Cadborosaurus: The Sea Serpent of Victoria

In 1933 a Victoria newspaper editor, Archie Wills, coined the name “Cadborosaurus,” after Cadboro Bay, for a long sea creature with a horse-like head and humps reported by boaters. Over the following decades hundreds more sightings were logged along the coast.

The carcass

In 1937 whalers at Naden Harbour on Haida Gwaii cut open a sperm whale and found a three-metre carcass with a long body and a head that looked, in the famous photo, like a camel’s. It was claimed as a baby Caddy, but a sample sent to a museum in Victoria was later discarded.

Scientists divide

In 1995 oceanographer Paul LeBlond and zoologist Edward Bousfield argued for a real unknown animal and gave it a scientific name. Zoologist Darren Naish, among others, has argued the evidence fits known animals: elephant seals, sea lions, oarfish, eels, and decomposing basking sharks, which lose their jaws and fins and look serpentine. In May 2026 the Guardian revisited the case: marine biologist Ben Speers-Roesch explained how a decaying basking shark collapses into a long “neck” and small head, while cryptozoologist John Kirk insisted it was an unknown mammal. With no samples left, it cannot be settled.

Ledger status

Marked folklore. Map position is Cadboro Bay area.

Sources

• Darren Naish, “The Cadborosaurus wars,” Scientific American Blogs — blogs.scientificamerican.com
• The Guardian, “Shark or sea monster? The Canadian marine mystery that still intrigues experts 90 years on” (7 May 2026) — theguardian.com
• Wikipedia, “Cadborosaurus” — en.wikipedia.org

Part of the World Ledger, batch 1. Original text; no images are used.