A number of Japanese citizens living in the Ishikawa Prefecture have made some strange observations during the last few days.

Nanao, Japan, June 4

During the evening of June 4, a man suddenly heard a plopping sound in a parking lot of the Nakajima citizens centre in Nanao. When he looked back, he was surprised to see tadpoles scattered over a car and on the ground. According to Kiwamu Funakura, 36, an official at the centre who went to the parking lot at the time, about 100 tadpoles, each 2 or 3 centimetres long, were scattered over an area measuring about 200 square meters.

Hakusan, Japan, June 6

Two days later and roughly 70 kilometres southwest of Nanao, a similar event occurred in another parking lot. In the morning of June 6, between 20 and 30 dead tadpoles were found on a car windshield and other places in a Hakusan parking lot, with some reportedly having lost their original shape.

Nanao, Japan, June 8

Back in Nano, Takeshi Kakiuchi, 62, a member of the Nanao Municipal Assembly, found six tadpoles on his car and on the ground around his home Monday morning. Kakiuchi’s home is located roughly 4 km from the Nakajima citizens centre.

Nakanotomachi, Japan, June 9

On Tuesday evening, Yukio Oumi, 78, found 13 fish on the back of his truck and on the ground around his home in Nakanotomachi. The fish are believed to be crucian carps, each measuring about 3 centimetres.

Fish and frogs falling from the sky?

The reason behind the strange events has not yet been determined, and the Kanazawa Local Meteorological Observatory says it has no information that any tornadoes occurred on the days when the animals appeared.

Susumu Aiba, professor at the Kanazawa Institute of Technology, says that small-scale wind gusts may have swept over limited areas, swirling up water and any creatures living in it. If the gusts were small enough, they may have been able to avoid meteorological detection.

Another suggestion comes from Kimimasa Tokikuni, the head of the Ishikawa prefectural branch of the Japanese Society for Preservation of Birds. “Birds such as herons or umineko that had these tadpoles in their mouths or gorges might have dropped them because they were startled by something while flying,” he says. All the places where animals seem to have fallen from the sky during the last few days are located in close vicinity to flooded rice paddies, so birds may have caught tadpoles and small fish there in an attempt to feed their young. Herons and other water fowl are in the middle of their breeding period right now.

A company named Ghost Pros is currently exploring the ship wrecks of Florida in search not of gold, silver or precious stones but of ghosts. The company is using the latest underwater ghost-detection technology, including submersible high powered sonar listening devices. Ghost Pro divers have also teamed up with Tampa’s Sea Viewers, the makers of high definition studio cameras which will be used to develop under water rovers.

“We’re listening to everything and anything we can down there,” says Ghost Pros’ Lee Ehrlich, explaining that you have to know what is not a ghost before you can find one. “[…] before you can tell you need to know what that ship sounds like alone,” he says.

Unlike Ghost Busters, Ghost Pros doesn’t get paid to hunt ghosts, but the search does generate a lot of attention from ghost aficionados and ghost critics, as well as from the general media. Hunting for the para-normal has proven to be an excellent way of creating some very normal buzz for Ehrlich and his companions, who – when not hunting down the ghosts of voyages past – are developing advanced submersibles for search and rescue operations.

As a diver, I would like to recommend any readers of this blog to leave the deep sea ghost hunting to professionals like Ehrlich and his crew. If you start seeing ghosts while scuba diving, make a safe ascendance and wait for the nitrogen poisoning to wear off.

Former Italian Navy diver Pino Termini of Naples claims to have seen the ghost of Steve Irwin while diving at Batt Reef in tropical North Queensland. Batt Reef is a coral reef off Port Douglas in Queensland, Australia and a part the Great Barrier Reef.

“As I started my dive I saw somebody and was surprised because I saw no other boats around”, Termini explains. “Then I noticed that the person had no oxygen tank or mask, the person swam towards me and I realised that it was none other than the crocodile hunter himself: Steve Irwin. I freaked out, but he looked calm and at peace. I have seen a lot underwater but never a ghost. It was as if he was looking after the spot where he met his end, I felt that I should not impose myself on his turf as it was his and it seemed as if he was caring for the living creatures there.”

Pino Termini dived for the Italian Navy for seven years and now spends most of his time travelling around the world looking for great dive sites.

Steve “The Crocodile Hunter“ Irwin died at Batt Reef in 2006 after being fatally pierced in the chest by a stingray barb.

For many years, residents living along the Great Kali River at the border between India and Nepal have claimed that a mysterious underwater creature is catching and devouring humans who dare to venture into the river. The rumours have now been investigated by biologist Jeremy Wade, who says the perpetrator might be a Goonch catfish (Bagarius yarrelli).

Local residents says that the creature probably changed its diet to include freshly caught human flesh after getting used to eating the remains of partly burned corpses. In Hinduism, corpses are traditionally cremated in pyres as a as part of the funeral rite and the remains are often placed in a river.

“The locals have told me of a theory that this monster has grown extra large on a diet of partially burnt corpses,” says Wade. “It has perhaps got this taste for flesh by feasting on remains of funeral pyres. There will be a few freak individuals that grow bigger than the other ones and if you throw in extra food, they will grow even bigger.”

Last year, and 18-year-old Nepali was dragged into the river by a creature described as “an elongated pig”, but this was not the first attack. 10 years ago, a 17-year-old Nepali was pulled below the surface while bathing, and three months later the same thing happened to another young boy.

Jeremy Wade is a biologist and TV presenter who investigated the Kali River-rumours for a TV documentary. You can find out more about him and his work here. (http://www.jeremywade.co.uk/about_jeremy_wade.html)