The monster that stole the salmon
Charles Lewis has been fighting an enormous blackmouth salmon near Port Angeles for more than four hours. Then he notices what appear to be fishing-net floats moving toward his boat.
But they are not floats.
They are growths running along the back of a huge green sea serpent.
The creature snatches the salmon and races around Ediz Hook, towing Lewis’s boat into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. There, a massive whale opens its mouth and allows the serpent to swim inside. The whale severs Lewis’s fishing line, then six Cesna-sized flying fish zoom out from its tongue to search for more salmon.
The serpent follows their signals, captures the fish and returns them to the whale.
With a colossal splash, the whale, serpent and flying fish disappear into the murky depths of the Salish Sea, never to be seen again.
However, in reality …
Lewis submitted this account during the Port Angeles Salmon Club’s 1934 Ananias Derby, a contest that rewarded fishermen for telling the most outrageous story. The sea serpent, Ediz Gigantus (or Eddie), was later illustrated by local artist Thomas Guptill, whose paintings and postcards gave the creature a permanent appearance.
The story was invented. The monster story survived to the present.
And this monster naturalist has some questions …
Eddie at a glance
Name: Ediz Gigantus
Aliases: Eddie, Big Eddy, Ediz Gigantis
Type: Marine serpent
Range: Port Angeles Harbor and the Strait of Juan de Fuca
Habitat: Harbor entrances, deep channels and salmon migration routes
Diet: Primarily salmon
Distinctive features: Green coloration, glowing or yellow-green eyes and rounded dorsal growths
Behavior: Steals hooked fish, follows boats and cooperates with other marine animals
What does Ediz Gigantus look like?
Eddie is a long-bodied marine predator with a serpentine neck, broad mouth and a row of raised structures along its back. Its body is generally depicted as dark green, which would help it disappear beneath the dark, algae-colored waters around Ediz Hook.
However, its dorsal growths are its most unusual feature.
They may function as:
- Sensory organs that detect movement in the water (helpful in murky waters)
- Fat deposits used during long migrations (possibly as it migrates with whales)
- Display structures used to attract mates (speculative since only 1 creature ever seen)
- Camouflage that resembles floats, driftwood or kelp (a likely adaptation)
- Colonies of barnacles or other organisms attached to the animal (probable since it migrates with whales)
- A segmented ridge that stabilizes the body while swimming (a strong possibility to prevent rollover)
Like most sea serpents, it’s difficult for naturalists and cryptozoologists to identify an existing classification for the beast. Although, I’ve given it some thought under the Speculative Evolution section further down this monster profile.
Habitat and range
Eddie patrols the waters around Ediz Hook, where Port Angeles Harbor meets the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
This habitat gives the monster several advantages:
- Strong tidal currents carry scent and vibration
- Deep water lies close to shore
- Salmon pass through the strait during seasonal migrations
- Kelp, waves and poor underwater visibility provide cover
- The open Pacific gives Eddie access to a much larger range
Eddie probably doesn’t live permanently in Port Angeles Harbor. It could be a seasonal visitor that follows salmon migration runs inland from the Pacific.
During the rest of the year, it may travel along the coasts of Washington and British Columbia, possibly overlapping with the territory attributed to Cadborosaurus.
Note: Eddie and Cadborosaurus (or Caddy as we say in the PNW) may belong to the same general family of coastal serpents, but Eddie’s dorsal growths, salmon-stealing behavior and unusually cooperative hunting strategy make it a distinct regional animal. In comparison, Caddy hunts alone.
Diet and hunting behavior
Eddie appears to specialize in salmon.
The original account describes it stealing a fish that was already hooked and exhausted. That suggests opportunistic intelligence. Rather than chasing every salmon individually, Eddie may watch fishing boats and wait for people to separate weakened fish from the school, or those trapped in a net.
This behavior reflects real marine predators. Seals, sea lions and sharks can learn to associate boats, nets and fishing lines with easy food.
Eddie might hunt by:
- Following salmon schools through deep channels
- Detecting struggling fish through vibration
- Ambushing prey near kelp beds
- Shadowing fishing boats
- Taking fish from nets or lines
- Driving salmon toward larger hunting partners
Its enormous mouth may allow it to swallow salmon whole, although it may also carry prey back to a sheltered feeding area … or to a whale described in Lewis’s story.
Why does Eddie work with a whale?
Lewis didn’t describe Eddie as a sole predator. He described a hunting team involving a sea serpent, an enormous whale and six giant flying fish. In nature, this method of predators working together is called cooperative hunting.
Other aquatic animals that use this strategy include moray eels and groupers; killer whales; bottlenose dolphins; and, humpback whales.
Specifically to Eddie and its teammates, their possible roles include:
- Flying fish: Locate salmon schools from above the water.
- Eddie: Pursues and captures individual salmon.
- The whale: Provides protection, transportation and a secure place to consume prey.
The whale’s mouth may function as a temporary shelter. Eddie could retreat inside when threatened by boats, predators or rough water.
A note about the whale: This is likely a humpback whale, which uses cooperative hunting practices in the wild. Also, humpbacks use coordinated hunting parties specifically to trap salmon.
The flying fish might signal Eddie through splashes, body movements or reflected light. Their aerial viewpoint would allow them to locate disturbances at the surface that Eddie couldn’t see underwater.
However, I wouldn’t say the animals are coordinating their activity like a wolf pack. The relationship may be mutualistic:
- Eddie supplies the whale with salmon.
- The whale protects Eddie from larger predators.
- The flying fish receive scraps or protection.
- All three species benefit from coordinated hunting.
This is one of the most complicated feeding relationships ever attributed to a sea serpent. That doesn’t make it impossible. It makes Eddie exceptionally well connected in the Salish Sea’s ecosystem.
How does Ediz Gigantus swim?
A creature capable of towing a fishing boat would need tremendous strength.
Eddie may propel itself through lateral undulation, moving its body from side to side like an eel. Its dorsal structures could help stabilize that motion in powerful currents.
Another possibility is that most of the animal remains underwater while only the raised sections of its back break the surface. From a distance, these structures could look like a row of moving floats.
Its long body may allow Eddie to accelerate quickly in a straight line, especially when moving with the tide. Turning inside the shallow harbor would be more difficult, which may explain why it prefers the deeper water around the hook.
Eddie probably isn’t a fast pursuit predator over long distances. It would rely on ambushes, short bursts of speed and easy prey, like salmon hooked on a line or in a net.
On the topic of evolution and adaptation, let’s step back and take a look at how a sea serpent like Eddie developed …
Ediz Gigantus may descend from a natricine water snake similar to the garter snakes and water snakes living across North America today.
Natricines are an old and adaptable group. They originated in Asia roughly 35 to 47 million years ago and reached North America around 23 million years ago. Most remained terrestrial or semi-aquatic, but several lineages became fully aquatic. American natricines also give birth to live young, removing one of the greatest barriers to life at sea: the need to return to land to lay eggs.
Eddie’s ancestors may have entered the northeastern Pacific through rivers, estuaries and protected coastal bays. Early populations probably hunted fish in shallow water but still came ashore to rest and regulate their body temperatures. Over many generations, the snakes that stayed underwater longer would have gained an advantage.
Their tails gradually flattened into powerful swimming paddles. Their nostrils developed valves. Their lungs expanded, and blood vessels beneath the skin allowed them to absorb some oxygen directly from the water. Salt-excreting glands eventually allowed them to drink and feed at sea without depending on freshwater. Similar adaptations allow living sea snakes to remain submerged for hours.
This transformation would not have happened quickly. True sea snakes split from their terrestrial relatives at least 19.9 million years ago, providing a useful model for Eddie’s evolution. A reasonable estimate is that the Ediz lineage required 15 to 25 million years to progress from a semi-aquatic water snake to a completely marine animal of monstrous size. That number is speculative, but it allows enough time for major changes in reproduction, breathing, salt regulation, locomotion and cold tolerance.
Gigantism may have emerged during the later stages of that transition. Larger snakes could store more oxygen, make longer dives and overpower larger prey. Their increasing mass would also slow the rate at which they lost heat, creating a form of thermal inertia sometimes called gigantothermy. Size alone would not make Eddie warm-blooded, but it could help such an enormous reptile remain active in water that would shock a smaller tropical sea snake.
By the time the modern Strait of Juan de Fuca took shape, Eddie’s lineage may already have been fully aquatic: a cold-water natricine that traded the riverbank for deep channels, salmon migrations and the open Pacific.
Could Eddie survive in the Strait of Juan de Fuca?
The strait is a reliable habitat for a large marine predator.
It provides:
- Cold, oxygen-rich water
- Deep underwater channels
- Seasonal concentrations of salmon
- Access to both the Salish Sea and Pacific Ocean
- Strong currents that obscure underwater movement
A full population would require considerable food, but Eddie’s species may be rare, migratory or widely distributed.
Its habit of remaining submerged would also reduce sightings. Residents might see only the dorsal growths, a wake or a long green shape disappearing beneath the surface. Most encounters would probably be dismissed as whales, seals, floating logs or rough water.
That is exactly how a large animal could remain present without a consistent sighting record.
What to do if you encounter Ediz Gigantus
First, release the fish. Eddie isn’t hunting you. It is hunting whatever is attached to your line.
If a row of green or dark growths begins moving toward your boat:
- Cut or release your fishing line.
- Do not attempt to retrieve the salmon.
- Keep your hands and loose equipment out of the water.
- Avoid accelerating directly away if Eddie is already attached to the line.
- Turn gradually toward shallow or sheltered water.
- Do not position your boat between Eddie and an approaching whale.
- Watch the sky for unusually large flying fish.
If Eddie begins towing the boat, stay low and distribute your weight evenly. A sudden turn around Ediz Hook could throw passengers overboard.
Lastly, don’t follow the serpent into open water. Eddie knows where it is going.
You do not.
Bibliography
Bshary, Redouan, et al. “Interspecific Communicative and Coordinated Hunting between Groupers and Giant Moray Eels in the Red Sea.” PLOS Biology, vol. 4, no. 12, 2006, article e431. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0040431. (PLOS)
Li, An, et al. “Two Reference-Quality Sea Snake Genomes Reveal Their Divergent Evolution of Adaptive Traits and Venom Systems.” Molecular Biology and Evolution, vol. 38, no. 11, 2021, pp. 4867–4883. doi:10.1093/molbev/msab212. (PMC)
Ludington, Alastair J., et al. “New Chromosome-Scale Genomes Provide Insights into Marine Adaptations of Sea Snakes (Hydrophis: Elapidae).” BMC Biology, vol. 21, 2023, article 284. doi:10.1186/s12915-023-01772-2. (Springer)
McNutt, John. “BACK WHEN: A Whale of a Tale.” Peninsula Daily News, 6 Dec. 2025. Accessed 12 July 2026. (Peninsula Daily News)
McVay, John D., Oscar Flores-Villela, and Bryan Carstens. “Diversification of North American Natricine Snakes.” Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. 116, no. 1, 2015, pp. 1–12. doi:10.1111/bij.12558. (OUP Academic)
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Humpback Whale.” NOAA Fisheries. Accessed 12 July 2026. (NOAA Fisheries)
North Olympic History Center. “Ediz Gigantus: History or Mystery?” Strait History, vol. 18, no. 4, Fall 2024, p. 2.
North Olympic History Center. “History or Mystery?” Strait History, vol. 18, no. 3, Summer 2024, p. 6.
Somaweera, Ruchira, et al. “Apparent Coordinated and Communal Hunting Behaviours by Erabu Sea Krait Laticauda semifactiata.” Scientific Reports, vol. 13, 2023, article 21471. doi:10.1038/s41598-023-48684-3. (Nature)
United States Environmental Protection Agency. “Executive Summary: Health of the Salish Sea Report.” U.S. EPA, updated 16 Oct. 2025. Accessed 12 July 2026. (US EPA)
United States Geological Survey. Southern Salish Sea Habitat Map Series: Admiralty Inlet. Open-File Report 2015-1073, 2015. (U.S. Geological Survey)
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. “Marine Area 6—East Juan de Fuca Strait.” WDFW, updated 7 July 2021. Accessed 12 July 2026. (WDFW)
Source notes for the article
The historical backbone should rely primarily on McNutt and the two North Olympic History Center articles. They document Lewis’s story, the Ananias competition, Thomas Guptill’s artwork, the names Eddie and Bid Eddy, the postcards, and the History Center’s later adoption of Eddie as a mascot. (Peninsula Daily News)
The evolutionary timeline is explicitly speculative. Modern true sea snakes completed their land-to-sea transition within roughly the past 15 million years, with estimates placing their marine origin around 9–18 million years ago. That supports saying Eddie’s transition could have taken “on the order of 10–20 million years.” No paper establishes a 15–25-million-year timeline for a giant cold-water natricine; that was my estimate. (Springer)
McVay and colleagues place major diversification within the North American natricine radiation around 11–14 million years ago. (Carstens Lab)
The whale, flying-fish, and Eddie partnership remains speculative biology, but groupers and morays, humpback whales, and Erabu sea kraits provide documented analogues for coordinated or multispecies hunting. (PLOS)
Thanks for reading Eddie’s monster profile. I had never heard of it before researching this article … but now I’m hooked! Hopefully, I can go into the field (or is it sea?) and look for Puget Sound sea monsters. Let me tell you: From Gertie to Caddy and the Lake Chelan Dragon, I’m obsessed with PNW sea monsters.
If you’ve encountered a sea monster, let me know about it in the comments. Take care!
