Saturday, March 11, 2023

Book Review: Sea Serpents with TV's "Beast Hunter"

Sea Serpents: On the Hunt in British Columbia: or, How I Went to the Bottom of the Ocean, and a Giant Fish Accidentally got me Drunk  

by Pat Spain   


I finished a very enjoyable evening with biologist/host Pat Spain's new book on sea serpents of the Northwest. Much of the book is taken up with his adventures trying to film his TV show, which are often hilarious - he has a way of getting himself into very weird spots.  He also visits a First Nations family who tells him a story I'd never heard about capturing a baby "Cadborosaurus."   

When he gets to analyzing Caddy, he does a chart based on reported characteristics, (I'm not sure how many sightings or witness interviews he included) and includes a seashore-hunting cephalopod among his likely candidates. Spain unabashedly considers a coolness factor when offering ideas.  This isn't a scientific treatise, but it's terrific fun, and it's worth noting that Spin rejects most "cryptids" but thinks there's something to find here. 

 Matt Bille is a writer, historian, and naturalist living in Colorado Springs. He can be reached at mattsciwriter@protonmail.com. Website: www.mattbilleauthor.com.

Read Matt's Latest book, Of Books and Beasts: A Cryptozoologist's Library. This unique reference offers a friendly skeptic's 400 reviews of books on cryptozoology, zoology, related sciences, and cryptozoological fiction. Your search for the world's new and undiscovered animals begins here!


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