The Hook Island Sea Monster
The Hook Island Sea Monster spotted in Australia's Whitsundays
In December 1964, a man named Robert Le Serrec witnessed a 75-80ft long creature underwater near Hook Island, Queensland.
The Story of the Hook Island Sea Monster
The location where the Hook Island Monster was spotted.
In a news release that revisits a decades-old mystery, we cast our minds back to the mid-60s and journey to Stonehaven Bay, Hook Island, Queensland, Australia. Here, the seemingly serene waters once revealed a creature of gargantuan proportions that bore an uncanny resemblance to a tadpole of truly monstrous scale.
It was December 1964, when French native, Robert Le Serrec, along with his family and shiphand, purportedly encountered the aquatic leviathan. The family, new owners of a motorboat, had decided to set anchor for several months in the vicinity of Hook Island. On December 12th, as they navigated across the bay, the first sight of the creature emerged.
Robert's wife first noticed a strange anomaly, enormous in size and tadpole-like in shape, lurking at the bottom of the lagoon. Instantly intrigued, they wasted no time in documenting the encounter. Armed with their camera, they started snapping pictures. The ship's hand, de Jong, plucked up the courage to submerge himself in the water to capture a closer look at the beast.
Initially mistaking the creature for a deceased specimen, owing to its monumental length of 75-80ft, they soon discovered they were wrong. As Le Serrec moved in closer to film, the beast startled them by opening its mouth and making a beeline towards them. A frantic retreat back to the boat ensued, by which point, the creature had made a hasty exit.
Eyewitnesses aboard reported seeing an injury on the creature's right flank. The assumption was made that the wound could have been inflicted by a ship's propeller, prompting the creature to seek solace in the shallow lagoon. Its unusual physical features, including eyes on the top of its head and a smooth, finless body, raised eyebrows amongst skeptics. Some argued that it was an elaborate hoax, perhaps a clever camera angle of a large school of fish, or an ingeniously manipulated image - though such theories seemed far-fetched given the photographic technology of the 60s.
Theories about the Hook Island Sea Monster
More photos of the Hook Island Sea Monster
Optimistic yet rational believers hypothesized that the creature could be a gigantic version of a swamp eel from the Synbranchidae family, despite these eels typically not exceeding 150cm in size. Others conjectured that it might be an artificially constructed, monster-shaped sheet of plastic.
A comprehensive and meticulous report by Darren Naish, published in Scientific American, has argued that the incident was a hoax. He pointed out that in 1959, Le Serrec had planned an expedition with the promise of it being "financially fruitful", with a vague hint of a sea-serpent related endeavor that would rake in substantial money. To add to the skepticism, the film supposedly capturing the creature was not very clear or convincing.
Do you think the Hook Island Sea Monster was real or a hoax? Tell us your theory in the comments.
If you enjoyed learning about the Hook Island Sea Monster you might also be interested in a sea monster attack that killed four teens or the story of Tessie, Lake Tahoe’s Nessie.
