He Killed the Biggest Fish in Scotland for a Living — Then Something Surfaced That He Couldn’t Name

In September 1959, a professional shark hunter named Tex Geddes encountered something extraordinary in the calm waters off Scotland’s Isle of Skye. The mysterious creature had a turtle-like head, a thick neck, a sawtooth-shaped back, and one unsettling feature that neither witness could ignore: it breathed loudly at the surface. Geddes had spent years hunting enormous marine animals, yet he refused to harpoon the unknown creature. His companion, engineer James Gavin, also documented the encounter and reportedly created a detailed sketch of what they saw. Other fishermen in the surrounding waters described similar sightings, raising questions about whether the two men had witnessed an unidentified marine animal. Proposed explanations included an oarfish, a leatherback turtle, and other familiar sea creatures, but none seemed to match every reported detail. The mystery became even harder to investigate as historical accounts and sketches circulated through private collections, leaving researchers with unanswered questions about the original evidence. Meanwhile, the intense shark-hunting activity around Soay raises another intriguing possibility about how marine animals may have adapted to avoid boats. Nearly seven decades later, the Soay Beast remains an unexplained maritime mystery. Was it an ordinary animal that witnesses could not identify, or could the missing sketch hold clues that might finally help explain what surfaced beside their boat?