Do More Than Photograph the Monster
Aquatic encounters happen quickly. Water hides most of the animal and distorts size, distance, color, and movement. Your goal is not to prove a creature surfaced: It’s to document the animal’s appearance, behavior, habitat and relationship with the surrounding environment.
Before we look at the process, keep these 4 key criteria in mind:
- The animal
- Its behavior
- Its surroundings
- The conditions of the encounter
Getting a short video or an image is cool and all, but observation with documentation allows a body of work to develop. And then you can contribute to verifying the existence of a monster.
1. Learn the Water Before Looking for the Monster
The first best practice is understanding the habitat. Before you go, learn about the body of water. This includes:
- Water depth
- Currents or tides
- River entrances and outlets
- Deep channels and drop-offs
- Kelp, eelgrass, mudflats, or rocky areas
- Seasonal fish runs
- Common marine mammals, fish, birds, and reptiles
- Boat routes and other human activity
- Previous monster reports
This isn’t to start classifying or debunking. It’s to understand what type of animal the ecosystem could support.
Ask these questions about the habitat:
- Is there enough prey for a large predator?
- Does the location connect to deeper water?
- Could the animal move between freshwater and saltwater?
- Are sightings concentrated near river mouths, channels, or spawning grounds?
- Do reports occur during a particular season, tide, or migration?
This background turns a sighting location into a possible monster habitat.
2. Carry a Simple Field Kit You Can Use Quickly
Bring along gear that helps you document your findings and observations. Too much gear becomes a burden to lug around. Take what you need based on witness reports and other reported sightings.
Essential equipment
- Phone with camera
- Binoculars
- Waterproof notebook and pencil
- GPS-capable device
- Power bank
- Measuring tape or rangefinder
- Waterproof storage
- Personal flotation device
Useful specialized equipment
- Camera with optical zoom
- Tripod or monopod
- Polarizing filter
- Hydrophone
- Sonar or fish finder
- Drone
- Underwater camera
- Water thermometer
- eDNA or biological sampling supplies
Spend time learning the specialized equipment because you won’t have time during a sighting to figure it out. By the time you get the Bluetooth connected to your drone, the monster will likely dive back underwater.
The best best is to turn on a video camera and let it record non-stop. If something happens, you can zoom as needed. Also, don’t forget to narrate what you see. That’s invaluable for documentation.
3. Record the Whole Scene, Not Just the Animal
Before anything unusual happens, take a wide photograph or short video of the observation area.
Include:
- Shoreline
- Horizon
- Islands
- Buoys
- Docks
- Bridges
- Boats
- Rocks or other fixed landmarks
Record:
- Date and exact time
- GPS location
- Direction faced
- Weather
- Visibility
- Wind
- Tide or current
- Wave conditions
- Boat traffic
- Wildlife present
These details help establish distance, scale, direction, and normal water movement.
When an animal appears, begin with a wide shot before zooming in. A close image may show the body, but a wide image shows where the animal was and how it occupied the habitat.
To be frank, video is best for documenting monster encounters. I set my phone to 4K recording at 30 frames per second. Most phones have this setting. Just make sure you have enough memory. If memory is low, I’d look into getting a handycam.
Key principle
Context is not background information. It is part of the observation.
4. Start Recording Immediately and Keep Recording
Aquatic monsters rarely wait while someone unlocks a phone, changes lenses, or debates whether the object is unusual.
The first rule is simple:
Record first. Interpret later.
During the encounter:
- Start with a wide view
- Include a fixed landmark
- Zoom gradually
- Keep the camera steady when possible
- Track the direction of movement
- Continue recording after the animal submerges
- Capture the wake, bubbles, splashes, or second surfacing
- Film the water after it returns to normal
Brief narration can preserve details that the camera may not capture.
When you narrate, include this commentary:
- Time
- Direction
- Estimated distance
- Number of animals
- Visible body parts
- Direction of travel
- Anything visible to the eye but unclear on the recording
The 30-Second Monster Protocol
- Start recording
- Begin wide
- Include a landmark
- State direction and distance
- Describe the animal’s movement
- Keep recording after it disappears
5. Describe What You Observe Before Naming It
A monster naturalist should separate direct observation from interpretation. Interpretation can wait.
For example:
Observation: A narrow, dark structure rose vertically from the water and bent near the top.
Interpretation: It may have been a long neck.
Record visible characteristics such as:
- Approximate length
- Height above the water
- Width
- Color
- Texture
- Reflectiveness
- Head shape
- Neck or body shape
- Fins, flippers, humps, tentacles, or tail
- Number of visible body sections
- How the animal entered or left the water
Avoid forcing the sighting into a familiar monster category too early.
Instead of immediately calling something a sea serpent, record whether:
- The humps moved together
- The body bent horizontally or vertically
- The apparent neck rotated
- A continuous wake connected visible sections
- The shape remained solid or collapsed like a wave
- The animal dived, sank, rolled, or accelerated
Careful description comes in handy for a later comparison.
6. Focus on Behavior and Ecological Relationships
Pay special attention to what the animal does during your observation. Its behavior is what you want to note.
Possible behavioral states include:
- Traveling
- Feeding
- Hunting
- Resting
- Breathing
- Following prey
- Avoiding boats
- Investigating an object
- Socializing
- Defending territory
- Moving between fresh and salt water
Observe:
- Direction of movement
- Speed
- Changes in speed
- Time between surfacings
- Distance between surfacing points
- Dive style
- Turning ability
- Whether it moved with or against the current
- Whether it remained near a specific feature
Also watch known wildlife and how they respond. You can get a lot of clues by watching and describing how other wildlife acts during an encounter.
Record whether:
- Fish scattered
- Birds left the water
- Seals moved away
- Predators gathered
- Prey concentrated near shore
- Other animals followed the unidentified creature
- The surrounding area became unusually quiet
Known animals are not merely possible misidentifications. They may reveal what the monster was eating, avoiding, or following.
7. Treat Technology and Physical Traces Carefully
Combine sonar, hydrophones, drones, eDNA, and physical samples into one section focused on limitations and responsible use.
Sonar
Sonar may record:
- Large moving targets
- Schools of fish
- Depth
- Bottom structure
- Repeated movement through an area
But sonar does not automatically reveal:
- Species
- Exact body shape
- Whether the object is alive
- Whether several returns represent one animal
Save the original sonar file, GPS track, equipment settings, boat speed, direction, and water depth. Repeat the pass when possible.
Hydrophones and audio
Record the surrounding sound environment as well as the unusual sound.
Possible sources include:
- Boats
- Propellers
- Bridges
- Docks
- Rain
- Waves
- Whales
- Seals
- Fish
- Amphibians
Preserve the original recording before applying filters or noise reduction.
Drones and underwater cameras
Use them to document:
- Wakes
- Surface outlines
- Movement paths
- Group behavior
- Relationships to shoreline features
Do not fly or operate equipment so close that it changes the animal’s behavior.
Physical material and eDNA
Possible traces include:
- Scales
- Skin
- Mucus
- Tissue
- Blood
- Feces
- Eggs
- Prey remains
- Tracks or drag marks
Before collecting anything:
- Photograph it in place
- Include a scale marker like a ruler
- Record the location
- Wear clean gloves
- Keep samples separated
- Label everything immediately
- Record who handled it
Contamination, currents, incomplete databases, and poor storage can make eDNA or biological samples difficult to analyze and interpret.
8. Document the Witness and Preserve the Record
Immediately after the encounter, record each witness account before discussing details with anyone else.
Include:
- Where the witness was standing
- What first attracted their attention
- Time and duration
- Direction faced
- Estimated distance
- Visible anatomy
- Movement
- Sounds or smells
- Water conditions
- Wildlife reactions
- Where the animal disappeared
A simple sketch can show:
- Observation point
- Shoreline
- Surfacing locations
- Direction of movement
- Nearby landmarks
Then preserve the complete record:
- Original photographs
- Original video
- Original audio
- Metadata
- GPS tracks
- Field notes
- Witness statements
- Maps
- Sonar files
- Weather and tide information
- Sample records
Keep edited files separate from originals.
Clearly label versions as:
- Cropped
- Stabilized
- Brightened
- Enlarged
- Filtered
- Annotated
AI enhancement should never replace or be confused with the original. It may invent edges, textures, or body parts that were never recorded. This is called a hallucination. The AI tries to fill in gaps, which leads it to inventing.
9. Return to the Habitat and Look for Patterns
A single sighting documents an encounter. Repeated observation may reveal natural history. Return to the same location under similar conditions. A repeating pattern is what you want to document.
Use the visit to:
- Measure distances
- Recreate the camera angle
- Film known animals for comparison
- Observe normal wakes and currents
- Map deep-water access
- Identify prey areas
- Locate travel corridors
- Check boat routes
- Study tidal or seasonal changes
Compare multiple encounters by:
- Season
- Time of day
- Tide
- Current
- Water temperature
- Weather
- Fish runs
- Bird activity
- Marine mammal activity
- Direction of travel
Also record unsuccessful observation sessions. There’s a lot you can learn from what doesn’t happen, too.
For example:
The site was observed during five evening incoming tides in September. Salmon, seals, and diving birds were present, but no large unidentified animal appeared.
Negative observations help test whether an apparent pattern is meaningful.
The monster naturalist is not merely collecting sightings. The goal is to discover whether those sightings form a pattern of habitat use, feeding, migration, or seasonal movement.
10. What to Do If You Encounter an Aquatic Monster
Here’s a handy TLDR; version of this article.
- Stay out of the water.
Move to a safe, stable observation point. - Begin recording immediately.
Do not wait for a better view. - Start with the whole scene.
Include shorelines, buoys, boats, or landmarks. - Record what the animal is doing.
Watch its movement, surfacing, diving, and interactions. - State the conditions aloud.
Note time, direction, distance, weather, tide, and current. - Watch the surrounding wildlife.
Their behavior may reveal what is happening below the surface. - Do not chase, bait, touch, or corner the animal.
Observation should disturb it as little as possible. - Keep recording after it disappears.
Document wakes, bubbles, second surfacings, and the return to normal conditions. - Record your account immediately.
Do this before comparing memories with other witnesses. - Preserve the originals and return to the site.
Study the habitat, measure distances, and look for repeated patterns.
Thanks for reading this post on documenting an aquatic monster encounter. If you’ve had one, let me know in the comments below. Take care!
