Tampa, FL - The Merov Leather Tannery in Tampa, like most high-volume industries, creates more than its share of waste product. Not as "toxic" as other textile industry companies, Merov has been voluntarily implementing safety standards in its main factory in Tampa, trying to update the way it deals with its toxic wastes for the first time since 1953. To this end, a team specializing in industrial detoxification was brought in to help design a better waste system as well as to help eliminate the waste problem that already existed at the old plant.


I Think I Ate One of These in Singapore - The Sludge Creature

Joe Valone and Susan Madigan, employees of Merov, were asked to assist "Indutech," the industrial waste removal company, to help clean and sanitize the vats and drums of used leather-tanning chemicals. While cleaning one of the many tanks, Joe noticed some movement within the tank. "I saw something move, like swimming." Said Joe.

Thinking that some hapless animal had fallen into the tank of industrial waste, Susan grabbed a "Big Gulp" cup that was lying nearby and scooped the hapless critter out of the tank.

"At first I noticed the smell." Said Susan. "As soon as we scooped it out of the liquid, it emitted a strange odor." She looked in the cup and saw a creature that she could not recognize. "I thought the fumes were getting to me." She laughed.

"It was kind of part squid, part frog, part crab or something like that." Said Joe. "As soon as we pulled it out of the sludge, it started moving real fast, like a fish dying onshore. I wanted to throw it back in, but I didn't know if that was the right thing to do and that sludge was going to a 'purification center,' anyway."

Within minutes, the two procured a canister large enough to accommodate the strange animal. They scooped it out of the drink cup and set it in the vial. Unfortunately, the sludge creature died within minutes.

"I think it might have been the light that killed it," said Susan. "All those years of isolation in that tank, and it just might have been too much. The light, the air, I don't know."

The pair took the creature into the break room where it has been the source of several practical jokes. Some employees think the creature may have evolved some way to live in the murky chemical mess it was found in. "I don't see how it could have just plopped into the barrel before we looked in it," says Susan. "Maybe nature is finding ways to make life happen in this chemical crap."

Joe and Susan continue to work for the leather tannery, but have asked to be put off of the waste cleanup. "I don't think it's that safe," Joe told me "I mean what if whatever happened to that animal, happened to us?"

sources

Interview with Joe Valone and Susan Madigan August 9, 1998.





any idea what it could be???

eww.... thats disgusting! looks like squid with no tentacles

I have no idea.

to me it looks like a SQWUG (squid-slug)

awwwww. dont be nasty to the UGLY FREAKY HORRIBLE............creature

whatever it is im sure it doesnt like being from wherever it came from

Looks ok to me, just very strange. Very interesting story, I hope there's some kind of follow-up.

It seems to have pincers... weird.

Yuck

Reminds me of an episode of the X-files .

Not to sure I buy-into this one.....the pic, not the story.....the story may be absolutely true, but the pic may not be. Think about it, your there to clean up "toxic" sludge, right? So, you come across "something" swimming-around the "sludge" in question....you take it out and it dies sometime later....................SO YOU GRAB IT WITH YOUR UNPROTECTED HANDS AND START FLASHING PICS OF IT????!!!!.......if it sounds like it dosen't make any sense, that's probably beacuse it dosen't....JMO.

Exactly what I was thinking.

I think its a hoaxmonster.

I remember discussing this a couple of years ago on cryptozoology.com and seeing that picture. I sent a copy to one of my lecturers who is a qualified Marine Biologist and even he was stumped. The tail looks like a fish, the front like a slimy lobster. It's got what look like pincers, but it doesn't look like it has an exoskeleton though. The pincers don't look like they have any hinges either, which suggests a hoax. It is possible it's a chimaera with the arms off a toy crab shoved under/into it.

Chimaeras look like:

or

Generally, although there are several families, and they all differ.

RKD

Yeah, the episode with the Russian oil vessel, and the mutated 'wurm vs. human' that escaped into the sewer system. f***ing gross!

As far as that creature at the top of the page, it has seemed to live X time in industrial waste. Very peculiar...

Seeing as how this happened in 1998, and as the creature in the photo looks like a hoax, I would say.......HOAX! Any more current news of this? Any followup story?

thats all the info i could find

I got one question, anyone may answer. If a creature living in a toxic waste, what does it breathe? And why did they found only one creature? To reach that level of a creature, you should've gone through several stages of evolution. And evolution requires certain number of successors. So...why it's only one? Is it because of it's a...HOAX??

Help me out on this...

I'd say it was mutation not evolution.

Generally this is true....

However if you look at different types of radiation like gamma rays or chemicals classified as mutagens. You can actually change not only the DNA of a creature but it's physical structure as well.

Think of the three eyed fish on the Simpsons....

Ok...still the first question stays. I can even add another one...what does the front armor of the body do, if it caused by mutation? And what will be the original species? Since the proposed chimeras are sal****er fishes.

O.o I haven't the faintest clue. The chimera explanation sounds plausible. It could be a new species, but if so, what was it doing swimming around in sludge? Could anything survive in that sort of chemical mix? And why was there only one?

Somebody must've been either really scientific or really crazy to throw a living animal in a toxic waste tank!

I don't think anyone can answer all these questions with so little info.

dude, these creature is a misfit...

I love this stuff!

the base creature was either a frog, a lobster, or a crayfish and my money is on the frog because the arms dont have a crustation look the look more amphibian plus the front of the body looks like a frog, but the question remains what did it breath

If this creature was living in the sludge, what did it eat? If sludge, then okay, maybe it's real. But if it eats other creatures, where are they? Why weren't they found in the sludge as well? I still think it's a hoax.

I found more pics of it when I searched goodle.

To be pedantic, generally evolution is caused by mutation. I still think it looks like some sort of toy, although quite who would give their kid a toy like that is beyond me.

RKD

Well, I'd say we've proved Yoshimitsu Banno correct: we didn't stop polluting, and now Hedorahs are attacking.

Look here for an explanation of what I just said: http://www.tohokingdom.com/kaiju/hedorah_showa.htm#w

yay, mutants

it looks like a lizard in a crab costume...seriously

thres MANY animals in the sea we don't even imagine they exist

just like hedorah but smaller and cuter, i wonder were i can get one as a pet

there have to have been more of those things in the vats if this is a real creature. Things don't just mutate and evolve all on their own.

what has that article got to do with Singapore?

Hehe, Hedora. He was too cute to be a baddie.

RKD