--- title: Thames River Monster Caught in Video? Hoax theories abound description: From 'hoax' to 'Loch Ness Monster', theories about the footage abound. canonical: https://time.com/4285267/video-creature-thames-river/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-07T16:11:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:31:26.775Z og:title: Does This Mysterious Video Show a 'Monster' in the Thames? og:description: Some say it's a whale, others say it's a hoax og:url: https://time.com/4285267/video-creature-thames-river/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Does This Mysterious Video Show a 'Monster' in the Thames? twitter:description: Some say it's a whale, others say it's a hoax twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Does This Mysterious Video Show a 'Monster' in the Thames? > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=a4cbc9df-eb9b-49bc-8286-a2ba16ca598c&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Apr 7, 2016 4:11 PM UTC  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Apr 7, 2016 4:11 PM UTC A [short Youtube video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubwFvl-My4E) titled “Mysterious Giant Creature/Object in the Thames” has sparked [widespread curiosity](http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/loch-ness-monster-filmed-swimming-in-londons-thames%5Fuk%5F5703c37be4b069ef5c00df0f) over what the mass gliding through the water could be. The video shows a dark object surface momentarily in the river, as viewed from [a cable car](http://news.discovery.com/animals/whales-dolphins/thames-monster-video-hoax-or-mammal-160407.htm) in Greenwich by the uploader, with the username Penn Plate. The clip, uploaded last week, had received over 2 million views on YouTube as of Thursday morning. People have floated a number of theories. There’s the mundane, but relatively exciting: the video [could show a whale](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/06/london-loch-ness-or-just-a-dying-whale.html), as a number of dead [whales have appeared](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/07/thames-monster-hoax-sea-beasts-mysterious-creatures) in the Thames in recent years. Or it could be two dolphins or seals, [swimming in tandem](http://news.discovery.com/animals/whales-dolphins/thames-monster-video-hoax-or-mammal-160407.htm). Then there are more unlikely possibilities, such as the Loch Ness Monster swimming the very indirect route from Scotland into the Thames. Of course, many dismiss the video as a hoax. The video did, after all, fail to remain trained on the “monster” for more than a brief moment. And the video uploader [licensed the video](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/06/london-loch-ness-or-just-a-dying-whale.html) to Newsflare, which sells the video to media organizations and directs a portion of the profit to the original owner. Whatever the case, the video has already proved big for business in London: Thames river tour organizations have [reported a spike](http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-boat-tours-receive-flood-of-enquiries-about-river-thames-monster-a3220146.html) in tourist customers eager to see the creature for themselves. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4285267/video-creature-thames-river/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4285267/video-creature-thames-river/"},"headline":"Does This Mysterious Video Show a 'Monster' in the Thames?","datePublished":"2016-04-07T16:11:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:31:26.775Z","description":"Some say it's a whale, others say it's a hoax","url":"https://time.com/4285267/video-creature-thames-river/","keywords":["Newsfeed","video"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4285267/video-creature-thames-river/","name":"Does This Mysterious Video Show a 'Monster' in the Thames?"}}]}] ```