sea monster sightings Novia Scotia.

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NORTHWEST COVE — Bloodshot eyes as big as saucers, a body coated in mossy hair, spinal protrusions along undulating bodies covered in scales 15 centimetres long. These are just some characteristics of the "denizens of the deep" spotted off the coast of Nova Scotia as recently as a few years ago.Sea captains have seen them. Military men have seen them. And Andrew Hebda, curator of zoology with the Nova Scotia Museum, says there’s definitely something to these sightings of monsters and sea serpents.The question is what?Granted, he said, there’s no doubt some creatures were likely seen through the bottom of a rum bottle, "but the point is, they saw something."

In 2003, Wallace Cartwright was in his lobster boat off Alder Point, Cape Breton, when he saw a sea serpent about eight metres long. It was the diameter of an oil drum and he followed it until it dove down deep and disappeared.Two hundred years earlier, a woman by the name of Mrs. W. Lee saw a 30-metre sea monster off the coast of Cape Breton. "Its back was dark green and it stood in the water in flexuous hillocks and went through it with infectious noise," says one account of her sighting.Pretty enthralling stuff for Mr. Hebda, who is writing a book on these mysterious creatures of the deep.In 1833, five fellows were out fishing off Mahone Bay when they reported seeing a monster some 180 metres from their boat. They provided good detail despite the rum they had drunk.It was about 31 metres long. "We saw the head and neck of some denizen of the deep, precisely like those of a common snake, in the act of swimming, the head so far elevated and thrown forward by the curve of the neck as to enable to see the water under and beyond it."There have been pockets of such sightings around the province, many of them quite similar despite the decades, if not centuries, that pass between them. And they tend to be in warmer waters, shipping channels and fishing grounds.Many of them have been off the South Shore, as well as the Pictou area and Cape Breton. Mr. Hebda is writing a book about sea monster sightings and has been inspired by the detailed accounts he’s collected.

The most recent was in 1975, Keith Ross was in his boat off Cape Sable Island with his son Rodney when a sight suddenly rose before them. "It had eyes as big around as saucers and bright red-looking. I mean, you could see the red in its eyes like they were bloodshot. It had its mouth wide open and there were two big tusks — I call them tusks — that hung down from its upper jaw."Mr. Ross roared his boat away from the grey, snake-like body as it passed astern..

.The fishermen’s world revolves around things they see every day. Mr. Hebda said when they see something unusual, they want to know what it is. For instance, Mr. Cartwright may well have seen an oarfish, also known as the king of the herring, when he was working off Cape Breton six years ago. "Do we know everything that’s out there? No, no we don’t. Have we seen everything that’s out there? No, now we haven’t," but Mr. Hebda suspects there’s an explanation for pretty much every case .

A book to look forward to I think.