Some Unusual Creatures Appearing In Local Waterways

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By John Singleton
Over 100 million years ago, the dinosaur Astrodon roamed the swamps of Maryland. Fossil remains have been discovered in Arundel Clay, a sedimentary, rock formation only a few short miles from Annapolis. While most dinosaur bones are found in western states, Maryland appears to have been a particular region of dinosaur activity.
In 1982, Robert and Karen Few videotaped a 40-foot-long, snake-like creature near Kent Island. The sighting was the first recorded account of the legendary Maryland sea creature known as Chessie. Could there be a link between the disarticulated Astrodon remains buried in Maryland river beds and the present day sightings of mysterious sea creatures along the Chesapeake Bay? Chessie’s first sighting took place in 1943 by Francis Klarrman and Edward J. Ward of Baltimore; the last sighting of the serpent-like beast was in 1997, just off the shore of Fort Smallwood Park in Pasadena.
“I’ve seen skates and stingrays in the Magothy River close to Dobbins Island,” recalled Pasadena fishing enthusiast Grayson Gable. “I’ve also caught pike over two-feet-long in Cornfield Creek.”

Gable, 22, a senior at Towson University, was born and raised in Pasadena and currently bases his fishing boat out of Gibson Island. For a young captain, Gable has embarked on a number of long fishing trips that have taken him to the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia Beach and deep water banks off the coast of Ocean City. His closest encounters generally come with striped bass during fishing season, which this year begins on April 16.
Reports of strange happenings on the bay and its tributaries persist to the present day. Just last summer two bull sharks, each more than eight-feet-long, were caught in the nearby Potomac River. In late August, Willy Dean of Scotland, MD, snared a 300-pound man-eater in his fishing net near Point Lookout. A few days later, Thomas Crowder of St. Mary’s County confronted a 500-pound bull shark off Tall Timbers north of Cornfield Harbor.
With the ability to tolerate fresh water, the bull shark can unexpectedly travel up river and into contact with unsuspecting humans. Because of its irregular and aggressive behavior, many scientists identify the bull shark as the marine predator most responsible for attacks on humans.
Another strange Bay occurrence took place last April when a humpback whale was spotted just off Solomon’s Island. On April 30, the charter boat Margie D was trolling in 25 feet of water when a passenger noticed the splashing of a tail fin close to shore.
"It was a beautiful day and things were kind of slow," recalled Margie Dove, skipper of the Margie D. "All of a sudden one of the guys saw a huge tail slapping the water. It was a whale intermittently diving and surfacing… spraying water from its blowhole. Its head was in the crab pots.”
A fully-grown humpback whale weighs up to 80,000 pounds and measures up to 50 feet in length. Normally found in much deeper waters, this humpback was reported a quarter-mile east of the shipping channel near Hooper’s Island in 20-foot-deep water.
Witnesses to the harrowing encounter noticed the humpback was propelling its mouth close to the sandy bottom of the bay, consistent with the feeding patterns of whales.
Some scientists believe that modern day sea creatures are drawn to the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries for the same reasons ancient dinosaurs lived here - the diverse and abundant food supply.
“The Bay is an enormous body of water,” summarized Gable. “Don’t ever think you know a river such as the Magothy like the back of your hand. That’s when you’re likely to be surprised,” he added.

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