Bobo is a cryptid that dwells near Monterey Bay, California. Descriptions vary greatly, and sightings of it are fairly common. It is generally thought to be big, from that of an orca or small whale.

Mr. E.J. Lear gave an account of an unknown sea creature to the Santa Cruz Sentinel in 1925:

"I was driving a team toward Capitola, when suddenly I was attracted by some young sea lions not far out. They were lined up and several large lions were swimming back and forth in front of them. Much farther out I saw the water being churned to foam and thrown high up in the air. It was shiny and I took it for a big fish. A dozen or more lions were battling it, and every once in a while all would raise out of the water. It looked to me as though all the sea lions were attacking it beneath as the monster came out of the water several times. In telling of the battle of that night I estimated its length at 30 feet.

"The battle continued as long as I could see it from the road. I was driving toward Capitola with a load of sand. I have not seen the monster on the beach, but it may have been that which I saw."

A few days later the body of a strange creature was discovered by Charles Moore on the shore in the very same area that Mr. Lear saw the battle. The body was examined by a naturalist, E. L. Wallace who said "My examination of the monster was quite thorough. I felt in its mouth and found it had no teeth. Its head is large and its neck fully twenty feet long. The body is weak and the tail is only three feet in length from the end of the backbone. These facts do away with the whale theory, as the backbone of a whale is far larger than any bone in this animal. Again, its tail is too weak for an animal of the deep and does away with that last version. With a bill like it possesses, it must have lived on herbage...I would call it a type of plesiosaurus."

"Later, Mr. Wallace offered the theory that the monster may have been preserved in a glacier for millions of years, finally being released by the gradual melting of ice, eventually ending up cast upon the shore in Monterey Bay."

Bobo's Tale Resurfaces

It was a clear fall day, and the Pacific Ocean was as flat and clear as a giant mirror. From Captain Sal Colletto’s small salmon fishing boat, 10 miles off Moss Landing, the indentation of the Monterey Bay on the shore looked like a giant’s thumbprint as he headed back towards Point Pinos. After a day of luckless fishing in the waters of Santa Cruz, the Monterey fisherman was looking forward to getting home.

Suddenly, Colletto noticed something floating in the sea about a half-mile farther out. Thinking it might be a man bobbing in the ocean, he gunned the engine and headed out towards the object. When the captain got within 100 feet of the thing, he saw a creature with a head the size of a 50-gallon barrel. It was tapered to where a duck-like bill protruded from the massive bulging forehead.

Colletto started to think about how a pair of fishermen had disappeared recently without a trace. Maybe this sea monster had devoured them. Not wanting to join their ranks, he pushed his boat’s throttle all the way down and headed back toward the Monterey Peninsula. He decided that he would not tell anyone about what he had seen.

Sixteen years later, Colletto was traveling towards the fishing grounds off Half Moon Bay on his 45-foot boat, the Dante Alighieri. While the crew ate lunch in the galley below, Colletto and his brother-in-law swapped fishing stories as the craft headed northward. Eventually, his brother-in-law started talking about a strange sea creature he had spotted a few times at the edge of the deep Monterey submarine canyon. Colletto got the chills as his brother-in-law described how other fishermen had said the beast would only surface on calm, sunny days 24 hours before a strong northwest wind started to blow.

It was a windless day, and the water was smooth and silver as liquid mercury. As Colletto gazed towards the Santa Cruz Mountains, he observed something bobbing in the sea and his heart fluttered like a dying fish’s gills. He realized immediately that it was that strange creature.

“All hands on deck,” Colletto yelled to the crew. They poured out of the galley and stood on the bow of the boat, wondering what the commotion was all about.

“I want all of you guys to see this,” he said as he slowly brought the boat closer to the beast. The captain then cut the motor, and the boat drifted within 50 feet of the object. The creature’s eyes were closed and it floated on the surface as if it were sunbathing or sleeping.

“It has the face of a monkey,” his cook squealed. “Let’s leave. This is a bad omen.”

“No, its face looks like that of an old man,” Colletto’s brother-in-law said.

The noise must have awakened the monster, and it slowly opened its eyes, which were as big and pink as grapefruits. The creature’s body was brown and almost as long as the boat. Its skin was wrinkled and sagged from its frame like ill-fitting clothing. Colletto thought to himself that this was a very old animal.

While the crew argued about what the animal looked like, the monster quietly slid underwater like an elderly man easing into a bath.

Following the sighting, several other fishermen saw the creature, and eventually, the people of Monterey started to refer to the animal as “Bobo, the old man of the sea.” From then on, Colletto kept a camera on his vessel hoping to once again spot “Bobo” and get photographic evidence of its existence. He never saw it again.

A few years later, in 1925, a strange sea creature washed ashore on a beach two miles north of Santa Cruz. Though the dead body was decomposed, scientists including E.L. Wallace, a former president of the Natural History Society of British Columbia, did not think the carcass was that of a whale or shark. Wallace even suggested that the animal might be a plesiosaurus, a large marine reptile held over from the Jurassic period.

Whatever it was, a creature resembling Bobo was never spotted again in the waters of Monterey Bay. - The tale of Bobo, Monterey Bay’s sea creature, resurfaces

Another Witness Account

This is an account of a sighting that has remained a mystery for me and my brother for approximately 38 years now. My brother and I, along with our Dad, were fishing in Monterey Bay in 1971 or 1972.

We had rented a 16-foot boat and were headed out into the bay with my brother at the controls. I was seated up front next to him and our Dad was sitting behind us. Suddenly, just a dozen yards or so directly in front of us, some kind of a large sea creature was starting to surface. We saw only part of its arched body, but it was directly in front of us and we both got a good, close-up look. Even though we were total amateurs in all sea-faring activities and knew nothing at all about sea life, we were both convinced that we saw something that wasn't supposed to be in Monterey Bay. We both continued to describe this creature as "some kind of prehistoric sea creature". (That was about the only way we could think of to describe what we saw) We may have been young and inexperienced, but we ALWAYS have maintained that what we saw was not normal. We noted its skin texture, color, and the fact that it had large scales.

Tonight was the very first time that we have ever heard of anything like this being spotted in Monterey Bay. My brother watched the program *"Lost Tapes", then just informed me! After 38 years, we now are happy to say that "We probably were right all along"!!! We have ALWAYS maintained that what we saw was not normal at all.

*The witness is referring to Sharon Novak and the Sea Creature episode

The cable channel Animal Planet had a series called "Lost Tapes." One episode, first aired in January 2009, tells about Sharon Novak and a sea creature. The film does not credit any actress. Allegedly, while attempting a round-the-world trip, in her sailboat named Artemis, journalist Sharon Novak got a distress call while in Monterey Bay. When she arrived at the scene she found an empty boat. Her boat got bumped and she fell overboard. While trying to swim back to the boat, she was supposedly eaten by a sea creature.

A camera atop the main sail mast records her efforts to get back to her boat. A waterproof camera she was wearing records a fin and some splashing. This supposedly happened in the summer of 2007. A few problems that people have noticed. No news stories on Sharon Novak and no story of a lone woman boat owner going missing in Monterey Bay have been found. No one in Monterey or Santa Cruz has a record of such an incident. The Coast Guard in Monterey, California has no record of any incident involving a vessel named Artemis or any record of Sharon Novak in all of 2007. How is it her waterproof camera survives and her body does not? No writings or blogs of Sharon Novak have been found.

A 42-foot sailboat named “Artemis” does exist. It is owned by, Great Traditions Of The Sea, in Malibu, California. It is for teaching sailing and is otherwise for rent.

The Moore Beach Monster

"On June 4, 1925, the newspapers of Santa Cruz and San Francisco, California, apprised the public of the occurrence of a sea serpent, or other more or less fabled marine monster in California waters. A few days prior to the newspaper stories, the remains of a large marine animal had been washed ashore on the beach at Santa Cruz, California. Decomposition had set in, and close examination of the carcass was not lightly undertaken. Consequently, the tales were the result of distant and hasty examination. When the news of the presence of this creature reached Dr. Barton Warren Evermann, of the California Academy of Sciences, he visited the spot and pronounced the "sea serpent" to be the eviscerated carcass of a beaked whale. More specific identification was impossible at that time, but arrangements were made to have the skull preserved and it is now incorporated in the collections of the California Academy of Sciences.

Examination of the skull after its arrival at the museum proved it to be that of the rare Baird's beaked whale (Berardius bairdii Stejneger), previously known to science by only ten specimens.

When the skull reached the museum, the tips of the mandibles had been broken off, and one pterygoid and the teeth were missing; otherwise it was in good condition." - Journal of Mammalogy, November 1929

Here's a link to the Animal Planet sneak peek video - Lost Tapes: Monster of Monterey

Sources:
montereycountyweekly.com
Santa Cruz Sentinel - 1925
Storm, Rory - Monster Hunt: The Guide to Cryptozoology
Martin, Jim - "Sea Monsters" - Saturday Evening Post - 4/12/1947
Marinacci, Mike - Mysterious California: Strange places and eerie phenomena in the Golden State
McLellen Davidson, M.E. - Journal of Mammalogy, November 1929
Reinstedt, Randall A. - Mysterious Sea Monsters of California's Central Coast
Godfrey, Linda - American Monsters: A History of Monster Lore, Legends, and Sightings in America

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