Pic: “Normandy Nessie,” Florida’s Loch Ness Monster?

A retiree in Florida is reporting a Loch Ness style creature in a local canal- at first thought by the man to be a snake before he says he spotted a caudal fin.

Pictures of the creature are, as always, from a large distance and it’s almost difficult to spot the water, much less a water dwelling creature. But Russ Sittloh insists the creature is huge and potentially dangerous- and he’s concerned for small children and kayakers in the vicinity. (Pythons are a known invasive species in the South, and in July a toddler in Florida was strangled to death by a household pet python. )

Sittloh says when he last saw the beast, it did a double roll and came back toward Sittloh with a “mouthful of fish.” Whether the creature Sittloh is capturing on film is a python is up for some debate:

“I don’t know if we have a mutated species here or what,” Sittloh said. “Whatever he is, my God, is he big. He is some kind of big.”

Sittloh said he has warned his neighbors and called the city, but did not report the creature to the Sheriff’s Office.

“From the video, it appears most likely it is a manatee,” said Carli Segelson, media relations coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Marianne Pasha said no one else in Madeira Beach has reported seeing Nessie.

“It sounds like there is something out there, but we don’t know what it is,” she said.

Sittloh has invested nearly $400 in equipment to record the elusive creature, so perhaps better pictures will surface soon. The pic above was captured on November 8th, and allegedly shows the animal frolicking in Sittloh’s Madeira Beach canal,