How far away were the actual eyewitnesses?
If they had to use binoculars to view the mystery animal, then it was quite a good distance. We would have to assume a few things about the eyewitness account. We would assume that at a great distance, when viewing through binoculars, there is going to be some shake caused by handholding a long lens. We must also take into account that there were probably no filters on the binoculars such as a UV or Haze filter to cut the haze. So the viewing might not have been as clear as one would hope.

One would also assume because of the distance the reflection properties of water as well the the index of refraction of light through the water, the actual size of the mystery animal can not be accurately measured by the eyewitness account.

This also leads to other questions. Perhaps the tail was not horizontal but a vertical tail. If the animal was in distress or simply chasing prey, then the body of the animal could have been 90 degrees off from it’s normal orientation. That would give the impression of a horizontal tail on an animal that actually has a vertical tail. This would also make the supposed dorsal fin they saw merely one of the side fins.

If investigating this, I would not throw out the eyewitness testimony nor question the eyewitness’ credibility. However, I would question the facts leading up to the sighting and consider possibilities of what the eyewitness was actually seeing.

I have been fishing all over the world. I have seen some strange things and some ordinary things that looked strange at the time. I once saw a pinniped in the Chesapeake Bay surface near our fishing boat in the fall of the year. Seals are not commonly seen in that part of the Chesapeake Bay or rarely seen in any part of the Chesapeake, but it does happen occassionally. And I was lucky enough to witness such an appearance. So that was a strange sighting.

I have also been fishing in tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay, the same watershed and have seen ordinary things. I have seen rays mating doing spectacular dances near the water’s surface. Novice fisherman on board our boat were spooked out of their minds when they saw the ray’s fins take on a shark-like appearance when the ray went 90 degrees to it’s normal orientation. I immediately knew it was a ray’s fin, but the novice fisherman, even though they knew what a ray was, because of it’s unusual orientation, could only think of some types of shark. The ordinary looked strange and like a new type of creature to them.

That is the way it is. Of course my examples were withing 15 feet of the boat and still, misidentification could have been possible. But looking at something through binoculars from hundreds of feet away without filters and stabilization, well that is another story! Add in the laws of optical physics such as reflection and refraction of light from a great distance, and that compounds the problem. For me, it is a sighting of something. But since things are not always as they appear, even common fauna, may look like some kind of beast, even to someone who has familiarity with said subject. The fisherman on my boat knew what a ray is and have even caught them on occassion. But they had never seen the air dances and water ballet of these creatures during mating season. They had always seen the rays swimming along in horizontal fashion. When you move them 90 degrees to their normal orientation, they look much different, even strange, an unidentified creature some would say. Imagine what a novice with no fishing experience would assume these rays were.

It is a good eyewitness account. We don’t know the experience level of the eyewitness when it comes to creatures that may inhabit the water there. We do know of some of the limitations of this sighting based on optical physics. Throw in a disoriented known animal and the sighting needs to be analyzed a bit more for me. Too many variables and unanswered questions to say it was nothing more than a known type of fish, probably a sturgeon or perhaps catfish.

That’s my two cents! But I see nothing to get too excited about here.

Just a thought.