The sea was glassy calm, an eerie occurrence in itself for late January, so we were motoring along making our way towards Isla San Jose. 100 yards away, two tentacles arose from the depths and slowly bobbed about, dangling and turning in the air about a foot above the surface. Skinny and delicate, they rose vertically and then sagged toward the tip as if bent by some weight. On each tentacle were two or three small flaps, almost like leaves on a branch.

I called Katie, the resident marine biologist, and she was as perplexed as I was. At this point I was giving them a wide berth, not sure if the tentacles were attached to some much larger, hungrier beast below the surface. Katie, also the captain, demanded that I turn the ship around and go in for a closer look. Not one to question authority, I obliged and we made two more passes, each closer than the last.

 

We got to within 30 feet and at one point another set of tentacles arose and joined the first, entwining each other in a slow dance. Neither seemed bothered or even aware of our presence. We consulted all of our field guides and nothing seemed to fit the bill.

After consulting all the authorities we could find, including a few world renowned biologists and ichthyologists, we have come to the conclusion that we sighted a very rare creature indeed. We think we know what it was, but we want to invite guesses from the audience. Leave a comment below if you think you know…

p.s. The poor cinematography is very sasquatchesque, we know…we were quivering with excitement!

UPDATE:  The next post reveals the answer – we saw a rare glimpse of possibly two oarfish mating.  Crazy!

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