Is the Three Gorges "water monster" a rumor? Experts say it was a plastic bag. The location of the photo is questionable.
A suspected "water monster" in the Three Gorges Dam area in Yichang, Hubei Province, has attracted people's attention. Some netizens speculated that the giant mysterious creature could be a fish or a snake. But experts disagree, and the location of the shooting may not be in the Three Gorges Dam area in Yichang, Hubei province.
On September 14, Ding Li, a researcher at the Chengdu Institute of Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who studies snakes and other reptiles, told Thepaper.cn that from the video uploaded online, the object in the water is not a fish or snake, but may be a floating object hanging at the bottom of the river. Another aquatic biology researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences said it was probably a black plastic bag that had been caught by something. In the video, it can be seen wiggling but not moving.
Expert: "Water monster" or a floating object
Dingli told the Surging news that if it is a snake or other aquatic animals as large as the video, then its disturbance to the current will be obvious when it swims in the water. And the object in the video is completely along the direction of the water flow, like being washed by the water, swinging to and from, not like a living animal, but more like a floating object hanging on the bottom, because it has no displacement relative to the shore.
Dingley said that the snake is not very good at swimming in the current, and in such a strong current, it will choose to shore rather than swim upstream. And fish don't swim on the surface like they do in the video.
Where the video was shot or in Chizhou, Anhui province
The location of the video is also questionable.
On September 14, a netizen from Chizhou City in Anhui province reported to the Surging news that he recognized the video shooting location as Jiangkou ferry terminal in Guichi District, Chizhou City, Anhui Province, rather than the area of the Three Gorges Dam in Yichang, Hubei Province.
The netizen said that about ten days ago, a friend who was fishing with him filmed the relevant video, and he also saw the object in the video at the ferry port.
"It wasn't a living thing. It was probably a big black (plastic) bag." "He said.
The netizen provided a video with another perspective. In the video, there are long black bars on the water and the picture is blurred.
A staff member of Jiangkou Ferry terminal in Guichi District told Thepaper.cn on the 14th that the location in the video was indeed the terminal; The monster is fake and should be a plastic bag or a fishing net.
On the same day, a person surnamed Wang in charge of the Internet Information Office of the Yichang Municipal Party Committee told the Surging news that they had noticed the incident, but had not been able to determine the specific location of the suspected "water monster" object. (Zhu Xuan, Wu Yuewei, Thepaper.cn)