This I thought was really interesting.
Just thought I would share it.
Residents
of a few towns on the Caspian shores in Iran and Azerbaijan say that
they saw an amphibious man, he was reported to be swimming amidst huge
shoals of fish. Rumor has it that the waters where he swam were turning
spanking clear
For the last two years
residents of coastal areas around the southern and southwestern Caspian
Sea have been reporting of some amphibious creature resembling a human
being. In March this year an eyewitness account from the crew of the
Baku, an Azeri trawler, was published by Iranian newspaper Zindagi:
"That creature was swimming parallel course near the boat for a long
time," said Gafar Gasanof, a captain of the ship.
"At the beginning we thought it was a big fish, but then we spotted
hair on the head of the monster and his fins looked pretty strange...
the front part of his body was equipped with arms!" said the captain.
Back in Azerbaijan, nobody took his story seriously. It sounded
ridiculous to those who thought that the guy must have been drinking
while on board.
On the contrary, shortly after the publication of his interview, the
offices of the Iranian paper got flooded with numerous letters of the
readers who claimed that the story was yet another piece of evidence
proving the existence of the so-called "man of the sea". The readers
pointed out that many fishermen had repeatedly seen the strange
creature at sea and on shore after the seabed volcanoes in the area of
Babolsera had come to life in February and offshore oil production
operations had intensified in the Caspian.
All the eyewitness accounts provide a similar description of the marine humanoid.
His height is 165-168 cm, he has a strong build, a protruding ctenoid
stomach, his feet are pinniped and he has four webbed fingers on either
of his hands. His skin is of moonlight color. The hair on his head
looks black and green. His arms and legs are shorter and heavier than
those of a medium-build person. Apart from his fingernails, he has
nails growing on the tip of his aquiline nose that look like a
dolphin"s beak. No information as to his ears. His eyes are large and
orbicular. The mouth of the creature is fairly large, his upper jaw is
prognathic and his lower lip flows smoothly into the neck, his chin is
missing.
Iranians dubbed the creature
Runan-shah or "the master of the sea and rivers." The name is partly
based on stories about large shoals of fish accompanying the creature
at sea. Other stories refer to the waters that would turn crystal clear
and stay that way for two or three days after the creature was seen
swimming in those areas. Fishermen claim that fishes that stay alive
for a while in the net can feel the creature coming out of the deep
blue sea. Fishes were reported producing barely heard gurgling sounds
as the monster came near. He was said to answer the call of the catch
by making similar throaty sounds.
Some researchers believe that
there is no smoke without fire and the stories circulating in Iran can
be true. Besides, last May Runan-shah was seen by Azeri fishermen
living in the villages located between the cities of Astara and
Lenkoran.
According to a theory, the creature is not alone, there is a family of
underwater humans who are on a mission ... to tackle environmental
problems of the Caspian.
The reproduction of flora and
fauna in the Caspian has significantly deteriorated due to a surge in
offshore oil production operations and underwater volcanic activity in
the above parts of the sea. The Astrakhan fishermen has long complained
about a decrease in the stock of sturgeon, the total disappearance of
sprat and the like. The seafood industry figures indicate that the
situation in the southern Caspian has worsened even more this year.
The Caspian Runan-shah is not the only species of underwater humans on record.
Both Herodotus and Plato believed that original human beings were amphibious and might have founded an underwater state.
Modern doctors actually agree
to that theory by saying that hiccup is an atavism dating back to
ancient times when humans had both lungs and gills.
A book of
collected scientific articles titled "The Universe and Humankind" that
was published in St. Petersburf in 1905 contains a story of "marine
female" caught in the Caribbean. It also has stories about dead bodies
of the amphibious humans washed ashore in the Azores in 1876. Their
descriptions largely correspond with the reported description of
Runan-shah.
An amphibious humanlike being
was reported in Karelia in 1928. The creature was repeatedly seen in
the lake of Vedlozero by local residents. A group of researchers from
the Petrozavodsk university arrived to investigate the case on
location. Unfortunately, the findings were classified and the members
of the research party eventually perished in the Gulag.
According to latest reports in
the media, Iranians have already started their research of the Caspian
phenomenon. The international scientific community might as well help
unravel the mystery if politics do not get in the way of science this
time around.