I was recently contacted by Bill and Bob Clark about their 14 definitive sightings of sea serpents in San Francisco Bay since February 5, 1985.
The previous posts can be found at SAN FRANCISCO BAY 'SEA SERPENTS' Sightings History & Report - PART I and PART II
They state, "We had an extremely close definitive sighting of a 60+ foot long serpentine marine animal unknown to science from only 20 yards away directly in front of us while we were sitting in our parked car looking at San Francisco Bay."
Bill and Bob Clark's YouTube channel documents the sightings.
THE INITIAL SIGHTING
My brother Bill and I were sitting in our car which was parked at Marina Green in San Francisco 10 yards away from a sea wall next to the San Francisco Bay looking north towards Alcatraz Island.
We had arrived at the parking lot before sunrise which we occasionally did to kill some time before going to work selling our handmade jewelry near Ghirardelli Square.
We were both enjoying a cup of coffee and as the sun rose behind us we noticed the surface of the bay was like a mirror. There was no wind and the tide at that time appeared to be coming in and in fact, seemed to be fairly high. The tide was so high the surface of the bay was almost to the top of the sea wall.
We had a good view of the bay since there was no fog.
Around 7:45 am we noticed a group of four or five seals or sea lions hanging out about 150 yards directly in front of us. We watched them for a little while when we noticed what we thought was another seal or sea lion swimming from Stone Tower Point towards the group of seals or sea lions at a fairly rapid speed. All we could see was the head of the animal above the surface of the water the entire time it approached the group of seals or sea lions (We now think they were sea lions).
When the approaching animal got within a few yards of the sea lions it suddenly raised its head and upper body straight up about 10 feet out of the water. Then it immediately lunged forward and down into the middle of the group of sea lions. The sea lions immediately scattered in all different directions. One of the sea lions swam directly towards the sea wall where we were sitting in our parked car followed close behind by the animal that had attacked the sea lions.
The sea lion was swimming so fast to get away from the animal it was skimming the surface of the water.
When the sea lion got near the sea wall it made a 90° turn and headed west parallel to the sea wall. It was at this point the animal also began swimming parallel to the sea wall closely behind the sea lion. That's when the first arch of the animal broke the surface of the water and exposed about six to eight feet of the upper body. Then a second arch of the animal about the same size as the first arch broke the surface of the water about five feet behind the first arch. Both arches of the animal remained above the surface of the water for a moment before submerging. After that, I looked to the left and saw the silhouette of the animal's head and a long length of the uniform in width snake-like upper body of the animal just below the surface of the water. When I saw a long length of the animal's body swim by just under the surface of the water I thought to myself that's a huge snake chasing that sea lion. So much of the body passed by that I thought the body was going to get thinner and I'd see the end of the animal including the tail. However, instead of the end of the animal's body getting thinner it got wider. That's when I got really afraid because the animal was only a few yards away from the sea wall. Just then I heard a loud crashing noise and I looked to my left and saw water splashing. Then a long portion of the upper body of the animal came up out of the water and quickly flopped backwards into the water away from us. After that happened the animal lifted its entire midsection up out of the water exposing a leathery padded underbelly. We found out the next day there was a submerged rocky ledge that extended approximately 20 yards away from the sea wall and the tide was so high that day it was covered by about three feet of water.
The sea serpent twisted away from us in a corkscrewing manner and exposed its midsection above water giving us an excellent view of the underbelly. The underbelly was padded and leathery and creamy white with just a tint of yellow. The underbelly was divided into several sections possibly as wide as a foot and a half to two feet.
As the body of the sea serpent was widening into its midsection we noticed the color change and that the midsection had hexagonal scales which were next to each other rather than overlapping. There was no room between the scales. The largest scales appeared at the widest part of the midsection where the underbelly and the side of the sea serpent met. The scales gradually reduced in size as they approached the top, front, and end of the midsection. The difference in size between the larger scales and the smaller scales was similar to the difference in size between the size of a silver dollar and the size of a dime.
The midsection was about 20 ft long, black on top, and slowly changed from a mossy green to a grassy green and finally to a yellow-green as the side of the midsection approached the underbelly. There was a distinct line where the texture of the skin of the midsection changed from the scales into the padded, leathery underbelly.
While the midsection continued twisting, another section 6 to 9 ft long several feet behind the midsection arched upwards about 3 ft above the water, as if pinched in from both ends. Then the arch slowly twisted away from us exposing a fan-like appendage that was attached to its side at the water line. It looked like a flag flapping in the wind. The fin was like an equilateral triangle in shape. One side of the triangular fin was attached to the body and one of the other sides of the fin had a serrated edge. As the animal twisted its body away from us the fin unfolded like a fan. When the fin was fully open several mossy green ribs were noticed which originated from a single point attached to the side of the animal like the spokes in a wheel. A paper-thin green membrane stretched between each rib which extended further than the membrane, creating the serrated edge.
Each side of the fin was about 2 ft in length. Bob concentrated on the fin trying to remember as much detail as possible. He counted the number of ribs but stopped when he got to six since there were too many to count. All this time the fin hung open against the side of the sea serpent. While Bob concentrated on the fan-like fin, Bill continued looking at the midsection of the sea serpent and saw two fins, one at the beginning and one at the end of the midsection. They looked like stabilizer fins as opposed to fins for propulsion. Then the arch of the sea serpent Bob was looking at slowly sank beneath the surface of the water. After the arch sank beneath the water Bob turned his attention to the midsection of the sea serpent again.
While Bob was watching the arch with the fan-like fin Bill was concentrating on watching the midsection of the sea serpent. Bill saw the sea serpent lift its entire midsection up out of the water exposing the underbelly and the two triangular fan-like fins which were on the beginning and the end of the midsection. Then the sea serpent rolled its midsection back into the deeper water. At that time both of us watch the midsection sink slowly beneath the surface of the water.
Because the sun was just rising behind us and the water was completely calm the sunlight penetrated at least six feet through the clear water. The water was especially clear that morning because the day before there was no wind and the bay was very calm so all the sediment had settled to the bottom of the bay.
After rolling most of its body off the submerged rocky ledge the sea serpent settled itself just under the surface of the water. At that time we both saw the entire upper body of the sea serpent under the water. The sea serpent had created four coils tightly folded directly behind its head.
As we continued to watch the sea serpent it turned its head to the left and then to the right as if it was looking for the sea lion. At this point, Bob opened the car door and was starting to get out of it saying he was going to crawl up to the edge of the seawall to try and get a better look at the sea serpent. Bill yelled at him to get back in the car saying it was not worth the risk of being attacked just to get a few feet closer. Realizing Bill was correct Bob got back into the car.
The sea serpent lay still in the water for a few seconds with the four coils directly behind its head. Then the sea serpent moved its head with a slight up-and-down whipping motion causing the four coils to move backward in a tight packet down the upper part of the sea serpent's body eventually dissipating when the coils reached the midsection.
Instantly, the sea serpent created another packet of four coils directly behind its head and again these four coils were whipped backwards towards the midsection.
This creation of four coils behind the head of the sea serpent and then whipping them backward along the upper body towards the midsection was repeated a few more times until the sea serpent began to swim into deeper water.
The upper body of the sea serpent created several arches above the water while at the same time, the rear end of the sea serpent seemed to slide across the submerged rocky ledge. It was like watching a freight train pull out of a station. Each section had to wait for the section in front of it to move.
When the sea serpent began to swim north towards the middle of the bay we both thought we saw a ridgeline towards the back of the visible rear portion of the sea serpent. It seemed to be a dorsal fin of some sort that looked about 4 in in height. However, we never saw the tail.
As the sea serpent swam away at a leisurely pace Bill thought he could see two fins on each side of the midsection spread open as if to stabilize the midsection of the sea serpent. Several arches in the upper portion of the body could also be seen above the surface of the water as the sea serpent swam away toward the middle of the bay. After about 15 more seconds the arches submerged beneath the surface of the water. We didn't see the animal again that day.
Since we never saw the rear portion of the sea serpent including its tail it is hard to estimate the total length of the entire sea serpent but it had to be at least 60 feet and probably closer to 100 feet in length.
After about 5 minutes Bill went to a public phone booth and called the U.S. Coast Guard and reported our sighting of the sea serpent in San Francisco Bay. Ten minutes later two Coast Guard helicopters flew about 100 feet directly over our heads and began to search the area of the bay where we reported seeing the sea serpent.
Bill and Bob Clark's YouTube channel documents the sightings. They can be contacted at billandbobclark2@gmail.com
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