Mysterious Creature Caught On Video in London River
A mysterious creature was spotted last week in the Thames River very near to the O2 Center by a passenger on a United Emirates Air cable car. The man, identified by only by his YouTube username “Penn Plate,” captured the image on video and posted it.
Once he posted the video on YouTube, it received over 2 million hits, with plenty of comments complaining about the shaky photography and guesses about what the creature might be. Penn Plate himself ventures a guess.
“This was on the cable car in Greenwich yesterday. Something huge was moving under the water and then briefly surfaced. Are there whales in the Thames?? Or is it some weird submarine?”
There have been no definitive identifications published, as of yet, by experts in the field. IanTokelove of the London Wildlife Trust, told the Evening Standard, he was “not aware of anything that large and moving in the Thames.” He states they were unable to get a clear enough view to determine anything.
There has been no lack of opinions from the general public, however. Social media users not only made the video go viral quickly, but offered multiple suggestions as to what the mysterious creature might be. Some are convinced it’s some type of unknown member of the dinosaur family, or something similar. Others are more skeptical, saying it must be a whale or pod of dolphins.
Large, mysterious creature swimming in the Thames River https://t.co/bzP2iw3ROH Oh no, the Zygons have done it again! #DoctorWho
— Nicholas Kaufmann THE STONE SERPENT OUT NOW! (@TheKaufmann) April 7, 2016
One possibility has been suggested that it might be either gray seals or harbor seals, both reputed to be at home in the area. Other sightings of pods of dolphins have shown to be quite similar to the creature in last week’s video. According to the Evening Standard, there have been numerous sightings of other marine animals in the Thames over the years.
“Forty-nine whales, more than 2,000 seals and some 450 porpoises and dolphins have apparently been sighted in the River Thames in the past 10 years.”
The video is blurry and shaky, at best. Taken from a camera phone, the photographer was in a tourist cable car way above the river Thames. At first, it appears to be at least two black or dark-colored humps in the water. Just as it starts to disappear below the surface, for some reason the man turns the camera briefly away from it. When he turned the camera back to the river, the mysterious creature was no longer visible. The camera man has been widely criticized for his shaky camera work and his limited personal information to go along with the video, suggesting a possible hoax. Since the man who filmed the sighting, “Penn Plate,” hasn’t made any claims that it’s any type of monster, it’s not even certain if it qualifies as a hoax.
Jokingly, at first, comparisons were made to the famous Loch Ness monster, whose photograph surfaced in 1934. “Nessie,” as the elusive mysterious creature has been called, gained fame and notoriety in 1934 but has had reported sightings as far back as 565 B.C. In those days, a missionary known as St. Columba had numerous followers who reported seeing the monster in the Loch Ness. Nessie’s most famous photograph, taken by Dr. Robert Kenneth Wilson, was later proved to be a hoax; but, that hasn’t taken away from the other photos and sightings that have occurred since. Thousands of mysterious sightings have been reported since, some of which have had photographic evidence to go along with them.
Do you think this is a mysterious creature, or something more easily explained? Sound off in the comments below.
[Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images]
