Abstract:
Several local reports, collected at the district level, describe encounters with the newly-discovered sea creature (named: exocell). Encounters with both living and deceased organisms have been documented. Report summarizes documented encounters and suggests a multilevel recommendation-applicable to all districts.Multilevel Recommendations:
Superseding all standing F3 directives, TOP CFGOA PRIORITY is now the acquisition of a complete exocell organism specimen-preferably living, but complete or near-complete deceased specimens should also be considered HIGH PRIORITY. All specimens should be forwarded to the main OAT labsite at Kodiak, AK.InSit (Incident/Situation) Report Analysis:
Current records list the following InSit reports have been processed:
*IS8945b: Report on fishermen, from the Bering Sea down into the Pacific, pulling up strange new creatures-which the fishermen have dubbed "head-squids." Creatures appear to be exocell organisms.
*IS3667d: Report on the post-mortem autopsy of an unidentified corpse retrieved at Sea by the USCG. The partial limbs of a creature were found lodged within the brain of the subject.
*IS5844c: Report of a body, washed up on an Alaskan beach, found with an exocell in the chest cavity and one of its limbs lodged in the brain.
*IS2485e: Report of a man, arrested for violent incident, and the results of a post-sedation MRI scan, revealing an exocell's limbs pushed up into the sinuses and brain of the man.
*IS3319m: Report of an exocell found washed-up on a beach in southern Alaska.
*IS7922q: Report of an amateur photograph, showing an exocell climbing into a drainpipe along an Oceanside industrial area.
| InSit Report IS8945b: |
| Recent local reports have filtered back through our analysts, all documenting the recent trend of near-coastal fishermen pulling up strange new sea-creatures in their catches. The fishermen, operating in the Bering Sea, as well as down to the Pacific ocean, have named the creatures "Niarkrok Isortoq." The Inuit words mean, roughly, "foul-head." In this case, the connotation is meant to suggest bad in the head, based on rumors of the creatures being found within the skulls of several recently deceased fishermen (See IS5844c and IS3667d for corroborating reports). These "Niarkrok Isortoq" are undoubtedly the creatures identified by the OAT as an exocell. |
 LEFT: Near-coastal fisherman cleaning and gutting a "Niarkrok Isortoq" or exocell, for the benefit of the camera. The fishermen, as a group, are superstitious about the creature, and will not eat or sell the exocells, nor will they deliberately catch them. When they are caught, they are used only for chum purposes. The intact specimen resting on the seat next to him bears the unmistakable claw appendage, hanging down from the mid-line of the exocell's body. Photo by CFGOA OA team member. |
| InSit Report IS3667d: |
| On December 17th, 2004, a U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat pulled the remains of a human body from the sea (the body had a life-vest securely fitted on it), approximately 5 miles off the southwestern coast of Alaska. The unidentified male was examined by the county coroner, who determined the man to be about 35 years of age. The body had suffered severe wounds, two of which would have undoubtedly been fatal: a) a large split in the skull, through which a foreign tentacle protruded, and b) the lower chest/abdominal cavity of the man suffered a massive rupture. |
 LEFT: Examination photo, showing the partially-dissected head of the unidentified male, minus skull-severe neuro-trauma wound is plainly visible, as is the foreign tentacle, which was found to be grasping the mid-brain area. Below measurement ruler is a second clawed-tentacle, this one removed from the throat and sinus area of the subject. Photo courtesy of Bethel County Coroner's Office. |
| Wound A showed disturbing evidence under examination-the foreign tentacle, originally believed to have infiltrated the cranial wound post-mortem, was determined to have exited from within the skull, although it is still unclear whether the tentacle itself could have caused the wound. Wound B was determined to have occurred in the water, although the coroner has ruled out the rupture being caused by gastric inflammation or the process of decomposition. |
| InSit Report IS5844c: |
| On January 3rd, 2005, several members of a volunteer group, cleaning beaches in Sitka, Alaska, came across what appeared to be the partial remains of a human. The remains turned out to be an entire human torso, buried from the neck-down by beach sand/silt and assorted debris. A tentacle/claw appendage was visible, extending out of the corpse's mouth. The remains were exposed during a low tide--during high tide, the remains would have been completely submerged. This turned out to be stroke of luck for the medical examiners, as it prevented the remains from being attacked by birds, and helped slow decomposition. Why the remains weren't fed upon by sea creatures has yet to be discovered. The attached photo documentation is from the camera of one of the beach-cleanup volunteers. Under examination by the Sitka County coroner, the corpse was determined to be that of a missing fisherman. Dental records identified the remains as Gunther ******* [name deleted], who, along with his ship and crew of 7, had disappeared at sea a month prior. The corpse exhibited wounds similar to those seen in the body examined by the Bethel County coroner (InSit Report IS3667d, summarized above)-chiefly, a massive rupture of the abdominal region and a severe head wound, where a clawed appendage was found lodged within the victim's brain. |
 LEFT: Amateur photo, taken by a beach cleanup volunteer minutes after the discovery of the partial human remains. The clawed-tentacle limb of an exocell is visible coming from within the mouth of the exposed head. |
| InSit Report IS2485e: |
| On December 8th, 2004, an unidentified Russian sailor attacked a crowd of people in Juneau, Alaska, seriously injuring 2 men and a small child. Local Sheriff's Department officers arrived on scene and, according to their debriefing, appeared violently psychotic/homicidal. After several verbal attempts to calm the man failed, a struggle broke out, during which the officers managed to subdue him. The Sheriff's officers believed the man to be high on PCP, which would have explained his aggressive behavior and increased strength (it took 7 officers to subdue the man, who was not of a large build). The man was chained and handcuffed, and Paramedics were able to inject him with a large amount of sedatives. Taken to a local hospital, the sedated man was given blood tests, the results of which, while abnormal, showed no evidence of PCP usage. Believing some sort of brain trauma to be responsible for the man's extreme behavior, attending neurologists gave the man a full upper-body MRI scan. The MRI scan revealed an exocell within the man's midsection, with one clawed appendage that had penetrated into the brain cavity at the base of the skull parallel to the spinal column and into the brain itself. One image slice of the scan is displayed below. |
 LEFT: T1-weighted sagittal midline MR image. The clawed appendage can be seen penetrating into the brain and up through the midbrain, apparently severing the anterior and posterior cingulate gyrus. What appears to be nerve bundles (notice the root-like structures) are seen extending from the appendage into the surrounding brain tissue. |
| InSit Report IS3319m: |
| On February 13th, 2005, a group of State environmental scientists, making a survey of beaches near an industrial area in southern Alaska, discovered a deceased exocell that had washed-up on shore. The specimen was transferred to the Alaska State Marine Life laboratory, who conducted an autopsy on the exocell. The exocell exhibited almost no decomposition. Findings mirrored that of other examinations, including dissection of a clawed-appendage, which revealed a large nerve bundle running the length of the limb. As to cause of death, 3 bullet-wounds were found in the main torso of the exocell. Internal damage appeared extensive, and the forensic team determined the bullet wounds to be most likely the result of .45 caliber rounds. |
 LEFT: Photograph, from a member of the State environmental analyst team that discovered the washed up exocell. Clearly visible is the clawed appendage, extending to the lower right of the picture. Photo courtesy Alaska State Environmental Services Department. |
| InSit Report IS7922q: |
| On February 19th, 2005, the CFGOA main office received a copy of an amateur digital photograph. The image showed an exocell in motion, climbing into a drainpipe. The picture was taken by an electrical inspector, who noticed the exocell crawling out of the ocean. The exocell was moving out of the water rather deliberately, giving him an opportunity to take a fairly steady picture before the exocell disappeared into the pipe. After sending the picture out for independent digital image processing, there appears to be a human hand inside the drainpipe. As the pipe is too small for someone to fit into, the idea has been suggested that this may have been a severed human hand or arm. CFGOA field teams sent to the site to investigate could locate neither the exocell nor the human limb. |
 LEFT: Amateur digital photograph, showing the drainpipe, the exocell "climbing" into it, and the apparent severed hand/arm within the pipe. |
The animal has yet to be classified by the CFGOA Organism Advisory Team, although it resembles, physically, several known aquatic creatures (most notable comparisons are to certain deep-water species of squid), it exhibits amphibian traits, suggesting it is capable of living on land and/or water. It has been observed to "hunt" (in such a case as documented in CFGOA Report RL197H-see archived video, "hunting" appeared to be an aggressive predatory pattern) on land for extended periods of time (noted duration was over an hour), although it has also been observed to "hunt" underwater, for several hours.
The delay in acquisition of a complete organism has severely slowed the Team's analysis progress, and the recommendation of the Team is to make acquisition of a complete exocell specimen TOP PRIORITY.