Extreme Climatic Upheaval, Emergency Resource Adaptation, and the Emergence of Folkloric Belief: Geomythic Origin of Sea Serpents from Animals Becoming Entangled in Fishing Gear During New England’s Nineteenth-Century Social-Ecological Crisis

Abstract

In 1815, the eruption of the Indonesian volcano, Tambora, produced a social-ecological crisis experienced around the world. In New England, the relationship of humans to their coastal ecosystem was completely transfigured. Slaughter of livestock for want of fodder and the collapse of the anadromous fishery due to spawning failures necessitated turning to mackerel. The result of this regional resource shift was the sudden and massive deployment of fishing gear in coastal waters. Coincident to these events, what would become the world’s most sighted ‘sea serpent’ became prominent around Gloucester, Massachusetts. Careful parsing of eyewitness descriptions of physical and behavioral characteristics provided to the region’s natural history society strongly suggests that this is an early documented case of a marine animal entangled in fishing gear. This supports other work positing such entanglement as being behind many sea monster sightings.