Sea monster stories have been around for centuries. Living along the Gulf of Mexico, we have heard our share. Such colorful stories from seafaring men and their encounters with creatures lurking off the waters of Port Isabel are not as common today as they were in the past.
If you pry enough, you may find an old local fisherman willing to tell his story of the unseen creatures still living in the undiscovered world below the sea.
Sailors are good storytellers. Without hesitation, many can vividly remember the moonless night when a giant serpent attacked their crew or when they sighted a mysterious creature with two heads. Such stories were alive and well in and around the waters of Valley in the 1930s.
A newspaper headline of then read, “Port Isabel men stirred by reports of a ‘Monster Fish’ in the waters near the Valley.”
In the summer of 1938, such tales of sea monsters were given wide attention as local fishermen, both sport and commercial, had reported seeing a big fish in the peaceful waters of the gulf. The fish was described as so big that none dared to move close enough to take a good look. The creature made a creepy crying sound that silenced the bravest seamen.
B.B. Burnell, proprietor of a Port Isabel fish business, declared that he had seen it a number of times.Burnell said, “I steered my vessel, the Audrey, which was the same length as the fish, around it in consideration of my boat’s welfare, and my own.”
Another well-known Port Isabel fishing captain, J.W. Pate, also had an encounter with this mysterious creature and he too kept his Gulf Ranger safely away.
As the story was repeated, so changed the content and description of the monster, but the most popular estimate of its size was 40 feet in length.
When the people of Port Isabel made a call for volunteers to form an investigating party, it was met with hesitation and head shaking on the part of the most experienced fishermen and boatmen.
Some from Point Isabel were relating the weeping fish story to a version of “The Weeping Woman,” La Llorona. Decades before, she drowned her children in Mexico and killed herself after being rejected by her lover. With fear of facing the Llorona, many old-timers responded with the “sound of silence” and decided not to engage in this fishing expedition.
“La Llorona,” (name given for her constant weeping) was destined to roam, fruitlessly searching for her children. Was this her, the weeping sea monster, roaming off the waters of Port Isabel looking for her children? Perhaps!
There was no solid evidence of whether the monster fish was real or not, but in any case, it will always be a story worth repeating.