In Pure Spirit

For open minds

Steve Alten interview: Where is Megalodon hiding?

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Steve Alten is the author of the hugely popular Meg series. The fictional series starts when Navy deep-sea submersible pilot Jonas Taylor encounters a Carcharodon megalodon while exploring the infamous Mariana trench. He barely survives the encounter but then has to warn a sceptical world that the 70-foot shark is real.

The latest book in the series, Meg: Nightstalkers, deals with the nightmare scenario of escaped megalodons and other ancient monsters making their way free.

In Pure Spirit is really lucky. Steve’s made time to answer some of our Carcharodon megalodon questions. Buckle up and read on!

Q. Some folk like to hope that Carcharodon megalodon survives as a species. Why do you think that is? Isn’t a strange thing to hope for?

Not at all. Just as visitors would come to a Jurassic World, they’d love to witness the most vicious predator ever to have lived … albeit from a safe distance.

Q. Do you think the Mariana trench has any real surprises left for us?

It’s all new. This is a 40 mile wide, 1550 mile long unexplored realm. The latest exploration found hydrothermal vents (as I predicted 20 years ago) and an albino “ghost shark!”

Q. You must have been subjected to dozens of survival theories from fans since you started writing Meg. Which have been the most memorable ones?

I favor the rise of Orca as the most likely theory which resulted in the Megs disappearance. An orca is no match for a Meg, but killer whales hunt in pods, and a pack could easily kill a lone Meg. Orca hunt along shorelines and would have decimated Megalodon nurseries. The only escape for adults would have been to inhabit deeper waters where the whales could not access. Could Megalodon still be alive without us knowing it? Absolutely. We’ve only explored 5% of the oceans and less than 1% of the deep…

Q. How do you keep up with science and the real world mysteries of the deep oceans?

I research every novel thoroughly to flesh out the story. Plus I answer every email personally, which introduces me to experts far smarter than myself.

Q. Which other deep water stories are you tempted to explore?

The LOCH takes on Loch Ness, VOSTOK explores the subglacial lakes in Antarctica, and The OMEGA PROJECT takes us to our planet 12 million years in the future…so I’ve  been tempted and went there! Check it out at www.SteveAlten.com.

Very weird: Monsterous Kappa rises from the river

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A Kappa is a Japanese water goblin or demon. It’s name means River-child and a local would describe it as a Yokai.

This Kappa is at home in the pond at Tsujikawayama Park near Fukusaki in Hyogo Prefecture. The head of the beast is important; Kappa’s have power while their hairless patch is filled with water.

Some consider Kappa also to be cryptids. As a cryptid it means there might actually be river-creatures not yet documented by science, that fit the Kappa description, living in Japan.

In Pure Spirit

What Kappa myths and legends do you know? Share them in the comments below and discuss with other readers.

Tempted by a holiday in Japana? Sites like Kuoni offer package deals and Expedia has a range of Tokyo breaks.

(Via Rocket News 24)

Is this video evidence of a weird monster in the Mekong River?

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Is this the Mekong Monster?

The Mekong is a large river; the 7th-longest in Asia that crawls into Thailand where this video was filmed. The name comes from “Mae Man Khong, a term similar in Thai and Lao, which means mother river or mother water. Only the Amazon has more animals per cubic foot and the river is home to a hugely diverse range of life.

Is this a monster though?

In Pure Spirit

What do you make of the video? Odd? Monster? Or just some local animals and some trash?

Now you’ve seen this video are you tempted to back your bags, grab a flight to Bangkok, forget about the political violence in the news today and enjoy a holiday in Thailand?

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology

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Created by Vladimir Stankovic this book charts a range of mysterious animals; these creatures are part of myth and legend but there is no strong evidence for their existence.

The word “cryptozoology” means the “study of hidden animals”, combining zoology with the Greek root “kryptos” or “hidden”. The book was created as part of a master thesis project at the University of Lapland. Sadly, it’s not something you can pick up at Amazon.

I think there’s some traditional European monsters in here along with new world horrors too.

Loch Ness Monster

Mothman

Sea Serpents

Storsjoodjuret

Thunderbird

Yeti

Buru

Chupacabra 2

Dover Demon

Gigantic Octopus

Gloucester Sea Serpent

Jersey Devil

Kongamato

In Pure Spirit

Which is your favourite illustrated cryptid from the collection above?

Mystery giant eyeball washes up on beach

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A huge eyeball from some unknown creature has washed ashore on a beach in Floria.

A man walking on Pompano beach in Florida found the eyeball on Wednesday and wisely reported it to the Flordia Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The Commission told Huffington Post how odd the discovery was;

“This is definitely an unusual situation, where an eye would be found independent of any other body part.”

The eyeball is large enough that it only just fits in the palm of two hands. It may befrom a whale or a giant squid – but no one is sure.

In Pure Spirit

Do you think this eye has come from an animal we’re already familiar with? What’s your theory? Shark attack on a whale?

Is this Bigfoot?

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We’re used to blurry images of shapes behind trees or highly unlikely looking humanoids when it comes to photographs of Bigfoot. Sometimes the most realistic and believable photographs turn out to be part of a clever viral marketing campaign.

So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at this photograph.

The photographer is unnamed (but not unknown) and a game trapper from Alberta. A woman, who wasn’t at the scene when the photograph was taken, called Penny and a friend of the trapped uploaded the image to Facebook. She denies this is some sort of escaped gorilla.

“I know this person. They are a dogsledder and would in no way be the type to try to fool around with fake pictures. They actually think it’s a bear and cub but for some reason they only have one photo. Strange.”

In Pure Spirit

Bear? Gorilla?

Hoax?

What are your thoughts on this photograph? If this isn’t Bigfoot – could this photograph perhaps explain why people sometimes mistake bears for Bigfoot?

New photograph of the Loch Ness monster

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A new photograph of what might be the Loch Ness monster has been published. The photograph shows an animal-like hump, with ripples that seem to suggest a turn, in the otherwise fairly still waters of Loch Ness.

There is a catch. The photograph was taken by George Edwards – who has hunted Nessie for 26 years and holds tours. Now, if anyone is going to be able to take a photograph of the Loch Ness monster then it’ll be someone like Edwards who is out on the waters, with a camera ready, more than anyone else. However, as Edwards isn’t a neutral – people will suggest his account his bias.

In the British newspaper, The Daily Mail, he says;

“It was slowly moving up the loch towards Urquhart Castle and it was a dark grey colour. It was quite a fair way from the boat, probably about half a mile away but it’s difficult to tell in water… I’m convinced I was seeing Nessie as I believe in these creatures. Far too many people have being seeing them for far too long.”

“The first recorded sighting was in 565AD and there have been thousands of eye witness reports since then… All these people can’t be telling lies. And the fact the reports stretch over so many years mean there can’t just be one of them. I’m convinced there are several monsters.”

In Pure Spirit

Do you think there is something in Loch Ness? Is it hundreds of years old or are there a family of them? Surely we’d have a better photograph by now.

Unknown sea creature or intestines?

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The video above shows a creature discovered during works in the docks in Kiel, Germany. It was captured and brought to the IFM-Geomar-Institute.

It’s not clear what the creature is. Many on YouTube suggest it looks like intestines with connective tissue but that doesn’t explain why the “creature” continues to move in the bucket or even why it needed to be captured. Others suggest it’s a type of Hagfish.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? Is this is a creature… what could it be?

Is the South Carolina sea monster just a sturgeon?

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The internet was a buzz with questions about a strange creature that washed up on Folly Beach in South Carolina. The creature, clearly aquatic, was huge. The monster was also a strange, pale, orange.

There was talk about mutation – the result of the BP oil disaster, some said.

However, it seems more likely that the fish is a sturgeon – albeit a huge one. Sturgeon tend to be around 10 feet long and 300 pounds however large sturgeon can get up to 15 feet long and 800 pounds in weight. They are an ancient fish as the species has been around for 100 million years. They are, as you might expect, at risk of extinction.

In Pure Spirit

Are you satisfied with the sturgeon explination? Or do you think it odd that such a large and tasty meal would have had the chance to float for so long that it washed ashore? Why didn’t other fish strip all the meat from the bones? What was such a large sturgeon doing so close to shore.

Disclosure

This blog discusses ideas and causes. Urban myth and history combine here. In Pure Spirit covers stories from elsewhere on the web and may make fair use clippings and quotations from the original source.