Everybody loves a good monster story, and sea monsters have terrified and titillated old salts since humans first sailed upon the oceans. These “denizens of the deep” range from plesiosaur-like creatures to gigantic serpents and multi-tentacled cephalopods to fantastic hybrids, mer-people and solicitous sirens.

While some animals found in the sea have turned out to be marvelous examples of evolution's sense of humor like the giant narwhal, others have been identified as benign creatures such as the Manatee.

This story recounts a “tall tale” as related by the brothers Clark and their experience with a “sea monster” in San Francisco Bay on February 5, 1985 and subsequent events related to their initial sighting.

The story begins at 7:45 AM on an overcast morning near Fort Point adjacent to San Francisco Bay on the north end of the Presidio district. Visibility was about 15 miles at the time, according to weather archives, and the temperature was a brisk 45 degrees.

The twin brothers were parked in their car observing the local sea lions frolicking in the bay. The water was dead calm as there was little wind that morning so the duo had little difficulty discerning the playful sea creatures swimming about 150 yards away.

After a short time the Clarke boys observed what they thought was another sea lion swimming towards them from the West. When this animal was a mere 20 yards away a bulbous head a long neck arose out of the water at least 10 feet straight up in the air. The head and neck arched and lunged at the sea lions causing the pod to scatter in a panic.

The sea lions fled in the direction of the shore near where the Clark brothers were parked with the monster following close behind. The frantic sea lions swam right in front of the brothers and leapt in and out of the water while trying to escape from the monster’s jaws.

The brothers watched in amazement as sections of the monster's serpentine body broke the surface of the water along with its long neck and bulbous head completing a sine wave form. Then there was a splash and a loud thud as the creature -- whatever it was -- intent upon capturing the sea lions inadvertently followed them onto a rocky ledge in the shallows along the shore.

The monster writhed in a corkscrew manner in an attempt to pull itself off the rocks and back into the deeper water. When it finally did escape, the monster returned to the safety of the bay and disappeared from sight.

The Clark brothers claim to have seen the creature seven more times over the next two years and were even able to videotape the creature on at least one occasion. However, the resulting videos, taken with consumer video equipment, are of typically poor quality.

Nevertheless video analysis, by Clifford Paiva, Dr. Harold Slusher and Bruce Champagne, concluded that the video contains images of several large unknown serpentine marine animals swimming in San Francisco Bay.

Their analysis has been rejected by scientists as biased because the people mentioned were found to be ardent fanatics apparently bent upon proving the Creationist Agenda.

Subsequent video analysis by biologists at the National Geographic Society contradict the findings of the original analysts and assert that the hump-like shapes appearing in the video are simply water birds of some sort.

If this sighting were an isolated case it would be easy to dismiss it as a fantastic tall tale. However, similar sightings -- featuring nearly identical descriptions of a creature -- have been reported in Chesapeake Bay and Pensacola, Florida among other locations.

The Chesapeake Bay creature was witnessed by two off-duty police officers. In the case of the Pensacola incident, four human deaths were attributed to the animal that came upon five swimmers not far from the Naval Air Station there.

Are these encounters real, a hoax, or the ranting of histrionic personalities with over-active imaginations? You will have to be the judge.

We've just been informed that the panel discussion "Do You Believe?" scheduled for October 3, 2009 to be held at the Lake Mary Museum is sold out!

Blue Heron International Pictures producer, Richard Lester, who is presenting the full story behind the Rosewell brick along with panelists Scott Marlowe, cryptozoologist  of the Pangea Institute, MUFON Investigator Denise Stoner. and Ghost Investigator Joanne Maio will be relating accounts of their field experiences investigating the paranormal.

The panel will be moderated by self-professed skeptic, Owen Sliter, founder of the nationally acclaimed Spookhunters.com.

Award-winning film-maker Gary Lester will be on-hand with his video camera to document the event. Attendees of the event are to be given the chance to question the experts.

"We are past capacity at the museum and I'm now having to turn people away," says Museum Curator Mary Rowell. "It's really rare for us to get a response like this to a panel discussion event."

"This is unbelievable -- so to speak, " comments presenter Scott Marlowe.  Moderator Owen Sliter adds, "It's going to be a night to remember!"