Karadag nature reserve. What legendary monsters live in the Black Sea Black Sea monster in the Crimea
February 19 - Day of Protection of Marine Mammals.
Imagine that all animal exterminators, legal and poaching, on this day law-abidingly put down their harpoons and watch the programs of the "Wildlife" channel with their families.
(In honor of World Turtle Day, for example, some courageously refuse turtle soup.)
And I spent today at sea - I dreamed of meeting a dolphin. At least a simple gray bottlenose dolphin. And if you're lucky - the legendary Albino.
The dream did not come true, but there is a reason to talk about it.
For several years now, a miracle of the sea has appeared in the sea near Sudak - a snow-white dolphin:
Andrey Permyakov, a Sudak resident who has seen a dolphin more than once, reports:
The white dolphin is considered the leader of the pack, because he is the first to rush after fishing boats.
I worked on a boat, so I saw him often. A minesweeper walked along the Sudak Bay, dolphins followed the vessel and ate fish from the trawl. It is white-white, and sometimes, in the bright sun, it seems pink.
Unlike other dolphins of this flock, which is from 50 to 100 individuals, the Albino does not let people close to him. Others can be approached at arm's length, they are played, and the white dolphin always keeps aloof and even taking a picture of it is a great success.
Over the summer, during the tourist season, Andrei managed to meet Albino three or four times a month, despite the fact that he was at sea from eight in the morning until nine in the evening.
In the same flock there are dolphins with white spots - as if white had been smeared over their bodies. The Sudak people consider them the offspring of the Albino, although what sex he himself is unknown. But with the cubs he was never seen, which means he is a handsome man.
We believe that seeing him is for luck!
http://www.crimea.kp.ru/daily/26642.7/3661325/
Here is the video of Albino and his flock members:
Another photo by Andrey Permyakov. The "spotted" bottlenose dolphin, possibly a descendant of Albino, frolics against the background of Meganom: 
Experts with respect to the amazing white dolphin show a certain restraint, although they confirm that this is the only white dolphin in the Black Sea that they know. And even white cetaceans, if this is unusual for their species, in Russia and in the world can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
A very light-colored killer whale is observed in the Kamchatka region. It is difficult to say whether she is albino or not, because you cannot get close to her. There are videos and photos on the network with a humpback, light or white, it is observed off the coast of California. A white bottlenose dolphin is observed in the Mediterranean Sea, - lists dmitry Glazov, specialist of the Severtsov Institute of Evolution and Ecology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
http://www.crimea.kp.ru/daily/26642.7/3661325/
It is known that in the 20s of the XX century there were about 3 million dolphins in the Black Sea. However, for almost the entire last century, these animals were considered commercial. Tens of thousands of them were killed for fat and meat, protein-rich blood, from which medicines were made. Even the intestines were not thrown away, but used as a casing for sausages and sausages.
The fact that a "dolphin processing plant" functioned in Sevastopol in the 70s is shyly hushed up.
The genocide continued at a time when an official ban on killing dolphins had already been introduced.
In 1993, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine established the amount of compensation for prey and damage caused to species of animals listed in the Red Book. Each individual monk seal (which has not been seen in the Black Sea for fifteen years), azovka, bottlenose dolphin and white barrel was estimated at 200, 150, 130 and 110 minimum Ukrainian salaries, respectively.
As for the monk seal, this astronomical amount in compensation is literally like a dead poultice.
Still, a fine was instituted for causing damage to the "Karadag snake". And that such is not fiction, but reality, according to not only the creators of modern myths, but also serious scientists: Krivokhizhin, Birkun, Al. Ena.
Here is one of the videos on the topic:
And recently, my friends have photographed the remains of a monstrous unknown creature. Kostya and Polina discovered a uniform Chyudosaurus in the summer of 2016! It happened on the shore of the bay near the village of Ordzhonikidze.
This is how IT looks like:
Beak or rostrum? 
and the body of a snake ... 
Relatively recently, the creature was alive. 
What caused his death? 
Who is this?
Reminds one of the monsters in the collection of Anton Anfalov:
Konstantin presents a multi-meter monster, demonstrating it from different angles. 
Photo by Polina Eroshenko from Odnoklassniki social network. 
It is difficult to say with complete certainty whether the Taurian Caradagosaurus actually exists.
But one thing is certain: while dolphins, killer whales, narwhals, seals, walruses, sea otters, minke whales and blue whales still live in the seas, we, people, need to save them.
In addition to real attractions, southern countries are rich in myths. Fantastic creatures occupy a worthy place among other characters in legends and tales. The Karadag snake in Crimea is a worthy relative of the Loch Ness monster and Bigfoot.
The Legend of the Crimean Snake
Snakes are common characters in the "terrible" folklore of different nations. This is due to the real danger of many representatives of this group of reptiles to humans. It is surprising that the residents of those regions where there are really a lot of poisonous reptiles are treated with the greatest respect - dragons and snakes in South and Southeast Asia are considered symbols of wisdom and power.
But there are also many dangerous kites in folklore. They are the embodiment of evil (in the Bible), multi-headed lizards (Serpent-Gorynych and his relatives) demand human sacrifices and kidnap girls, giant representatives sink ships with their rings. The Karadag monster fits well into this scheme.
Finally, there is evidence of huge terrestrial reptiles in the Crimea. They are associated with the appearance of the Anastasyevsky skete in Kachi-Kalion - supposedly the saint held back the attack of the creatures. The Tatars talk about the giant monsters who once lived at - the khan had to ask the janissaries from the sultan to deal with them. There is a legend about a snake 6 m long in the vicinity, and E. Abibulaev, who lived in the Crimea before the war, even said that his father had such a specimen like a pet.
The legend of the snake is not firmly attached to - as we can see, its geography is vast. There are many stories about the Opuk mountain region.
Biological skepticism of specialists
Cryptozoologists exude confidence, but real zoologists only shrug their shoulders when it comes to the mythical snake. They point to screaming facts: none of those who watched the Karadag monster bothered to take a photo of it. The descriptions given by "eyewitnesses" vary so much that it should be assumed that the Black Sea has given shelter to not one monster, but three dozen species. So much there simply will not fit. 
In the data on the snake, its sizes vary from 3 to 30 m, it can be blackish, gray, brown, greenish, with a head similar to a hare, snake, dog, horse, and even a giraffe with horns, with or without a mane. With such an abundance of prehistoric living creatures, half-eaten dolphins should be caught in the hundreds, and they are found once every ten years. A tooth is just a remnant of a prehistoric organism still unknown to science; hundreds of such "shark teeth" are collected in layers of limestone.
Biologists also know for sure: for the existence of any species, it is necessary for it to exceed a certain minimum number indicator (for all they are different). And this is not "a pair of creatures", but much more, otherwise the species is doomed to a rapid extinction. And for this reason alone, the Karadag snake in the Crimea and the Loch Ness monster cannot exist in principle - not to notice a couple of dozen dinosaurs in busy regions for years is too much.
Screen test of the legend: real video shooting
And recently there was evidence. A certain diver with a flashlight and a video camera was examining the underwater tunnels underneath, when something long, large and scary floated straight towards him.
The Crimean peninsula is famous not only for the beauty of nature, unique historical and architectural structures, sweet wines and juicy fruits, but also for amazing riddles, the explanation of which has not yet been found. One of these secrets is the Karadag snake, a creature that lives in the waters of the Black Sea.
Monster egg weighing 12 kilograms
Another “father of history” - Herodotus - mentioned in his writings that in the depths of the Black Sea, or, as the Greeks of those times called it, Pontus of Euxine, there is a huge monster that catches up with the waves. The Karadag snake has repeatedly appeared to sailors. So, the Turks, who regularly sailed to the Crimea and Azov region, wrote reports to the Sultan about the dragon.
According to eyewitnesses, the creature had a length of about 30 m, was covered with black scales, and a ridge fluttering on its back resembling a horse's mane. Its movement was impetuous, it easily left the fastest ships behind, and the wave it created was like that that occurs during a storm. The people who inhabited the coastal zone were also familiar with the sea reptile firsthand, which was reflected in fairy tales and myths. The image of the monster was even on the coat of arms of the Bakhchisarai Khan!
In 1828, the Yevpatoriya police chief reported to higher authorities about the appearance of a huge sea snake in the district. Emperor Nicholas I, who, like Peter I, was distinguished by his curiosity, having learned about the Black Sea monster, ordered scientists to be sent to the Crimea so that they could find and capture him.
Since the evidence of the observation of the monster came mainly from the Karadag region, scientists from the expedition decided to look for it there. They did not find the monster, but they found an egg weighing 12 kg, it contained an embryo resembling a fairy dragon with a comb on its head. Nearby, the remains of a rather impressive tail were found, which was characterized by a scaly-carapace structure.
The Soviet writer saw a monster!
For several millennia, residents and guests of the peninsula claim that in one way or another they met with this incomprehensible and unknown inhabitant of sea waters. And I must say that among the eyewitnesses there were well-known and serious personalities whom there is no reason not to believe. Among them are the director of the reserve, geologists, a poet, an official of the local executive committee, and the military. It is clear that these people are educated and, most likely, are not inclined to mystification and inventions.
In 1952, the Soviet writer Vsevolod Ivanov happened to see the monster from a cliff in Serdolikovaya Bay. Perhaps it is he who owns one of the longest observations of the monster, he looked at it for about 40 minutes. According to him, the monster had impressive dimensions: "25-30 meters long, and as thick as a desk top if turned sideways." He had a snake head "in the size of the arms span" with small eyes, the upper part of the mysterious creature was dark brown.
After such a unique observation of the monster, Vsevolod Ivanov tried to find out if any of the local residents had seen this monster, and undertook a little investigation. MS Voloshina told him that in 1921 a small note flashed in the Feodosia newspaper, which reported that a "huge bastard" had appeared in the region of Mount Karadag, and a Red Army company had been sent to capture it. As far as is known, the "reptile" was not caught then, but her husband, the famous Russian poet and artist MA Voloshin, sent this clipping about the "reptile" to M. Bulgakov, and it formed the basis of the story "Fatal Eggs". Also, Vsevolod Ivanov, with the help of Voloshin, managed to learn about the fact of a meeting with a monster of one collective farmer, who stumbled upon a monster resting on the shore, collecting fin for firewood.
Real proof? You are welcome!
The Karadag snake leaves quite real traces of its existence. Several years ago, Turkish fishermen pulled out a dolphin from the sea, which was bitten in half by some monster. The dolphin's remains were urgently taken to Istanbul University, where scientists examined the find and confirmed that the marks on the dolphin are not wounds from a ship's propeller and, no doubt, were left by the teeth of a large animal. Crimean fishermen saw the same dead dolphins with huge wounds and even traces of 16 large teeth in 1990 and 1991, and one of them was even taken to the Karadag reserve.
By the way, the Crimean resident Alexander Paraskevidi has even more material evidence of the existence of the monster - his tooth. Six centimeters long, reddish-brown in color, this tooth was found on the beach, near the village of Maly Mayak, sticking out in a small piece of wood. Turkish ichthyologist Arif Harim, who examined and analyzed the tooth, is sure that it belongs to an animal unknown to science.
Shocking encounters with the Karadag snake
In May 1961, a rather shocking encounter with a monster took place in Crimea. The local fisherman MI Kondratyev, the director of the Krymskoye Primorye sanatorium A. Mozhaisky and the chief accountant of this enterprise V. Vostokov went fishing one morning by boat. They moved only three hundred meters away from the pier of the Karadag biological station in the direction of the Golden Gate, when suddenly, 60 meters away, they saw a brown spot under the water. They sent a boat towards it, and it suddenly began to move away from them.
When we managed to get closer to the "spot", it became clear that something very impressive and creepy was under the water. At 2-3 meters under the water, the head of a huge snake, about a meter in size, was quite clearly visible. The surface of the monster's head was covered with brown hairs, resembling algae in their appearance. Behind the head on the torso of the monster were horny plates. A characteristic mane swayed in the water at the top of the head and back. The monster's belly was lighter - gray in color, in contrast to the dark brown back.
When people saw the small eyes of the monster, they were literally numb with horror. Fortunately, Mikhail Kondratyev quickly managed to recover, he turned the boat around and at full speed sent it to the shore. Amazingly, the monster chased after them! Its speed was quite high, but at 100 meters from the coast, it stopped its pursuit and headed into the open sea. Seven years later, Mikhail Kondratyev again observed the Black Sea monster near the Karadag biological station under similar circumstances.
In the 80s. In the twentieth century, a resting Grigory Tabunov happened to meet a monster. Here is what he recalls: “I lived in Nikita, quickly went down to the sea, undressed and plunged into the water. He swam about two hundred meters, lay on his back, rested and was just about to swim back, when he noticed some dark spot in the waves nearby. Dolphin, probably - thought. What a dolphin is there! A huge head appeared over the water. Out of fear, I yelled as hard as I could and rushed to the shore. All this lasted a few seconds, but I remembered what I saw for the rest of my life. The monster's head was greenish, flat ... "
On August 12, 1992, an employee of the Feodosia City Council, V.M.Belsky, collided with the monster. He swam in the sea, dived until, emerging, he saw a huge snake head almost next to him ... In horror, Belsky rushed to the shore with all his might, jumped out of the water and hid among the stones. Looking out from behind the stone, he saw that where he had just bathed, the head of a monster appeared, from whose mane water was flowing. Belsky could even make out the skin and gray horny plates on the head and neck. The monster's eyes were small, and the body was dark gray with a lighter underside.
Relatively recently, our compatriot Vladimir Ternovsky even managed to ride on the back of the Black Sea monster! He was windsurfing 2-3 km from the shore, when suddenly someone from below tossed the stern of his boards. After this push, he fell into the water, however, to his amazement, he felt something solid under his feet. He was standing on something big, wide and alive, and it was moving! Fortunately, he managed to overcome his fear, jumping off the monster, he quickly made it to the shore. The monster did not pursue him.
The servants of one of the monasteries once observed two monsters at once, which, clearly acting in coordination with each other, arranged a hunt for dolphins.
Submariners also saw the Karadag monster. This happened during the submersion of "Bentos-300" - a laboratory working at depth. Having reached a submersion level of 100 meters, the hydronaut saw an indistinct shadow on the right side of the ship. A giant snake swam up to the porthole, wriggling slowly, as if studying people with its small eyes. However, as soon as the scientists decided to photograph it, the monster, as if reading their thoughts, rushed into the depths.
So who swam in the Crimean waters? They spoke of a cloak-like shark with flat sides, resembling a huge eel; according to another version, it was the herring king - a belt fish up to nine meters in length, found in the North and Mediterranean Seas ... Maybe some kind of lizard has survived in the Black Sea since ancient times? After all, what do we know about Karadag, which has been a nature reserve for decades? And why not be this majestic mountain a haven for exotic species?
Karadag is the remnant of an ancient volcano, the underwater part of which has not been studied. Once upon a time, displacements of earth layers and volcanic clay led to complex layering, the formation of underwater caves, unknown passages and tunnels.
At the moment, there is no official confirmation that the Karadag snake is a real creature, it seems to feel that they are looking for it, and goes into the depths of the sea at the slightest attempt to shoot it on video or photographic equipment. Perhaps, expeditions could clarify the situation, but such events require financial investments, which are not in a hurry to make neither officials, nor scientists, nor private individuals. The waters of our planet are still firmly keeping their secrets - Loch Ness, Karadag, and other water monsters do not seek contact with people.
Official science is sure: if a living creature lives on Karadag, there should be several of them - mom, dad, grandfather, grandmother, etc. But neither the remains nor the clutch of eggs of these creatures has yet been found. In addition, the Crimean hydronautics is now completely collapsed, the deep-sea equipment was handed over for scrap.
It is known that such studies are being successfully continued in their territories by North American zoologists. In 1995, two Canadian oceanographers - Dr. Edward Busfield (Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto) and Professor Paul Le Blond (University of British Columbia, Vancouver) - in the April issue of the scientific journal "Amphipa Tsifika" described the discovery in the fjords of British Columbia, on the Pacific coast Canada, a large animal species new to science - cadborosaurus.
They attributed it to the plesiosaurs, a group of highly specialized marine reptiles that became extinct in the Mesozoic era. This "saur" got its name from the name of the sea bay of Cadborough, where it was most often observed.
The message caused a sensation in the media. The newspapers immediately gave the creature the nickname Keddi, and local environmentalists demanded that the government immediately ensure the protection of such a rare and, obviously, vulnerable species.
According to eyewitness accounts, the cadborosaurus, by the way, has been mentioned since ancient times in Indian folklore as like two drops of water similar to the Black Sea snake, but feeds on fish, sometimes trying to hunt seabirds.
For scientists, there is no doubt that the depths of the oceans keep many unexplored secrets. But they need facts. However, until now, not a single high-quality picture has been taken - neither in our country, nor in theirs.
This is stubbornly explained by the fact that mysterious creatures appear and disappear suddenly, as if only in order to remind: the living Earth was not born yesterday, but it is necessary to study and protect it in all its manifestations, especially in unique ones.
The Crimean peninsula conceals many mysteries. One of the mysterious areas of his life is the underwater world. For some time, evidence has periodically appeared that an unprecedented prehistoric monster can inhabit the Black Sea. In honor of the English name of the sea, the mysterious sea inhabitant began to be affectionately called "Blackie". Some people believe in the existence of an extraordinary sea animal, others are skeptical, let's try to figure it out.
The riddle of Kara-Dag
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that a terrible monster lives in Pontus Euxine (now the Black Sea). He can cruelly deal not only with a person, but also with any large livestock, because his jaws are simply huge.
Blackie (this is its modern name), is a gigantic serpent or even a dragon. Mariners often saw how "something", sailing not far from the ships, with one blow of its tail lifted huge waves, a strong storm rose.
In ancient times, girls were frightened by the sea monster so that they would not go swimming alone in the moonlight. Karadag itself is extraordinary, because it is a quiet volcano, it is not surprising that it was in these places that Blackie decided to settle.
Lost Atlantis
It turns out that even in the first Crimean legends a giant snake is mentioned. One of the Crimean ethnographers said that he considers the snake a descendant of Atlantis that went under the water. After all, the Atlanteans were huge, and with the course of evolution they could change. These half-humans, half-animals have intelligence and sometimes want to find contact with humans. But are people ready for such a meeting? Yes, there are brave heroes who explore the coastal zone of Crimea from Feodosia to Tarkhankut in search of Blacky, take photographic equipment with them. However, the meetings were always sudden, and there was no opportunity to prepare for them, most likely it was not accidental.
At the beginning of the last century, a company of Red Army soldiers was sent to search for the sea reptile, the course of the operation was written in the local newspaper of Koktebel. There was evidence that the snake was seen on the shore, peacefully basking in the sun.
What does the Karadag snake eat?
Naturalists have concluded that Blackie feeds on dolphins. Painfully many are found on the shore, in the sea, in the nets of these mammals with gnawed sides. Previously, they thought that these are traces of a propeller blow, but it is unlikely, because dolphins are intelligent creatures and would not have crawled under the bottom of a thundering ship. And on some carcasses, they even saw marks from large teeth.
Maybe Blackie is not alone living? Maybe in the mouth of the extinct volcano Kara-Dag lies the entire underwater kingdom, called Atlantis in ancient times and now inhabited by a whole tribe of reptiles? There are many questions, much less answers.
Some people laugh at such scary stories and twirl their fingers around their temples. Yes, these stories may well be fictions to attract and entertain vacationers and the gullible public. After all, there are so many chilling stories about how scuba divers diving in the Black Sea disappeared. And those who met an unknown monster went crazy, and only from the fragments of their phrases it became clear what exactly caused such insanity. Meanwhile, there are more and more curious divers ...
Over time, even the most unusual phenomenon finds a logical explanation (it's not in vain that scientists work) and everything falls into place. Let's hope that in the coming years the secret of the Karadag snake will be unraveled and presented "on a silver platter" to the interested public!
And here is a video about a wonderful monster, a terrible monster:
A huge serpentine creature was repeatedly seen off the coast of Crimea. The monster resembles a huge sea serpent. According to eyewitnesses, it hunts Black Sea dolphins. You can observe it only from the high coast when the sea is clear and calm, then the whole bay is visible to the bottom. According to researchers, this is the famous Karadag snake, which for centuries has been seen by rare eyewitnesses on the Black Sea coast. It is believed that this is a reptile that lived in the Black Sea back in the days of the dinosaurs. Off the coast of the peninsula, there are many underwater caves not only near the coastal cliffs, but also in the underwater rocks. Researchers believe that huge prehistoric animals may have survived in them since ancient times. Eyewitnesses managed not only to photograph, but also to film the underwater monster on video. The length of the snake is at least 40 meters. The monster was seen off the coast of Yalta and in the Southwest. We even managed to observe simultaneously two kites, which hunted in an organized manner, surrounding a flock of dolphins.
Karadag snake (Karadag monster or Opuksky serpent) is a water monster, according to legends, living off the coast of Crimea in the Black Sea.
History
Even Herodotus mentioned a terrible sea monster. According to his description, it is a black snake, with a mane, huge mouth, large teeth and clawed paws. He sailed at a cruising speed - faster than the fastest Greek ships. In the XVI-XVIII centuries, Turkish sailors, who sailed on ships between Istanbul, Crimea and Azov, constantly reported to the Sultan about the Black Sea dragon. And he was nicknamed Karadag because, according to legend, the monster lives in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Karadag massif, in one of the underwater caves, of which there are many.
In one of the Tatar legends of the Crimea - "Otuz legend" - "Chershamba" tells about a snake place near the village. Otuzy (modern Schebetovka) on the Otuzka river, where reeds grow - Yulanchik. The literal translation of the word Yulanchik is a snake's nest.
“Here ... a snake lived in the reeds, which, curled up, seemed to be a shock of hay, and when it walked in the field, it made ten knees or more. True, the Janissaries killed it. . ""
Descriptions
According to V.Kh. Kondaraki, in 1828 the police chief of Yevpatoria submitted a report, where he wrote about the appearance in the district of a huge snake with a hare's head and a kind of mane, which attacked the sheep and sucked blood.
S. Slavich, from the words of eyewitnesses, tells about the meeting of a huge snake at Kazantip (Kerch Peninsula).
M. Bykova mentions in her book the story of Maria Stepanovna Voloshina that "in 1921 a note was published in the local Feodosia newspaper, which said that a" huge bastard "appeared in the region of Mount Karadag and a company of Red Army soldiers was sent to capture." There was no further information in the newspapers. M. Voloshin sent a clipping about the "reptile" to M. Bulgakov, and it formed the basis of the story "Fatal Eggs". Gad was allegedly seen in the village (Koktebel).
In the same book, another description of a meeting with a huge snake at Karadag is given with reference to Natalia Lesina. The story happened in September 1952 with Varvara Kuzminichnaya Zozulya on Karadag near Cape Boy. In a quiet, heated place near Cape Varvara Kuzminichna was gathering brushwood and mistook the monster for a pile of brushwood, almost stepping on it. According to the description of the stunned woman, the animal has a small head, a thin neck, and a back as thick as a pillar. When she began to swing the rope, the animal began to unwind like a ball. The lower and upper limbs were visible, and it squeaked. The summary is purely everyday: "As long as I live, I have not seen this."
Eyewitnesses
Geologist Promtov saw a huge snake on Karadag near the Lagorio wall.
During these years, Vsevolod Ivanov observed the "most fantastic of the fantastic" snake. Quote from his story:
"The spring of 1952 in Koktebel was cold and rainy. April was still here, and May was rainy and cold ...
On May 14, after long cold weather, calm warm weather set in. Assuming that during the storms the sea threw a lot of colored stones on the shore, I walked again past Devil's finger, along the Gyaur-Bakh gorge, and then, so as not to waste a lot of time on the difficult descent to the seashore in the Carnelian Bay on a rock, near a tree, from where the entire bay is visible, the width of which is 200-250 m, I tied a rope and easily went down with it ...
The sea, I repeat, was quiet. Near the shore, among small stones overgrown with algae, a mullet played. Far away, about 100 meters from the shore, dolphins swam.
Dolphins were moving in a flock to the left along the bay. The mullet must have moved there. I turned my eyes to the right and just in the middle of the bay, 50 meters from the coast, I noticed a large, 10-12 meters in circumference, a stone overgrown with brown algae. In my life I have been to Koktebel many times, and in each visit I have been to the Serdolikovaya Bay several times. The bay is not shallow, the depth begins about ten paces from the coast - and I don't remember this stone in the middle of the bay. It was 200 meters from me to this stone. I didn't have binoculars with me. I could not see the stone. And is it a stone? I leaned back, put my "eye" against the knot of the tree and noticed that the stone deviates noticeably to the right. So it was not a stone, but a large ball of seaweed. Torn away by storms, where did they bring them here? Maybe they will be nailed to the rocks by the current and I should look at them? I forgot the dolphins.
While smoking my pipe, I began to observe the ball of seaweed. The current seemed to be intensifying. The algae began to lose their rounded shape. The ball has lengthened. Breaks appeared in the middle.
And then ... Then I trembled all over, got to my feet and sat up, as if afraid that I might scare "it" if I stood on my feet. I looked at my watch. It was 12.15 pm. There was perfect silence. Behind me, in the Gyaur-Bakh valley, birds chirped, and my pipe was vigorously smoking. The "ball" unfolded. Turned around. Stretched out. I still counted and did not count "it" as algae, until "it" moved upstream.
This creature swam in undulating movements to the place where the dolphins were, that is, to the left side of the bay.
Everything was still quiet. Naturally, it immediately occurred to me: is this not a hallucination? I took out my watch. It was 12:18 pm.
The distance, the shine of the sun on the water, interfered with the reality of what I saw, but the water was transparent, and therefore I saw the bodies of dolphins, which were twice as far from me as the monster. It was large, very large, 25-30 meters, and as thick as the desk top if turned sideways. It was under water half a meter - a meter and, it seems to me, was flat. The lower part of it was, apparently, white, as far as the blue of the water made it possible to understand this, and the upper part was dark brown, which allowed me to mistake it for algae.
The monster, wriggling, like the swimming snakes, did not quickly swam towards the dolphins. They immediately disappeared.
Having driven off the dolphins and, perhaps, not even thinking to chase after them, the monster curled up into a ball, and the current carried it back to the right. It again began to resemble a brown stone overgrown with algae.
Carried to the middle of the bay, just to that place or approximately to where I saw him for the first time, the monster turned around again and, turning towards the dolphins, suddenly raised its head above the water. The head, the size of the span of the arms, was like a snake one. I still did not see the eyes, from which one could conclude that they were small. After holding its head above the water for two minutes - large drops of water flowed from it - the monster turned sharply, lowered its head into the water and quickly swam away behind the rocks that closed Carnelian Bay.
I looked at my watch. It was three minutes to one. I watched the monster for a little over forty minutes. "
1967 Lyudmila Szegeda stepped over a log on a walk in the Armatluk valley in the autumn evening. Hearing a splash from behind, she saw a huge, log-thick, snake crawling from one reservoir to another. The log she had stepped over was not there.
Semenkov's article
From an article by the director of the Karadag reserve P.G. Semenkova:
"On December 7, 1990, a brigade of fishermen of the Karadag branch of the InBYuM Academy of Sciences of Ukraine consisting of A. A. Tsabanov, Y. M. Nuikin, M. M. Sycha and N. Gerasimov went to sea to check the nets supplied for catching Black Sea rays. The net is a canvas 2.5 m wide and 200 m long with a mesh size of 200 mm. It was installed at a depth of 50 m with coordinates 3 miles southeast of Lyagushachya Bay and 7 miles south of the Ordzhonikidze village. arrived at about 12 noon and began to bulkhead the net from the southern end.After one hundred and fifty meters, the net appeared to be broken, and the fishermen decided that when setting up they had thrown their net over someone else's, and the owner of the lower net was forced to cut the upper net in order to to check theirs. ”They logged in from the other end of the network and continued checking.
When we went to the ragged edge, we pulled a dolphin onto the surface - a Black Sea bottlenose dolphin about 230 cm in size, whose tail was entangled in a net. Pulling the dolphin up to the nose of the mogofeluga, the fishermen discovered that the dolphin's belly had been bitten out by one bite. The width of the bite along the arc is about 1 m. Along the edge of the arc, teeth marks were clearly visible on the dolphin's skin. The size of the tooth mark is about 40 mm. The distance between the teeth marks is about 15-20 mm. There were about 16 tooth marks in total along the arc. The dolphin's belly was bitten out with ribs, so that the spine was clearly visible. In the region of the head, the remains of the lungs dangled, from which blood flowed down during lifting. Teeth marks were clearly visible on the sides, and were arranged symmetrically.
The dolphin's head was severely deformed, evenly compressed on all sides, as if they were trying to drag it into a narrow hole. The eyes were not visible, and the deformed part was whitish, resembling the color of a fish pulled from the stomach of another fish.
The dolphin inspection lasted no more than three minutes. The sight of the dolphin and the flowing blood caused a great panic among the fishermen. One of them cut the net, the dolphin fell into the sea, and the fishermen left the area at full speed home.
I saw the fishermen immediately upon their return from the sea, inquired in detail about what had happened, and based on their story, the artist made a sketch of the dolphin they saw.
Dolphin bite mark by an unknown creature.
Dolphin bite mark by an unknown creature. (According to P.G. Semenkov. Geological journal No. 1, 1994)
In the spring of 1991, fishermen brought a second dolphin with similar tooth marks on its body. It was one and a half meters in size.
They pulled him out of the net, which was installed in approximately the same place as on December 7, 1990.
This time the net was not torn, and almost the entire dolphin was heavily entangled in the net, wrapped like a doll, so that one head peeped out. Traces of three teeth were clearly visible on the dolphin's head. In appearance, they exactly looked like the teeth marks on the body of a bottlenose dolphin.
The brought dolphin was put into a cold chamber and in May 1991, being in Leningrad, I went to the Institute of Zoology, talked with a number of employees, invited us to see the azovka. Unfortunately, none of the staff was able to travel, but I received the address of the specialists on the tracks found on the bodies of marine mammals harvested in the ocean. These were YugNIRO employees working in Kerch and Odessa. I managed to contact one of them by phone. I described in detail the footprints found on the bodies of dolphins entangled in our nets, and invited him to inspect the azovka, which we kept in our cold chamber. I was promised that he would try to find time to come to our institution. However, neither in May, nor in June, nor in July, no one came to us.
At the end of August, there was an accident, and everything that was in the cold chamber was lost, including the dolphin.
This is an accurate description of the events that took place in December 1990 and April 1991.