Wilma, please tell me that was your leg and not some mystery cetacean
Written: Feb 01 '08 (Updated Feb 03 '08)
Product Rating:
Pros: A smart approach to the slippery world of marine cryptozoology.
Cons: Zeroes in on specific cases instead of jumping around. But that's hardly a con.
The Bottom Line: Kind of an update of Heuvelmans' classic book on sea serpents. Coleman and Huyghe do a darn good job of making me opt for the safety of the swimming pool.
pyfr's Full Review: Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe - The Field Guide...
Though I lived in Florida for fourteen years, I never quite grew comfortable with being in the water. I swam in plenty of lakes and went to the beach countless times, but I was always worried that critters both known and unknown might be checking me out from below with whatever unappealing designs exist in their squirming minds. I once had something brush against my foot in the water off Cocoa Beach, and that was probably the closest a white boy has ever come to rocketing out of the ocean like a nuclear missile. I must've set a world record getting back to shore.
There are lots of others who feel that the oceans, lakes, and rivers of our planet harbor strange creatures. There are two widely acknowledged master volumes on the subject of unidentified water cryptids: Bernard Heuvelmans’ In The Wake Of The Sea Serpents and Peter Costello’s In Search Of Lake Monsters. They’re both immensely fascinating, and likely to make you think twice about that midnight skinny deep in your local lake or the trans-Atlantic solo kayak expedition you’ve been planning for the past few years. I’ve been to Loch Ness and a few other monster haunts, and those places truly creep me out.
In The Field Guide To Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, & Other Mystery Denizens Of The Deep, world-famous cryptozoologist/author/TV consultant Loren Coleman and writer/editor Patrick Huyghe examine the various types of critters that have been reported in seas and lakes around the world and down through the ages. Using a modified version of Heuvelmans’ classification of water monsters (into such categories as waterhorse, classic sea serpent, monster shark, etc.), as a starting point, Coleman and Huyghe examine the characteristics of each and describe a few of the more famous encounters with beasts I’d certainly not care to encounter in a darkened coral reef or peat-stained tarn in the remote Scottish highlands.
The authors, who are no strangers to the ridicule faced by all investigators of the weird and paranormal, approach the subject in a scientific and sober manner, even going so far as to advising the reader on what to do should one encounter an unknown water animal. One definitely gets the sense that Coleman and Huyghe are passionate about the field of marine cryptids, but they’re dismissive of reports that seem a bit too fanciful. However, as they point out in the first section, creatures are discovered all the time both on land and at sea that have somehow evaded humans for centuries; to say that the magnificent depths of the oceans and many of the lakes where creatures have been sighted couldn’t possibly be the dwelling place of large and unknown animals is almost as incredible as stating the opposite. Scientists are constantly finding critters with which this humble reviewer has no interest in cuddling.
Anyway, Field Guide goes through the sea serpents, waterhorses, mystery whales, monster sharks, unknown manta rays, giant “sea centipedes” (possibly some kind of armored prehistoric whale), titanic turtles, colossal octopi, dinosaurs, and other fauna reported from nearly every corner of the globe. Instead of trying to throw in every sighting committed to paper, the authors zero in on a few of the more convincing and remarkable cases that have crossed their radar (with helpful maps that show exactly where each occurred). Strange carcasses and beached globs are also addressed, as is the “ridicule factor” that you’re likely to experience should you run to the nearest newsman with tales of your own monster sighting. For those determined to have a personal rendezvous with these creatures, there are also lists of the places where you’re most likely to encounter sea serpents and lake monsters (try Cadboro Bay in Canada and just about any lake in northern Europe, respectively), not to mention an awesome collection of lakes and rivers around the world that boast some kind of beastie or another. I’d be willing to bet that most of you live within two hundred miles of a supposed water monster lair, and probably didn’t even know it.
If you’re into the kind of weirdness that attracts the attention of this demented reviewer, then you should snap up The Field Guide To Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, & Other Mystery Denizens Of The Deep. There’s not a lot in here that devoted readers of the field haven’t seen before (that said, I’d never heard of the giant beavers, possibly man-eating ones, that are alleged to inhabit the lakes of Utah), but that doesn’t prevent one from getting that creepy feeling when reading about encounters with prehistoric sharks off the coast of Australia or run-ins with horse-headed serpentine forms in the fjords of Scandinavia. Coleman and Huyghe came up with a sensible, highly readable, and well-organized overview of what is admittedly a difficult subject to take seriously.
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