A bizarre creature was spotted swimming in a New Orleans City Park lagoon. The locals couldn't identify it, leaving them mystified.
Mysterious Serpent-Like Creature in New Orleans Lagoon
A video shared by the local Early Partners preschool on Instagram left many bewildered. It shows an animal floating on the surface of the water.
Kim Frusciante, a school founder, described the bizarre animal as a "mysterious serpent-like creature" to news station WGNO. She saw it when she and her family visited the park while walking through the Sculpture Garden.
She added that there were speculations online that it was a genetically modified carp fish released in City Park. Her children were reportedly terrified and excited at the same time when they saw the bizarre creature.
In her recollection, the animal was quite long. Her 4-year-old child was slightly smaller than it was. They saw it weaving on the surface with lots of scales. It has a red tail that hangs on the surface longer than normal fish.
Frusciante said they do deep-dive investigations and haven't seen anything like it in their sea creature studies or books. She was convinced that the animal was the Loch Ness monster of New Orleans.
WGNO reached out to New Orleans City Park and asked for the location of the creature in question. However, the outlet hasn't heard back from them.
Netizens Try to Identify the Mysterious Creature
WGNO's report on Facebook received many responses from netizens. Several attempted to help identify the creature. Many suggested that it was a huge carp.
Charles Henry Garcia said he was 100% sure it was a carp and a big one. Jeremy Coker suggested it could be a German carp because one of his old employers had some in the pond.
Several netizens agreed that it was a carp but a dying one.
J Cus Glaviano claimed it could be a dying carp swimming upside-down. Sean Gomez agreed, saying he was thinking the same - that the animal was a dying fish, probably due to a lack of oxygen in the water.
Phant Will said that he saw the same fish at the Sculpture Garden the previous week, and during the sighting, he had the impression that the fish was dying. Its tail was reportedly all chewed up, and its body was disturbingly crooked. He figured out that it was some carp but a grotesque one. He wondered how it survived after a week and was still swimming in the lagoon.
Meanwhile, several netizens were convinced that the fish was not a carp but an alligator gar.
Lester Padilla said it could be an alligator gar because he saw them himself, and they have been there for decades. Doug May agreed with Padilla, saying he was thinking the same. Some also suggested that it could be a sturgeon.
However, many also argued that there was no way the fish was an alligator gar. One online user commented on the video on Instagram and said alligator gar don't have a dorsal fin, so it was a big carp.
RELATED ARTICLE : 12-Foot Sea Serpent Washed Up Ashore in New Zealand: Is It a Sign of an Upcoming Disaster?
Check out more news and information on Animals in Science Times.
