Lake Merritt Monster?

IS THERE A MONSTER IN LAKE MERRITT? SCIENTIST SAYS YES!

Few know what lurks the depths of the murky, brackish, crustacean-filled Lake Merritt. Few know what beastly beast, what cryptid, what leviathan, what man-eating monster could be swimming below, slithering through those fetid waters. Few know ... but many have seen."It's black, it's big, it has spikes on its head and its tongue sticks out," says Dr. Richard Bailey, local expert on the rumored Lake Merritt monster and executive director of the Lake Merritt Institute, a non-profit dedicated to cleaning the lake. "It's got typical round monster humps."According to Dr. Bailey, who has a masters degree in zoology and a doctorate in natural resources, sightings of this Lake Merritt monster, which he fondly refers to as the "Oak-ness monster," have become more frequent in the past five years. Dr. Bailey believes the creature prefers clean lakes, so perhaps it is no coincidence that he says these appearances coincide with massive lake clean-ups that make it easier for lake-goers to spot monster-like objects in the water. "There were reports of him years ago," he says. "The water quality got bad for awhile, and then it got better."

Read the rest of the story by Dara Kerr and see pics: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/inoakland/detail?entry_id=91579#ixzz1Q5JkRUI8