The Baku Trawler Reports

Source: Phantom and Monsters Blog

Master Oregon note: The creature described in this reports are what said to be a type of humanoid fish-like entity, i.e. a fish-man. Such creatures have been commonly reported being seen in the Caspian Sea area. Such sightings of similar creatures also occur throughout the world - Goat Man, Lizard Men, Dog headed Men, etc.

Location/Date: Caspian Sea, Astara & Lenkoran Azerbaijan - March 2005 - Afternoon

Residents of a few towns on the Caspian shores in Iran and Azerbaijan say they have seen an amphibious man, he was reported to be swimming amidst huge shoals of fish. Rumor has it that the waters where he swam were becoming sparkling clear. Recently eyewitnesses onboard the Azeri trawler, “Baku” reported seeing the creature.

According to Gafar Gasanof the captain of the trawler, the creature was swimming in a parallel course near the boat for a long time. At first they thought it was a large fish, but then they spotted hair on its head and his fins looked very unusual. And incredibly the front part of his body was equipped with arms. Shortly after this report was published in an Iranian newspaper, numerous readers came forward describing their own sightings. The readers pointed out that numerous fishermen had repeatedly seen the strange creature at sea and on the shore after seabed volcanoes in the area of Babolsera became active in February and offshore oil production operations intensified in the Caspian.

All the eyewitness accounts provide a similar description of the marine humanoid. His height is about 165cm to 168cm, it has a protruding stomach, his feet are pinniped and he has four webbed fingers on either of his hands. His skin is pale white in color. The hair on his head looks black and green. His arms and legs are shorter and heavier than those of a medium-build person. Apart from his fingernails, he has nails growing on the tip of his aquiline nose that resembles a dolphin’s beak. There is no information as to his ears. His eyes are large and orbicular. The mouth of the creature is fairly large, his upper jaw is protruding and his lower lip flows smoothly into the neck, his chin is missing.

Iranians have dubbed the creature, “Runan-shah” or “Master of the seas and rivers”. Other stories report that the waters remain crystal clear for days in the area where the creature has been spotted. Fishermen report that the fish that are caught in their nets seem to sense the creature when it approaches and produce a barely audible gurgling sound. It is said that the creature answers the call of the catch by making similar throaty sounds. According to a theory the creature is not alone and that there is a family of underwater humans, who are on a mission.to tackle environmental problems in the Caspian.

The reproduction of flora and fauna in the Caspian has significantly deteriorated due to a surge in offshore oil production operations and underwater volcanic activity. The Astrakhan fishermen have long complained about the decrease in the stock of sturgeon.

Location/Date: Caspian Sea territorial waters of Azerbaijan - end of March 2005

Azerbaijani fishermen from the trawler “Baky” (Baku) were stunned to see a weird entity in the water. The entity swam for a long period of time near the trawler, parallel to it, reported Gafar Gasanov Captain of the ship to the local newspaper “Zindagi” when he arrived at the Iranian port of Enzeli. At first the crew thought that the entity was some type of unknown large fish, but soon they noticed that the entity’s head had distinct hairs on it and the front fins were not fins at all but webbed hands. They acknowledged that the entity looked more like a humanoid than any kind of known fish. They all concluded that they had never seen something like it in the waters.

The amphibian entity then plunged deep into the waters and disappeared from sight. When Captain Gasanov returned to Azerbaijan people there refused to talk to him about the incident alleging that he and his crew had all been drunk. But the Iranians took the report seriously because of numerous rumors about “a man from the sea” were circulating in Iran long before this report. After publication in the local newspaper “Zindagi” local Iranian residents wrote numerous letters to the newspaper reporting their own encounters with a similar entity.

The common opinion was that underwater volcanic activity in the area of Babolser and the intensification of oil extraction in the Caspian Sea has somehow caused unknown deep water dwellers to venture up to the surface. The entity is shorter than that of the average height, about 165-168cm, thickset, with a protruding belly, feet with flippers, and 4 fingered webbed hands. The skin is pale yellowish gray in color and it has stiff black-green hair. Arms and legs are slightly shorter and thicker than that of humans. Sharp nails grow on its hands and also at the tip of its hump-shaped nose, forming something like a dolphin’s beak. The ears are not visible. The eyes are big and round and the mouth is quite big with a protruding upper jaw, smoothly connected to the neck, without chin, the smaller lip is similar to that of a shark’s jaw.

In Iran this amphibian humanoid is called “Runah-Shah” which means, “Sovereign of waters and rivers”. Interestingly the fishermen have noticed that the fish seemed to react when the entity appears, like if there were some kind of distant, extra sensory communication between the entity and the fish. Other witnesses reported seeing the same or similar entity in May between the small fishing villages of Astara and Lenkoran.