Eric A. Cheezum, Chessie: A Cultural History of the Chesapeake Bay Sea Monster

In July 1978, people living in Northern Virginia, on the banks of the Potomac River, reported something unusual moving through the water, heading downstream.It was long, like a giant snake, swimming in such a way that its spine created humps emerging above the surface of the water.It looked like a sea monster!Other sightings followed in that same summer in the lower Potomac and then in the Northern Neck of Chesapeake Bay, around Kent Island.These events marked the beginning of "the Chessie phenomenon".Eric Cheezum examines this phenomenon in Chessie, a book about how Chesapeake Bay residents, press, and naturalists responded to the presence of a mysterious creature in their waters.The reported sightings in Chesapeake Bay continued into the mid-1980s.Local news media covered the sightings, naming the creature "Chessie."The sightings varied.Some described a creature with smooth humps, but some said the humps had spines.The estimated lengths varied.Most witnesses reported a single creature, but one reported four such creatures, each resembling a sea serpent about 30 feet long.One woman described an encounter with an animal that resembled a manatee or large harbour seal.The varied sightings led to questions from reporters, the public, and marine biologists.Were all the sightings of the same animal?Was Chessie an animal at all? Was the animal dangerous?Should it be caught and studied?, protected?, exterminated?Some experts were skeptical, often because the reports came from newcomers to Chesapeake Bay, tourists and suburbanites who used the bay for recreation.Some watermen, whose families had worked on the bay for generations, regarded the reports as bogus, produced by people who did not understand the bay and its creatures.Some experts speculated that the sightings may have been otters swimming in single file, rogue waves, a piece of tubing used for containing oil spills, or perhaps floating debris after a storm.A breakthrough seemed to occur in 1982 when Robert Frew, a resident of Love Point, videotaped the creature.He described it as serpent-like, about 30 feet long.The videotape seemed to be a turning point in Chessie lore.Reporters descended upon Frew and his wife for interviews.The expanding publicity around Chessie and the videotape garnered the attention of the Enigma Group, who arranged a Smithsonian-hosted panel to discuss Chessie sightings and to submit the tape to expert analysis.The conclusion: the tape was authentic, but