Creature found swimming in Florida similar to Lochness Monster, as pictured – Courtesy: Shutterstock – Image by: Yulia_Bogomolova
Video of a mysterious, 15-foot-long creature that was spotted swaying in the waters near a local park in Edgewater, Florida, is proving difficult to identify. On September 9 on the Indian River North near Menard-May Park, Joe Tiller claims to have been on the water with his wife April when they captured “the monster.” Orlando is located roughly 60 miles northeast of Edgewater.
He thought it was a very large manatee, but this one was different.
“In these waters, it’s not very uncommon to see them,” Tiller told McClatchy News. “This one looked very different! It had huge muscles like the shoulders of a bull! It was as if it was rolling its shoulders like a bear underwater! We did not see any fur, or head, or hands and feet.”
Tiller, a longtime boat maker with Boston Whaler, says he has lived in the area for over 5 years and has never once seen anything like it. He said the creature was approximately 12 to 15 feet long–and it was “grunting.”
The sight was so eerie that the couple decided to steer away from the hulk as it swam toward a nearby channel.
Tiller shared his video on September 9 with the Florida Birds and Wildlife Facebook group. With hopes of identifying the strange creature, his video has now been viewed nearly 70,000 times–still with no answer.
Guesses have ranged from a black bear crossing the river to a manatee struggling to swim at low tide. Others simply commented on how disturbing the sight was, without offering a guess.
“I can’t find any video online that shows manatees to look like this with rolling shoulders,” Tiller said. “The shoulders were terrifying and very powerful looking! Never have I seen a manatee look or act like this!”
McClatchy news sent over the video to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which believes the manatee theories may be the correct answer to the mystery.
“Our biologists believe it looks like a manatee in very shallow water that is ‘pec walking’,” FWC officials said in an email. “(It) then moves to deeper water at the end of the video.”
Manatees, also known as the “sea cows” of the ocean, are aquatic mammals that are native to the Sunshine State. These creatures usually grow up to 10 feet and weigh around 1,000 pounds, FWC reports. However, some are as big as 13 feet long and 3,500 pounds.
Manatees have “a large, round, flattened paddle-shaped tail that is used for swimming, along with two fore limb flippers. Their skin is typically wrinkled and “leathery looking,” while algae grows on their backs, experts say.
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Chris began his writing as a hobby while attending Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. Today he and his wife live in the Orlando area with their three children and dog.
