ROUND UP THE USUAL SUSPECTS

"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left however improbable must be the truth" -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet

"...I looked up oarfish on the Internet, and I'm here  to tell you that it was definitely not an oarfish.   For one thing, an oarfish looks like a ribbon, and this was tube shaped.  I also understand that an oarfish swims vertically, and this was swimming horizontally.  Obviously I don't know what it was, but I know what it wasn't." Nova Scotia lobsterman, Wallace Cartwright speaking of his sighting on June 24, 2003 in Point Aconi Cove as reported in Working Waterfront/Inter-Island News - August 2003

Oarfish  Regulus glesne

“If any of you or your friends wish to preserve your peace of mind, I would suggest that if you ever see an animal of this character, unless you can produce the animal as evidence, never mention the fact.” Judge Sumner D. York Witness - Rockport, Massachusetts - 1886

Fish, dolphin, whales swimming in a line

“A town whose population chiefly consists of fishermen is not usually electrified by the visit of a whale, or a shark, or a school of porpoises, or any other common object of their daily life.” Commander Rupert T. Gould The Case for the Sea-Serpent

"I can recall nothing material that would render my description of the creature more convincing...Who ever saw fifty or sixty porpoises moving in a right line and in such a manner that those who formed the rear were no larger than haddock and mackerel, and none but the foremost shewed his head?  Who ever saw a serpent's head upon porpoise or a whale?  We saw him swim We saw him swim as far as from Long Island to the Cape before he disappeared.  His head and neck all the time out of the water.  Now whoever saw a porpoise swim so great a distance without ever immerging (sic) at all?" Reverend Abraham Cummings Witness - Isleboro, Maine - 1802

"All six rushed to the shore and were astonished to witness along the surface of the perfectly still water a long series of huge folds or curves, as of an enormous body moving slowly along, or as the little girl at once expressed it, "a great big eel, Papa!" Dr. John E. Sanborn's report to The Boston Journal - of a sighting at Rockport Massachusetts July 24, 1886

Eel

Basking Shark Cetorhinus maximus

Giant Squid

"It wasn't a giant squid. I know that for sure," he said. "I wasn't close enough to see scaly skin or eyes or any detail like that. All I know is that was a strange creature, and it's a big ocean that could contain a lot of strange things we've never seen." Bob Crewe, Witness - Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland, Canada - April 2000

Basilosaurus aka Zeuglodon

Elasmosaur

“...He passed along about one hundred feet from where I stood with his head two feet out of the water.  His speed was about that of an ordinary steamer.  What I saw of his length was about sixty feet. The color of his skin was dark, differing but little from that of the water, or the back of any common fish... I have no doubt that the uncommon, strange rover, which has been seen by hundreds of men and boys, is a form of snake, Plesiosaurus, or some such form of marine animal.” Nathan Chase - Witness - Nahant, Massachusetts - 1818