# Why are sea serpents accepted as fact? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 9, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408 "2013-09-09T13:21:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CloneFive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@CloneFive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CloneFive)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/1 "2013-09-09T13:21:44Z")
A sea serpent is an aquatic species of dragon that resides in the oceans. I do not see how our lack of exploration justifies the existence of an ice-breathing, aquatic draconian beast that devours ships and its accommodating sailors. Yet, very few websites contain the term ‘‘sea serpent’’ and ‘‘mythical’’, and many cryptozoologists appear to be entirely fixated on them. What are the best points against their existence? ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/2 "2013-09-09T13:24:21Z")
There’s no point against their existence, and every reason to believe big unknown species live in the oceans. not ‘serpents’ necessarily, but wiggly cold things. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/3 "2013-09-09T13:25:03Z")
That is a bold position you are taking. It will be only hours before you suffer a scathing rebuke from the rationalist pro-sea-serpent faction of the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/4 "2013-09-09T13:28:18Z")
How can anything breathe a solid substance? ---
**Author:** ![Uber\_the\_Goober](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/58956e/32.png) [@Uber\_the\_Goober](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uber_the_Goober)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/5 "2013-09-09T13:33:14Z")
> [@CloneFive](#): > > \ > > What are the best points against their existence? Doesn’t work that way. The person making claims that deviate from the established facts must support the claim with evidence. They don’t get to say that X exists and then demand that you debunk the claim. There’s plenty of _possibility_ that they exist, cuz that’s a lot of ocean out there, and we can’t watch all of it all the time. But there’s no such thing as evidence that something _can’t_ exist, at least not the type that will persuade a cryptozoologist who’s fawning over his favorite myth. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/6 "2013-09-09T14:11:42Z")
Sea serpents? Absurd. If there were any way for Nessie to get out to the open ocean then they might have something but as it stands, nope. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/7 "2013-09-09T14:36:54Z")
> [@CloneFive](#): > > Yet, very few websites contain the term ‘‘sea serpent’’ and ‘‘mythical’’, If you’re just running Internet searches and counting hits, that doesn’t really tell you much about scientific consensus. Here you’re not even presenting us with the number of hits you found, or any websites; you’re making a hearsay claim about one or more searches we don’t know exactly how you performed about hearsay unknown people posted to the Internet. That’s not much to go on. > [@CloneFive](#): > > and many cryptozoologists appear to be entirely fixated on them. Degreed cryptozoologists from reputable institutes? Or just people _calling themselves_ cryptozoologists? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/8 "2013-09-09T15:03:31Z")
What an interesting universe you must live in, where belief in all these mystical creatures is so firmly established in the general populace, and you stand proudly as a lone dissenter, boldly denying their existence. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/9 "2013-09-09T15:09:05Z")
[A confirmed sighting of a sea serpent](http://www.tvacres.com/puppets_beany_cecil.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/10 "2013-09-09T15:10:28Z")
I bet those cryptozoologist just don’t realize that they were[imprinted](https://www.google.com/search?q=beany+and+cecil&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&rlz=1I7RNQN_enUS495&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=aeQtUo71F8vriwKK84CgAg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1014&bih=474)when they were very young. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/11 "2013-09-09T15:15:07Z")
Sea serpents **must** exist, otherwise we’d be up to our eyeballs in marine werewolves. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/12 "2013-09-09T15:18:40Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Degreed cryptozoologists from reputable institutes? Or just people _calling themselves_ cryptozoologists? Just because you have a degree in some other field doesn’t mean you don’t know your own profession. You could somebody who retired from a law career go into cryptozoology rather than lobbying. Lack of a biology degree doesn’t mean (s)he isn’t knowledgeable, competent, prepared, and serious. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/13 "2013-09-09T15:21:52Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Sea serpents **must** exist, otherwise we’d be up to our eyeballs in marine werewolves. 😉 But it’s okay, since we can convince them to stop breathing. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/14 "2013-09-09T15:23:50Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > But it’s okay, since we can convince them to stop breathing. or trick them into the jungle with the carniverous plantesouras. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/15 "2013-09-09T15:46:05Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > There’s no point against their existence, and every reason to believe big unknown species live in the oceans. > > not ‘serpents’ necessarily, but wiggly cold things. This. I think most people have no idea how much unknown there is in our seas. Try this: there are hundreds of thousands of sperm whales now living. Their diet is almost exclusively medium to giant to colossal squid… many species and sizes of which are known only from the contents of sperm whale stomachs. (Even in the last whaling days of the 1940s, squid tentacles as big as a man’s body were reported.) In other words, there are enough enormous squid in the oceans to feed several hundred thousand whales… and we have never seen some of those species alive, and many of them only in much smaller sizes. But they’re out there. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/16 "2013-09-09T15:46:51Z")
> [@CloneFive](#): > > A sea serpent is an aquatic species of dragon that resides in the oceans. I do not see how our lack of exploration justifies the existence of an ice-breathing, aquatic draconian beast that devours ships and its accommodating sailors. Yet, very few websites contain the term ‘‘sea serpent’’ and ‘‘mythical’’, and many cryptozoologists appear to be entirely fixated on them. What are the best points against their existence? **Moderating** **CloneFive** , your questions in this forum are becoming increasingly outlandish. (I note your previous one about whether werewolves are plausible.) It should be obvious that sea serpents are not “accepted as fact.” While we don’t mind you asking serious questions here, let’s not pretend questions are serious if they are not. More far-fetched questions like this one and the one on werewolves would be better placed in IMHO. I’ll leave this one here for now, but let’s restrict GQ questions to phenomena there are reasons to believe could be real. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/17 "2013-09-09T15:54:17Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Degreed cryptozoologists from reputable institutes? There is no such thing. ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/18 "2013-09-09T16:01:24Z")
Lots of people have biology degrees. It doesn’t say ‘cryptozoology’ on the paperwork, but really all field biology is cryptobiology. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/19 "2013-09-09T16:09:22Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > Lots of people have biology degrees. It doesn’t say ‘cryptozoology’ on the paperwork, but really all field biology is cryptobiology. No field biology is cryptobiology.[Cryptobiology/cryptozoology](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptozoology) virtually by definition is pseudoscience. > [@](#): > > Cryptozoology is not a recognized branch of zoology or a discipline of science.[1] It is an example of pseudoscience because it relies heavily upon anecdotal evidence, stories and alleged sightings ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408/20 "2013-09-09T16:17:28Z")
Your link says the following:" is a \*\*pseudoscience \*\*involving the search for animals whose existence has not been proven." Leave out ‘pseudo’, and you’ve got field biology. It’s only pseudoscience to people who don’t understand what cryptobiology is, a search for real animals. Science, real science, is full of solid results that started from stories, anecdotes, and the like. New species are found all the time. Some are more ‘fantastic’ than others, but there undeniably are unknown large species on Earth. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-sea-serpents-accepted-as-fact/668408.md?page=2)