Is the Raleigh “Sewer Monster” an Internet hoax or is it real?
RALEIGH It looks like blob of wriggling pudding staring out through a single, puckered eye. You can see it caught on camera, clinging to the concrete pipes below Raleigh’s Cameron Village: the Sewer Monster. It’s really a colony of prehistoric creatures known either as bryozoans or moss animalcules, thousands of wormlike animals, biologists report. Clustered together in a glistening mass, they feed through tentacles on whatever floats past. More common in ponds, they have turned up in a set of sanitary sewer pipes under one of the country’s oldest shopping centers. Living in a 6-inch sewer main, the clusters of worms are about the size of a golf ball, estimates Ed Buchan, an environmental coordinator with the city. But the video footage, captured with a tiny snakelike camera, makes the monster appear at man-eating size to viewers watching at home. That may explain why a two-minute video tour of the Sewer Monster’s lair has spread across the Web like flesh-eating bacteria, prompting nat
They are slimy pulsating sacs clinging to crevices of a sewer. As light shines on the mysterious creature, it recoils in displeasure. Is it a new life form, or simply clever special effects? The identity of this fearsome sewer monster has captivated the blogosphere after footage was posted on YouTube. Some even say it could be of extraterrestrial origin. While many experts have questioned the legitimacy of the film, a large construction firm in North Carolina has since confessed to taking the video. Yes, those pulsating sacs are real, Malphrus Construction told MailOnline. ‘We were asked by our client to inspect the sewer lines, which were built in 1949,’ a spokeswoman said. ‘Because the sewers are so old there were many infrastructure issues.’ But she said the moving sacs appeared much larger on camera. Malphrus was contracted by York Properties, the owner of the sewer lines, to do a routine inspection of the pipes earlier this year. The sewer system is private, but it discharges into
RALEIGH It looks like blob of wriggling pudding staring out through a single, puckered eye. You can see it caught on camera, clinging to the concrete pipes below Raleigh’s Cameron Village: the Sewer Monster. It’s really a colony of prehistoric creatures known either as bryozoans or moss animalcules, thousands of wormlike animals, biologists report. Clustered together in a glistening mass, they feed through tentacles on whatever floats past. More common in ponds, they have turned up in a set of sanitary sewer pipes under one of the country’s oldest shopping centers. Living in a 6-inch sewer main, the clusters of worms are about the size of a golf ball, estimates Ed Buchan, an environmental coordinator with the city. But the video footage, captured with a tiny snakelike camera, makes the monster appear at man-eating size to viewers watching at home. Sources: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/local/story/8120
