The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

w at er lo oc hr on ic le .c a W at er lo o C hr on ic le | T hu rs da y, Ja nu ar y 9, 20 20 | 12 I am groundwater and I'm worth protecting. I'm your drinking water. What you put on the ground can be harmful to me. Limit the use of salt and ice melter: Help keep salt out of groundwater. Learn how at www.regionofwaterloo.ca/groundwater Add traction when needed with sand Shovel or plow the snow first Break up ice with a steel ice chopper NOTICE: PROPOSED FEE CHANGES The Council of the Corporation of the City of Waterloo will consider proposed fee changes to the 2020 City Utilities rates at a public meeting which will be held onMonday, January 13, 2020, at a time to be determined, in the Council Chambers on the 3rd Floor located at City Hall, 100 Regina Street South, Waterloo, Ontario, N2J 4A8. If you would like to appear before Council on January 13, 2020 regarding this matter, please contact Legislative Services at 519-747-8549 or clerkinfo@waterloo.ca no later than 10:00 am, January 13, 2020. Further information is available by contactingMichael Pugliese at 519-886-2310 x30264. P. 519-886-1550 TTY. 1-866-786-3941waterloo.ca I've had a lifelong fasci- nation with cryptozoology: the study of animals whose reported existence is un- proven, like the yeti, the mothman and the Loch Ness monster. That's why I was thrilled to find in the basement of my home over the holidays two of my favourite crypto- zoology books from my childhood, The World of the Unknown: Monsters, and Creatures From Elsewhere. In the chapter called Monsters of the Deep from Creatures from Elsewhere, authors Janet and Colin Bord wrote: "Many scien- tists remain skeptical about the existence of un- derwater monsters, yet sightings of giant sea crea- tures, some extremely de- tailed, continue to be re- ported around the world." One of the most intrigu- ing stories the Bords wrote about is of a 55-foot (17 me- tres) body that washed up on the shore of the Scottish island of Stronsay in the Orkneys in 1808, first seen by local fishermen and farmers. "But before any in- formed examination could be made, storms had smashed the rotting car- cass to pieces," the Bords wrote. "The drawing that was made from the witness- es' descriptions showed an extraordinary animal with a long neck and undulating tail and three pairs of legs, a feature hitherto unknown in a vertebrate. The corpse was finally identified as a shark by a British surgeon, Everard Home, who had made a study of shark anat- omy and was able to obtain specimens of bones that had been removed from the beast." The Bords wrote that the decomposition of shark carcasses, when washed up on shore, can leave what looks like an unworldly creature with a long thin neck and tail. As a child, I would gaze for hours at pictures and il- lustrations in these books and was captivated by sev- eral sightings on the west coast of Canada. The Bords wrote: "In the Strait of Georgia between Vancouver Island and Brit- ish Columbia, the creature known locally as Cadboro- saurus or Caddy was sight- ed by the (native Canadi- ans) long before the arrival of the white settlers." Caddy was seen fre- quently during the 1930s, the Bords explained, and was described as a serpent 45 feet (14 metres) long, with wide-open jaws, rising out of the water. The descriptions were similar to those of the world's most famous water monster, Nessie, said to in- habit the depths of Scot- land's Loch Ness. I love the idea that un- known monsters - perhaps even surviving dinosaurs - may lurk beneath the sur- face of the world's lakes and oceans. Of course, as an adult, I understand that the vast majority of these beasts, perhaps all, are likely mis- identified creatures or the result of overactive imagi- nations seeing perfectly natural phenomena. But surely the enor- mous oceans of this planet are home to many species great and small that sci- ence has yet to identify. Nature continues to sur- prise us, and I hope that one day we discover that some of the cryptids that fuelled my childhood imag- ination emerge from the depths into reality. Marshall Ward is a freelance writer and artist. Email is welcome at mar- shall_ward@hotmail.com. OPINION ARE THERE MONSTERS AMONG US? CRYPTOZOOLOGY FUELLED MY CHILDHOOD IMAGINATION, SAYS MARSHALL WARD MARSHALL WARD Column A sea creature on the cover of the book, 'The World of the Unknown: Monsters'. Marshall Ward photo