Giant Goonches Invade the Philippines?

Readers may recall our coverage of Giant Goonches earlier this year – the large (6 foot +) catfish population of the Ganges river, that may have acquired a taste for human flesh after years of snacking on the burning carcasses floated down the river. Now, the “Pinatubo Monster” has surfaced in the Philippines – and my money is on the Giant Goonches.

By Shawn Lindseth at Heckler Spray

If you live in a Filipino village with an economy primarily based on fishing, it could present quite a problem if five monsters suddenly show up in your water keeping everybody land-locked out of fear. Some say this is what caused the current world-wide economic meltdown. Others claim we just made that up right now.

Still others claim five snake-like black beasts did show up in the local waters of a Philippine island of Luzon.

In November of 2002 a Filipino boy reported seeing a big black creature swimming near his village. He thought he was seeing a log until the thing moved – showing off a little more of its shape. The description now given it is that it looked like a cross between a catfish and a shark. The boy screamed, bringing other locals to his aid – but the creature was gone.

About two months later a a whole bunch of people reported seeing the same thing at the same time – a creature measuring three feet wide and seven feet long. Their description was that the creature seemed to be rolling as it swam down stream.

Pandemonium ensued. As the website American Monsters puts it:

“Although there are no accounts of malicious river monsters in any Aeta lore, the tribal leaders have taken drastic actions in order to avoid any civilian casualties. In the small village of Labuan, children are no longer allowed to bathe or play in the river and men and women have ceased fishing altogether, forcing the members of their community to subsist on a diet whose sole source of protein consists of captured frogs.”

Via a local newspaper tribal leaders requested the Philippine government to send a scientist for the purpose of getting their people mostly off of the all-frog diet. Their request was granted, and without seeing anything, said scientist determined a school of fish was causing the madness.

Not much of an answer, right? Well don’t fret – the Sci Fi channel is on it. Their show Destination Truth reportedly investigated things. They didn’t find anything either. Now you can fret.

Lastly – there is at least one strange guess as to where the creatures came from. There is an abandoned gold mine relatively close to the village with the sightings. While it was operating it dumped tons of mercury into the water. According to PinatuboMonster.com:

“Another theory often disregarded is that the Pinatubo Monster is the product of toxic waste dumped into the river creating new mutant hybrid creatures…Since the locals have stopped fishing for safety reasons, we have yet to hear of any reports of fish being toxic or causing birth defects in villages.”