Sea Monster of the coast of British Columbia,
Canada.
Etymology: Name popularized if not coined
A reported carcass.
October 11, 1933, by Victoria (B.C.) Daily Times
editor Archie H. Wills after repeated sightings in
Cadboro Bay, British Columbia. Short form of
Cadborosaurus, coined at the same time.
Variant names: Amy, Cadborosaurus, Edizgigant
eus (after Ediz Hook Light , Washington),
Haietluk, Klamahsosaurus (on Texada Island),
Penda (after Pender Island).
Scientific name: Cadborosaurus willsi, proposed
by Edward L. Bousfield and Paul H.
LeBlond in 1995.
Physical description: Serpentine body that
forms many humps or loops. Length, 16–100
feet . Diameter, 2 feet 6 inches–8 feet. Light
brown to black. Small head resembles a sheep,
horse, giraffe, or camel. Eyes in the front of the
head. Small ears or horns. Pointed tongue. Two
rows of fishlike teeth. Mane or fur sometimes repor
ted. Neck is 3–12 feet long, about as thick as
an arm. One pair of front flippers. Back somet
imes appears serrated, sometimes smooth. Flat
tail is fluked or formed from fused back flippers.
Behavior: Does not appear to undulate when
it swims. Fast swimming speed, clocked at 40
knots. Breathes in short pants. Makes whalelike
grunts and hisses. Feeds on herring, salmon, and
ducks.
Distribution: British Columbia seacoast, especially
around Cadboro Bay and the Strait of
Georgia.
Significant sightings: A crew member of the
ship Columbia under American fur trader Capt.
Rober t Gray was the first to report a Caddy
sighting in 1791.
Osmond Fer gusson watched a 25-foot animal
with a long neck near the Queen Charlotte Islands,
British Columbia, on June 26, 1897.
In September 1905 or 1906, Philip H. Welch
saw a brown animal with a 6- to 8-foot neck
from a distance of 100 yards away in Johnstone
St rait . It had two bumps on its head that were 5
inches high and rounded on top.
F. W. Kemp and his wife and son watched an
80-foot maned animal while they were sitting
on the Chatham Island beach, British Columbia,
on August 10, 1932.
On September 23, 1933, Dorothea Hooper
and a neighbor observed a serpentine animal
with a serrated back cavorting in Cadboro Bay
about 400 yards distant . It created a commotion
in the water as it swam out to sea.
Maj. W. H. Langley and his wife were sailing
in Haro St rait on October 1, 1933, when they
heard a loud grunt off Chatham Island. They
saw the back of a huge, dark-green creature with
serrated markings on the top and sides.
Charles F. Eagles sketched a 60-foot animal
that he saw in Oak Bay on October 14,1933. It
had crocodile-like spines on its neck.
On December 3, 1933, Justice of the Peace
G. F. Parkyn of Bedwell Harbour was one of
twelve people watching from Pender Island as
an animal with a large, horselike head and neck
gulped down a duck that had just been shot by
Cyril Andrews.
In 1936, E.J. Stephenson and his wife and
son watched a yellow-and-bluish, 90-foot -long,
3-foot -thick animal crawling over a reef into a
lagoon on Saturna Island.
A 10- to 12-foot carcass of apparently a
young Caddy was removed from the stomach of
a sperm whale, photographed, and displayed for
a while at Naden Harbour whaling station in
1937. The photo shows it st re ched out on
packing cases. It was about 10 feet long, with a
camel-like head, t races of flippers, and a paddling
tail. The carcass was allegedly shipped off
to the Field Museum in Chicago, but there is no
record of its arrival.
A Canadian naval officer was fishing in an
open boat off Esquimalt Harbour in November
1950 when a 30-foot Caddy appeared and creat
ed a heavy wash. It swam with an undulating
motion using large flippers on either side. It
snapped its teeth together once before it dived
after twenty-five seconds.
On February 12, 1953, R. D. Cockburn, C.
P. Crawford, and Ron Loach saw an animal
with three humps off Qualicum Beach for five
minutes. Two other men got into a boat and
rowed within 20 feet, but it submerged and
reappeared 100 yards away. Its head was dogshaped
and had two horns.
In late November 1959, David Miller and Alfr
ed Webb came within 30 feet of an animal
with a 10-foot neck sticking straight up out of
the water off Discovery Island. It had coarse
brown fur, red eyes, and small ears.
A 16-inch-long juvenile Caddy was caught in
a net by William Hagelund in 1968 off De
Courcy Island, but it was thrown back. It had
spiny teeth, a saw-toothed ridge of plates along
its backbone, and a bilobate tail. A soft, yellow
fuzz covered it s under sides.
Mechanical engineer Jim M. Thompson was
fishing off Spanish Banks, Vancouver, in Januar
y 1984 when an 18- to 22-foot serpentine animal
surfaced about 100 feet away. It had a gir
affelike head with small stubby horns and
floppy ears.
In May 1992, music professor John Celona
saw a multi-humped animal about 25 feet long
while sailing.
Students Damian Grant and Ryan Green
were swimming across Telegraph Bay in May
1994 when they saw a 20-foot animal with two
humps.
Possible explanations:
(1) The Northern sea lion (Eumetopias
jubatus) can appear serpentine in the water
but only grows t o about 10 feet 6 inches
long.
(2) The Northern elephant seal (Mirounga
angustirostris) is found in British Columbian
waters in the nonbreeding season, but it
only measures up to 16 feet long and does
not have an elongated neck.
(3) A surviving basilosaurid type of archaic
whale, suggested by Roy Mackal and Karl
Shuker. Some basilosaurids were serpentine,
grew up to 80 feet long, and lived in the
Late Eocene, about 42 million years ago.
They had a tail fluke, but it ’s unknown
whether it was used p imarily for propulsion
or steering. They are mainly known from
the eastern United States and Egypt but
may have been worldwide in distribution.
(4) An evolved plesiosaur, suggested by
Edward Bousfield and Paul LeBlond. This
group of long-necked marine reptiles swam
with paddlelike limbs and had a body
length that varied from 6 to 46 feet.
Plesiosaur fossils are found continuously
from the Middle Triassic, 238 million years
ago, to the Late Cretaceous, 65 million
years ago.
(5) A decaying Basking shark (Cetorhinus
maximus) might account for the 1937
Naden Harbour carcass. These sharks take
on a remarkably plesiosaur -like appearance
due to t he differential decomposition rates
of their gill slits and lower tail fluke. A 30-
foot carcass found in November 1934 by
Hugo Sandstrom on Henry Island turned
out to be a Basking shark.
(6) Some kind of decapod (crayfish or
lobster) has been suggested by Aaron Bauer
and Anthony Russell as an explanation for
Hagelund’s juvenile Caddy capture in 1968.
Cadborosaurus Willsi (Caddy)
Name: Cadborosaurus gets its name from Cadboro Bay in Victoria, British Columbia and the Greek root word "sauros" meaning lizard or reptile. I have also seen other names used these include Caddy, Pal-Rai-Yuk, Klematosaurus, Sarah the Sea Hag, Saya-Ustih, Hiyitlik, Tzarta-saurus, Sisiutl, Penda, Amy, Kaegyhil-Depgu'esk (try saying THAT three times fast) and Say Noth-Kai.
Description: Caddy falls under the category of sea serpent or sea monster, with features and habits similar to the Loch Ness Monster, and Ogopogo (from Okangagan Lake, British Columbia) Most eye witnesses say that it has a long body between 5-15 meters (16-49 feet) in length, humps, and a neck between one and four meters (3-12 feet) long. It's head has been compared to those of a camel, horse, and giraffe. I've heard it suggested that Caddy is not one creature but, that there are several different sub-species, although, I wonder about that opinion because as with most cryptids reports vary widely. People see different angles of the same thing and have different ways of explaining what they see. If however, there were two distinct types of descriptions being given then you can begin to consider multiple creatures. I have not (so far in my research) found this to be the case. These animals could look very different throughout the stages of their development, and male and female would most likely have differences in sizes and features (like with chickens and roosters)
Territory: It's territory is the Pacific Ocean with sightings centering in the Northern Part of the U.S and Southern Canada. But, it has been seen as far north as Alaska and as far south as San Francisco Bay. Sightings have been taking place for over 1,000 years, and "he" has been sighted over 300 times over the last 200 years. Caddy sightings are most apparent from October to April.
Diet: Caddy has been spotted hunting schools of fish along with eating waterfowl (swallowing them whole) other than that I haven't been able to find very much about "his" eating habits.Sightings: One of the most interesting sightings (and capture) I've found was in 1937 when a wailing ship (the Naden Harbour whaling station in the Queen Charlotte Islands) found a strange animal in the stomach of a sperm whale. The creature was around 10 feet long with a camel-like head and oddly shaped fins.
Excerpt taken from http://www.bcscc.ca/cadborosaurus.htm (they have pretty detailed information on Cadborosaurus, I recommend taking a look at it for further reading on Caddy) " The station manager, F. S. Huband, and G. V. Boorman, the acting medical officer, took photographs taken of the animal and despatched tissue samples taken from the remains to the Fisheries station in Nanaimo and to the Provincial Museum in Victoria for analysis. Tragically, the tissue samples sent to Nanaimo vanished and the samples sent to Victoria were wrongly identified by curator Francis Kermode as belonging to a fetal baleen whale and no one knows what happened to them after Kermode examined them. So the only tangible proof of the existence of heretofore previously legendary animals was lost forever. However two sets of the photographs were discovered by Captain William Hagelund, who published a selection in his book "Whalers No More", and also by Paul LeBlond who included them in his book "Cadborosaurus: Survivor of the Deep". The samples and photographs which were sent to the Provincial Museum in Victoria and erroneously identified by Kermode bothered a living witness to the Naden Harbour creature still alive today. James Wakelen, has told the BCSCC that there is no way that the creature he and other removed from the flensed whale was a fetal baleen whale. He is adamant to this day that what he saw was an unknown creature the likes of which he has not seen before of since in any book or film." "
A second excerpt taken from the website afore mentioned
"Phyllis Harsh, a resident of John's Island in the San Juan Islands of Washington state, helped return a stranded baby "dinosaur" specimen to the water in the summer of 1991. The baby had become beached and using a tree branch, Mrs Harsh lifted the animal back into the sea where it was able to make its way back into deeper water. Mrs Harsh has also stated for the record that she found what appeared to be a "dinosaur" skeleton beneath an eagle's nest also on John's Island as well as having seen a full-size Caddy specimen in John's Island Passage in 1990.
In 1998, fishermen aboard a fishing vessel at anchor in Ganges Harbour, Saltspring Island, British Columbia came across a strange catch in their catch of the day. For fearing of contaminating the rest of the catch, the men quickly dispatched the creature over the side. However, the mystery animal simply would not leave the minds of the two fishermen and they made it their quest to find out just exactly what it was they had seen and discarded. They consulted volumes on the various types of marine creatures which inhabit British Columbia coastal waters, but none of the books depicted any animal remotely like the one they had seen. It was only when they discovered Capt. Hagelund’s drawing of the juvenile Cadborosaurus he had snagged in 1967, and also after they had seen photos of the Naden Harbour carcass of 1937 that they realized that a Cadborosaurus had actually been in their possession. "
Taken from Space Review, August/September 1963.
“I saw strangest sight” Is Cadborosaurus, the often seen but never photographed sea serpent, back in Southern Vancouver Island water after a prolonged absence? Alleged Cadborosaurus carcass, photographed in October, 1937
Alleged Cadborosaurus carcass, photographed in October, 1937
Mrs. R. A. Stewart believes so. She is sure she saw ‘Caddy’ or one of his cousins last Sunday afternoon (1st February 1963), near Gabriola Island. Mrs Stwart in entering the ‘I believe in Caddy’ contest organised by Times Columnist Monte Roberts, writes in part : “I have been reading a lot about Caddy and this i sthe first time I ever thought there could be any truth in such an animal.
“Sunday after my husband, children and I went up to Gabriola Island to explore the beach and do some fishing. We went out fishing in a small rowboat on the Gulf side, off my parents’ waterfront cottage.
Mrs. Stewart who has boated in the area for 15 years is convinced that what she saw was not kelp, porpoise, blackfish, sea lion or any other ‘normal’ marine phenomena.
“I only wish some responsible persons would go over to Gabriola Island and row a few yards offshore on the Gulf side towards Loche Bay and see if they too, don’t see what we saw.”
Off the British Colombian coast of Cadboro Bay lives a monster, affectionately named Caddy or Cadborosaurus Willsi. It is described as a long, serpent like beast with flippers, hair on the neck, and a camel like head. It could be anywhere from 40 to 70 feet long in length. The monster has been seen less than 100 times in the last 60 years, but the sightings remain consistent and precise unlike sightings of the Loch Ness monster and Ogopogo in which sightings vary due to misidentification. Ogopogo has been described as having "a dark brownish-gray skin like texture" to "bluish-green-gray" scales. Yet all the sightings of Caddy remain consistent, usually because it was visible long enough to get an accurate description.
The first reported sighting of Caddy was in 1933 by a Victoria lawyer and his wife on a cruise in their yatch. They described a "horrible serpent with the head of a camel." This is generally what every sighting of the beast is like. The creature showed itself again in 1934 when two members of the Provincial Government reported seeing the creature, the same description as the first. Later that same year two fishermen saw TWO monsters in the bay, one about 60 feet long, the other half that size. A rather interesting sighting was made by two hunters as they tried to recover their wounded duck. The monster rose out of the water, swallowed the duck, snapped at some gulls then submerged. They noted the six-foot long head with saw-like teeth.
It was in 1937 that a photograph of Caddy was obtained. A whaling station in Vancouver just caught and killed a sperm whale in October of 1937. While removing the stomach contents at the Naden Harbor whaling station they came across a twenty-foot long carcass of an unidentified creature [Editor - the curator of the Provincial Museum in Victoria, Francis Kermode, concluded it was a fetal baleen whale, though that is disputed.]. It had the head of a horse, a snake-like body and a finned, spiny tail. A photograph was taken, but no one knows exactly what happened to its remains. No scientist can properly identify the creature in the photograph. It seems to have mammalian and reptilian traits, but which it is, no one is sure of. It is suggested that the creature is a Zeuglodon, but that explanation isn't 100% satisfactory seeing that it is much slimmer and the head is shaped improperly.
Perhaps the closest sighting of Caddy was taken in 1939 by Captain Paul Sowerby.
"We were headin' North, and, about thirty miles offshore, and saw this thing standing about four feet out of the water. So, I headed over towards it and took a look at it. At first, I thought it looked like a polar bear with its ruffles of hair. When we got right up alongside of it-and the water was crystal clear-there was just this column of this thing going at least forty feet and huge eyes. I had an old Newfoundlander as a mate and he said 'Do you see eyes on him?' Mouth and nose I have no recollection of at all, just those great big eyes. And the eyes seemed to open from top to bottom."The sightings did not stop in the 30's, it continued into the 50's when ten people saw him on February 13, 1953. All of them watched it from different points of view and not one of the descriptions contradicted each other. The sightings continued into the 80's, but the sightings slimmed down considerably. Perhaps the creature had moved on, looking for warmer waters more plentiful with fish. They could also have died; perhaps the young were eaten by whales that frequent the coast. The real question is not where they have gone, but what they are.
The descriptions place Caddy as some sort of a mammal, long, slender, and with a bifurcated tail. This suggests that it is a Zeuglodon, an ancient whale thought to be extinct. The only problem is that the head of the creature is described as a camels or a horses, while a Zeuglodon, or Basilosaurus, head is more like that of a snakes. The monster of Lake Okanagon, known as Ogopogo, is believed to be a Zeuglodon, but the sightings are different of that of Caddy. It never raises its neck, nor does it have hair, nor is the head camel-like, it is more like that of a snake. My belief is that Caddy is a relative of the Zeuglodon, longer but slimmer. If we only had the body that was found we would have a good idea of what it was, but until another one shows up we will always have an unknown creature on our hands.
"Cadborosaurus willsi", nicknamed Caddy, is an alleged sea serpent reported to be living on the Pacific Coast of North America. Its name is derived from Cadboro Bay inGreater Victoria, British Columbia, and the Greek root word "saurus" meaning lizardor reptile. Reports describe it as being similar in form and behavior to various popularly named lake monsters such as "Ogopogo" of Okanagan Lake in British Columbia and to the Loch Ness Monster of Scotland.
Cadborosaurus willsi is said by witnesses to resemble a serpent with vertical coils or humps in tandem behind the horse-like head and long neck, with a pair of small elevating front flippers, and either a pair of hind flippers, or a pair of large webbed hind flippers fused to form a large fan-like tail region that provides powerful forward propulsion.[1]
Dr. LeBlond director of Earth and Ocean Sciences at UBC and Dr. Blousfield retired chief Zoologist of the Canadian Museum of Nature state every elongated animal has been put forward as an explanation for Caddy.[1] These animals include Conger eels, humpback whales, elephant seals, ribbon or oar fish, basking sharks and sea lions. LeBlond and Blousfield state no known creature matches the characteristics found in over 200 sightings collected over a century noting Caddy is described as having flippers both anterior and posterior.[1]
Sea lion[]
In 1943 two police officers, Inspector Robert Owens and Staff Sergent Jack Russell saw a “huge sea serpent with a horse like head” in Georgia Strait. Later “with a pair of binoculars Sgt. Russell saw that the strange apparition was a huge bull sea lion leading a herd of six sea lions…Their undulations as they swam appeared to form a continuous body, with parts showing at intervals as they surfaced and dived. To the naked eye, the sight perfectly impersonated a sea monster.” [2]
Giant oarfish[]
There have been suggestions that Caddy could be an example of the king of herrings or giant oarfish (Regalecus glesne). This species can reach 17 m in length and weigh up to 300 kg; some think the red mane on the head and back of the giant oarfish resembles a horse head with mane. A modern illustration by David John, "based on LeBlond/Bousfield composite and eyewitness accounts" shows Caddy with a red mane.[3]
"They're long and silvery and they undulate like a serpent would as they swim through the water," said H.J. Walker, a senior museum scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which has several oarfish in its collection.[4]
Basking shark[]
The carcass of a decomposing basking shark is often mistaken for Caddy and has fooled experts and laymen.[1] A rotting basking shark may resemble a decomposing plesiosaur.[5] The Plesiosaur shape is mistaken for Caddy.
Pipefish[]
Darren Naish and colleagues have proposed that the baby "Cadborosaurus" captured in 1968 by William Hagelund was really a pipefish.[6][7]
A native image that fits Caddy's description has been traditionally used throughout Alaska. The image indicates that Caddy or a Caddy-like creature moves north to Vancouver when the waters warm. The Inuit of Alaska have even put the picture on their canoes to keep the creature away. The Cadborosaurus is called "hiyitl'iik" by the Manhousat people who live on Sydney Inlet, "T'chain-ko" in Sechelt mythology, and "Numkse lee Kwala" by the Comox band of Vancouver Island.[1]
There have been more than 300 claimed sightings during the past 200 years, including Deep Cove in Saanich Inlet, and Island View Beach, both like Cadboro Bay also on the Saanich Peninsula, also British Columbia, and also at San Francisco Bay, California.[1]
Kelly Nash video[]
In 2009, fisherman Kelly Nash purportedly filmed several minutes of footage featuring ten to fifteen (including young) creatures inNushagak Bay. In 2011, a very short segment of the footage was shown on the Discovery TV show Hilstranded, where the Hilstrand brothers (from Deadliest Catch) apparently saw Nash's footage and unsuccessfully attempted to find one of the creatures.[8]
- 1930: On November 10 at Glacier Island near Valdez a skeleton was found in ice. The skeleton was 24 feet long with flippers. Some of the remains were preserved in Cordova for scientific study. Creature thought to be a whale but undetermined.[9]
- 1934: In November on Henry Island near Prince Rupert, badly decomposed remains about 30 feet long found. Dr. Neal Carter examined the remains. Creature identified as basking shark.[10]
- 1937: In October a purported Cadborosaurus carcass was retrieved from the stomach of a sperm whale in Naden Harbour and photographed. A sample of this carcass was sent to the BC Provincial Museum, where it was tentatively identified as a fetal baleen whale by museum director Francis Kermode.[11][12]
- 1941: A carcass called “Sarah the sea hag” was found on Kitsilano Beach. W.A. Clemens and I. McTaggert-Cowan identified it as a shark.[13]
- 1947: In December at Vernon Bay, Barkley Sound, Vancouver Island a 45 foot creature was found. It was identified as a shark.[14]
- 1950: In Delake, Oregon a creature was found with 4 tails and thick hair. It was identified as a whale shark.[15]
- 1956: Somewhere near Dry Harbour south of Yakutat, Alaska a 100 foot long carcass was found with two inch long hair. Trevor Kincaid is quoted as saying “description fits no known creature.” W.A. Clemens identified the carcass as a Baird's beaked whale.[16]
- 1962: In April near Ucluelet a 14 foot long carcass was found with elephant like head. The carcass was dragged ashore by Simon Peter and later thought to be an elephant seal.[17]
- 1963: In September near Oak Harbor, Whidbey Island a carcass was found with a head resembling a horse. A. D. Welander of Fisheries thought it was a basking shark.[18]
- 1968: In August, W. Hagelund claims to have caught a baby Caddy near De Courcy Island but released it back into the sea.[19]
- 1991: In July, on Johns Island (San Juan Islands), Phyllis Harsh claims to have caught a small 2 foot baby Caddy and returned it to the water.[1]