ft long, a far cry indeed from the immense length cited by eyewitnessTim for the elongate entity that he allegedly encountered at very close range (andeven allowing for possibly a sizeable degree of over-estimation on Tim's part dueto the extreme shock and fear that he'd clearly experienced).

Butcould there be exceptional individuals far greater in size than any recorded byscience existing incognito in our oceans, their huge dimensions buoyed by theirliquid environment? If so, they would indeed be veritable monsters. I wonderwhat happened to the film that Tim's camera recorded of this creature, asviewed by his above-surface team? That would certainly be well worth a watch!

  A vividillustration from 1801 of Gymnothoraxfavagineus, the aptly-named leopard moray eel (public domain)