Two stills from a video taken off the coast of California in 1962 showing a yet unidentified sea animal nicknamed “Marvin”. It was estimated at 15 ft (4 m) in length
Two stills from a video taken off the coast of California in 1962 showing a yet unidentified sea animal nicknamed “Marvin”. It was estimated at 15 ft (4 m) in length
The underwater robot *Mobot*, designed by Shell Oil Company to scan the seafloor for oil deposits, filmed an invertebrate “sea serpent,” nicknamed Marvin, off Santa Barbara in February 1961 or 1962.[ ](https://cryptidarchives.fandom.com/wiki/Giant_invertebrates_(sea_serpent_type)#cite_note-Forrest-12)Photographer Forrest Adrian and drilling foreman Paul Martin, watching the footage live from the drilling ship *Eureka*, estimated that the creature was 15 ft (4 m) in length, but only 6 in (15 cm) in diameter, and described it as moving with a distinctive corkscrew or spiral motion. It remained in view for more than an hour. Adrian was recording the live feed during the animal’s appearance, and stills from the footage show that it was “wound about by ridges.” Thought to have been a colonial organism, Marvin was variably speculated by Los Angeles marine biologists to be a salp chain, a ctenophore, or a siphonophore, but identification was not possible based on the footage, and it remains unclassified
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A little more information
The underwater robot *Mobot*, designed by Shell Oil Company to scan the seafloor for oil deposits, filmed an invertebrate “sea serpent,” nicknamed Marvin, off Santa Barbara in February 1961 or 1962.[ ](https://cryptidarchives.fandom.com/wiki/Giant_invertebrates_(sea_serpent_type)#cite_note-Forrest-12)Photographer Forrest Adrian and drilling foreman Paul Martin, watching the footage live from the drilling ship *Eureka*, estimated that the creature was 15 ft (4 m) in length, but only 6 in (15 cm) in diameter, and described it as moving with a distinctive corkscrew or spiral motion. It remained in view for more than an hour. Adrian was recording the live feed during the animal’s appearance, and stills from the footage show that it was “wound about by ridges.” Thought to have been a colonial organism, Marvin was variably speculated by Los Angeles marine biologists to be a salp chain, a ctenophore, or a siphonophore, but identification was not possible based on the footage, and it remains unclassified
Oarfish?