The sudden extended disappearance and alleged sudden reappearances of the Loch Ness Monster have given other lake and river monsters an opening to get some much needed publicity. That could explain the recent sighting of something in Maine’s Penobscot River that has already been dubbed the Penobscot River Monster with T-shirts and key chains probably being made right now. Too soon?

The video was posted on YouTube by Alain Ducas, who claimed he took it last week from the roof of the Hollywood Casino Hotel & Raceway Bangor on the western shore of the Penobscot, which drains into the Atlantic in Penobscot Bay. While the Penobscot has never formally had a monster, it’s famous for a giant sea creature of a different kind – it was where the Soviet submarine Red October was hidden in the movie adaptation of Tom Clancy’s novel, The Hunt for Red October.

That movie was much more exciting than Ducas’ video, which looks like a typical Loch Ness Monster video on a river. In fact, it looks a bit like the Loch Ness video captured last week which was hailed as proof Nessie is back. Everyone’s favorite cryptozoologist, Loren Coleman, posted on Twitter that he thought it looked more like a 2009 video purported to be of Champ, the Lake Champlain monster.

Another monster it probably isn’t is Cassie, the alleged sea serpent that was reportedly living in Casco Bay, Maine, and was described as being up to 150 feet long, making it more plesiosaur-like and much larger than the Penobscot Monster. FYI, Cassie got its nickname from Loren Coleman.

It’s also not Wessie, which is – or was – the giant snake, determined to be an anaconda, that was living in the similarly-named Presumpscot River last year but is believed to have died from the winter cold. A piece of Wessie’s skin is now in Loren Coleman’s International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland.

Will the Penobscot River Monster get its own place in Loren Coleman’s museum or in Maine monster lore? Probably not. Most agree that it looks like a log, but all it takes is for another video to surface to change that. The Hollywood Casino Hotel & Raceway will probably be happy to rent you a room with a window facing the river so you can watch for it yourself when you’re not looking for monster jackpots in the slot machine rooms.