Lars Mikkelsen

Commercial fisherman

Thirty years on the water.

Lars reported something in Puget Sound in 1957 and was, by his own account, "more annoyed than frightened." He had spent thirty years learning what things in the water look like, and here was one he could not name.

He was the founding member most hostile to embellishment. He resigned twice, both times over accounts he considered exaggerated, and returned both times.

The Institute's classification system, five classes running from Apocryphal to Active Advisory, exists because Lars refused to have his sighting filed alongside a story somebody's cousin told at a bar.