Mysterious Sea Creature Spotted Along North Carolina Coast

A mysterious sea creature spotted along the North Carolina coast has many online debating whether the Tar Heel State is home to a new aquatic monster.

Chasin Tails Outdoors Bait & Tackle, in Atlantic Beach near the Bogue Sound, shared a video to its Facebook page on Tuesday (January 3) asking followers what they think the creature could be, per News & Observer. In the video, taken by charter boat Capt. Daniel Griffee, onlookers watch in wonder as a large black, unknown creature peeks out of the water, undulating near the surface as it swims away.

"Something you don't see everyday.... WHALES or the [Loch] NESS MONSTER in the Port this morning," the post states, adding that the shop has "never seen one inside the inlet like this."

The video, seen below, has been viewed more than 132,000 times as of Thursday afternoon.

Since the shop shared the video earlier this week, Facebook users flooded the comments with their guesses on what the creature could be, including an alligator, manatee, lost whale calf and even an anaconda. While some commenters debated the possibility of a mysterious sea creature or cryptid, others had a more skeptical view of the creature. "The more I look at it, the more I think it is a large gator," wrote one commenter while another joked, "I can see that some people need to watch more animal planet and less tiktok."

Griffee threw in his own two cents, saying he "wasn't sure at first" but that it "looked like a baby whale go lost from its mother."