Cadborosaurus

Quality 0.50 · 0 views · Updated 2 months ago

Sea monster named for Cadboro Bay in Canada

title: "Cadborosaurus" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["canadian-folklore", "coast-of-british-columbia", "culture-of-british-columbia", "canadian-legendary-creatures", "aquatic-cryptids", "globsters", "sea-serpents", "reptilian-cryptids"] description: "Sea monster named for Cadboro Bay in Canada" topic_path: "geography/canada" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadborosaurus" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Sea monster named for Cadboro Bay in Canada ::

Cadborosaurus, nicknamed Caddy by journalist Archie Wills, is a sea serpent in the folklore of regions of the Pacific Coast of North America. Its name is derived from Cadboro Bay in Greater Victoria, British Columbia, and the Greek root word "saurus" meaning lizard or reptile.

Description

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Cadborosaurus.jpg" caption="Side view of the Naden Harbour carcass"] ::

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 forward propulsion.

Dr. Paul LeBlond, director of Earth and Ocean Sciences at UBC, and Dr. Edward Blousfield, retired chief zoologist of the Canadian Museum of Nature, state every elongated animal has been put forward as an explanation for Caddy.

Creatures identified as ''Cadborosaurus''

Sea lion

In 1943, two police officers, Inspector Robert Owens, and Staff Sergeant 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."{{citation | title = Vancouver Province Newspaper. Page 1. | date = 9 March 1943}}

Giant oarfish

Some suggestions have been made 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. "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.

Basking shark

The carcass of a decomposing basking shark is often mistaken for Caddy and has fooled experts and laymen. A rotting basking shark may also resemble a decomposing plesiosaur.{{citation | author = Heuvelmans B. | title = In the wake of the sea-serpents. Hill & Wang, New York. | year = 1968}}

First Nations accounts

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 from 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 Sidney Inlet, t'chain-ko in Sechelt mythology, and numkse lee kwala by the K'ómoks band of Vancouver Island.

Sightings

There have been more than 300 claimed sightings during the past 200 years, including Deep Cove in Saanich Inlet, and Island View Beach, both of which are also on the Saanich Peninsula, and at San Francisco Bay, California.

Kelly Nash video

In 2009, fisherman Kelly Nash purportedly filmed several minutes of footage featuring ten to fifteen (including young) creatures in Nushagak 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.

Carcasses associated with ''Cadborosaurus''

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Effingham_carcass.JPG" caption="The Effingham Carcass, Vancouver Island, 1947; supposed remains of 'Caddy'"] ::

1930: On 10 November at Glacier Island near Valdez a skeleton was found in ice. The skeleton was 24 ft long with flippers. Some of the remains were preserved in Cordova for scientific study. The creature is thought to be a whale.{{citation | title = Daily Alaska Empire | date = 28 November 1930}}
1934: In November on Henry Island near Prince Rupert, badly decomposed remains about 30 ft long were found. Dr. Neal Carter examined the remains. The creature was identified as a basking shark.{{citation | title = Vancouver Province Newspaper. | date = 23 November 1934}}
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.{{citation | title = Vancouver Province Newspaper | date = 23 November 1937}}{{citation | title = Vancouver Province Newspaper | date = 16 October 1937}}
1941: A carcass called "Sarah the sea hag" was found on Kitsilano Beach. W.A. Clemens and Ian McTaggart-Cowan identified it as a shark.{{citation | title = Vancouver Province Newspaper | date = 5 March 1941}}
1947: In December at Vernon Bay, Barkley Sound, Vancouver Island a 45 ft creature was found. It was identified as a shark.{{citation | title = Seattle post Intelligencer | date = 7 December 1947}}
1950: In Delake, Oregon a creature was found with 4 tails and thick hair. It was identified as a whale shark.{{citation | title = Victoria Daily Times | date = 7 March 1950}}
1956: Somewhere near Dry Harbour south of Yakutat, Alaska a 100 ft long carcass was found with 2 in 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.{{citation | title = Life Magazine. | date = 8 June 1956}}
1962: In April near Ucluelet a 14 ft long carcass was found with elephant like head. The carcass was dragged ashore by Simon Peter and later thought to be an elephant seal.{{citation | title = Vancouver Sun. | date = 14 April 1962}}
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.{{citation | title = Whidbey News Times | date = 3 October 1963}}

Purported live capture

1968: In August, W. Hagelund claims to have caught a baby Caddy near De Courcy Island only to return it to the water.{{citation | author = Hagelund, W. | title = Whalers no more. Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, BC. | year = 1987}}
1991: In July, on Johns Island (San Juan Islands), Phyllis Harsh claims to have caught a small, 2 ft baby Caddy and returned it to the water.

References

Bousfield, E. L., & P. H. LeBlond (1995). "An account of Cadborosaurus willsi, new genus, new species, a large aquatic reptile from the Pacific coast of North America". Amphipacifica Vol 1 Suppl. 1: pp. 1–25, 19 figs.
Jupp, Ursula. (1988, reprinted 1993). Cadboro: A Ship, A Bay, A Sea-Monster. Jay Editions.

References

Bousfield, Edward L. & Leblond Paul H. (2000). ''Cadborosaurus: Survivor from the Deep''. Heritage House Publishing.
Naish, Darren. (16 April 2012). "The Cadborosaurus Wars".
3 December 2010. By Tony Barboza, Los Angeles Times
Viegas, Jennifer. "Loch Ness Monster-like Animal filmed in Alaska?". Discovery News.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::