Comments on: In Search Of Moby Dick

By: RhinoNQ

RhinoNQ — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:56:09 +0000

I’ve seen Migaloo off Stradbroke Island here in QLD, beautiful sight. Back to topic, blatant unprovoked voilence isn’t something you would expect from a whale. A whale could very well sink a decent size boat by accident but it sounds like a load of bollocks having an animal that feeds off a near microscopic creature to suddenly become blood thirsty.

By: MattBille

MattBille — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:16:52 +0000

Only a few newspaper clippings exist to vouch for Trunko. I don’t think we need to spend much time pondering the link with this nonsensical animal. (I mean, what was it supposed to have done with that trunk? Vacuum up clams?).
That said, there are plenty of mysteries to explore about whales. I have a special interest in cryptocetology. In my book Shadows of Existence, I (with invaluable help from Darren Naish) presented the most important cases about hybrids, unexplained sightings, taxonomic questions (especially about the orca, which may be several species), and new discoveries. I hope other crypto researchers will help me stay abreast of this topic.
A footnote was that, in preparing Shadows, I called or wrote to the top field people in cetology, such as Robin Baird and Robert Pitman, and authors like Richard Ellis and Mark Cardawine. Without exception, they all offered their thoughts to this little-known science writer. If you show you’ve read their work and ask intelligent questions, leading scientists will share.

By: Andrew D. Gable

Andrew D. Gable — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:54:56 +0000

While I understand the criticism of some of the more recent MQ “feral” episodes, like the pythons, dogs, and chimpanzees, these are undoubtedly (IMHO) still relevant to cryptozoology. I mean, feral chimps would pretty definitely have relevance to Bigfoot stories. Colonies of feral dogs in the Midwest clearly have relevance to the recent spate of doglike cryptids from there, IMHO.

The whales, for instance, could also be a way to show that even though something has an exotic and bizarre appearance, it’s not necessarily a new species.

By: darkshines

darkshines — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:24:29 +0000

I’d be interested in seeing a link between this and the Trunko story. Could Trunko have been a white whale that the other regular coloured whales were attacking?

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:28:23 +0000

I have no doubt that white whales have captured the imagination throughout the ages, and in the case of Melville, inspired works of fiction. They are rare enough that seeing one is a special event indeed, and hardly a mundane sighting.

It’s the agressiveness aimed at humans that I think has been embellished and exaggerated a bit. I think that real sightings of white whales certainly did, and obviously do occur, and undoubtedly had an effect on those who saw them. However, I have never heard of a confirmed report of a sperm whale attacking a human unprovoked, much less a whole ship. I could be wrong on that, but certainly if it happens at all, it is an exceedingly rare occurrence.

I think white whales could have spawned a variety of myths and folklore surrounding them, such as attacking ships and dragging sailors to their doom, but I tend to doubt that this is what actually happened. More likely it was tall tales that sprung from seeing these magnificent beasts.

FunkyBunky- I think that MonsterQuest is trying to expand into a broader range of cryptozoological themes in order to explore possibilities and more importantly keep viewer interest by mixing things up. MQ is very important in helping to raise awareness of cryptozoology and pioneer new methods for tracking cryptids that other cryptozoologists might decide to use, but in the end this is a TV show, and ratings are the ultimate goal.

Although many in this field would find it interesting, I don’t think the average viewer would be particularly interested in seeing a whole season devoted to slogging through the forest looking for Bigfoot. It would simply not make for compelling viewing. What MQ is trying to do, I think, is to give the general audience a wide sampling of digestable chunks of cryptozoology.

By: Chrissy J

Chrissy J — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:55:56 +0000

Migaloo the albino humpback has been travelling the east coast of Australia for years now. He is estimated to be in his 20′s. Recent articles in our local news have the sad news that he may have a tumour on his head. I personally have not seen him but have watched with great interest the news stories when he appears almost every year. Migaloo is something many of us here in Eastern Australia have grown up with. It will be a very sad day when we no longer see him travelling up the coast to Queensland.

By: cryptidsrus

cryptidsrus — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:05:33 +0000

I basically liked the MQ episode.

I have no doubt believing this could happen in real life and that it DOES.

Hey Lee Murphy—I gotta get me that book!!! Thanks for the heads-up!!!

By: FunkyBunky

FunkyBunky — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:01:22 +0000

Monsterquest is really stretching for stories now. Cats, monkeys, whales. No great unknowns. Summertime TV viewing is getting worse each year. I would rather them spend an entire year’s costs on going to one site and staying for a month and searching for something, anything.

By: MattBille

MattBille — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:13:03 +0000

Melville married two real-life inspirations, the tales of a white sperm whale named Mocha Dick who whalers in the Pacific told him was known for a bad temper (well, they had been sticking harpoons in him) and the wreck of the whaleship Essex, which had indeed been rammed and sunk by a very large sperm whale. (The gripping nonfiction book to read is titled “In the Heart of the Sea.” )

It’s no wonder the story has inspired silent films, the Gregory Peck film from the 1950s, and the Patrick Stewart TV production which was superbly acted but inexplicably (given it clearly had a substantial budget) marred by the repeated reuse of the same rubber whale tail and a second-rate CGI whale.

My favorite line from the book is Ismael talking about the remote island of Queeqeg’s birth. “It is not down in any map: true places never are.”

By: praetorian

praetorian — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:48:55 +0000

Not a bad episode, but I wonder sometimes if “MonsterQuest” should spend less time on looking at the strange behavior of known animals and more on the real unknowns. Then again, it is called “MonsterQuest” and not “CryptoQuest”.

Sending a production crew to a remote location for a few days is expensive. The problem is that a few days rarely seem to be enough time to come up with anything good. Maybe staking out a location continuously for several weeks would yield better results. They’ve done it passively with camera traps before and not had much luck, but those only cover a very small target area. Actively placing searchers in the field for two weeks or a month could be more rewarding.