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Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 31: Jan-Feb 1984 |
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Ri Seen
In June 1983, a three-man team travelled to New Ireland, off the coast of New Guinea, to track down the ri, an unrecognized aquatic mammal with some mermaid overtones. The natives of New Ire-land kill and eat the ri, which they insist is different from the dugong. The team was fortunate to observe a ri from as close as 50 feet as it hunted fish in Elizabeth Bay. The animals was 5-7 feet long, skinny and fast. No dorsal fin was seen, and the tail flukes were mammilian (i.e., horizontal). The creature surfaced about every 10 minutes. Such behavior is quite unlike that of known cetaceans and sirenians.
(Anonymous; "New Guinea Expedition Observes Ri," ISC Newsletter, 2:1, Summer 1983.) (ISC is the International Society of Cryptozoology.)