As far as I know, there have never been monsters under my bed. Actually, the bed on which I sleep has a set of drawers under the mattress, and there is no room under there for any monsters. I know that children sometimes have fears of monsters in their homes, whether under their beds or in a closet or other closed space. I can’t ever remember a time when I thought that there were monsters in my house.

I did have little brothers when I was a child. Except for a couple of years during college when I had a private room, I’ve generally shared my bedroom with someone else. Little brothers can be a nuisance. They can be noisy. They can interrupt one’s sleep. But my parents didn’t like it when I called them monsters.

A couple of mosquitoes flying around one’s head can be annoying, but I don’t imagine them as being large enough to swallow me in a few bites. So far, none of my encounters with mosquitoes has been fatal.

Recently, our three-year-old grandson has declared, on several occasions, that dragons eat oxen. A creature large enough to eat a cow is impressive, but dragons, being mythical creatures, are not likely to be seen in the house. I know that children have fears and that sometimes their fears are irrational. Parents and other caregivers need to be cautious in helping children develop skills to cope with their fears. This, of course, starts with providing a safe environment for every child. It may also involve careful choices of books to read to children. Parents and others need to be aware of children’s developmental stages and read books that are appropriate at each stage of a child’s growth. That is especially challenging in a family with children of different ages. Our three-year-old has three siblings who range up to 13 years old. There has been regular reading of Harry Potter stories in his home for his entire life. I’m not a big fan of the series, but I don’t think there are any dragons in the series. The books feature magic, and this magic can be used to harm people. There are plenty of other children’s books that feature dragons to have captured his imagination.

I’ve never had a monster under my bed, and I’ve never seen a dragon. I haven’t spent much time thinking about what a dragon would eat. Maybe a mythical beast doesn’t need three square meals a day.

Several times, we have been lucky to see gray whales feeding in the bay. An adult gray whale is a big animal. They can grow to be more than 40 feet long and weigh over 40 tons. That’s bigger than a city bus. They don’t appear to be dangerous to humans when eating ghost shrimp from the bottom of the bay. I suppose that if one got too close in a boat, the tail of the whale could do a lot of damage. Gray whales are known as “medium-sized” whales. They are larger than orcas but smaller than humpback whales. Once hunted to near extinction, sightings of humpback whales in the islands are becoming more common.

There are, however, stories of sea monsters that have been told for generations around here. John Kirk, cofounder of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, reports that sightings of sea monsters in the San Juan Islands are more common than sightings of the Loch Ness Monster. As far as I know, the Loch Ness Monster, like dragons, is a mythical creature.

Kirk, however, is convinced that sea serpents live in the waters of the Salish Sea. He cites reports of sightings of such creatures dating back to 1909. Most recently, two teenagers reported a sighting that occurred while they were sitting on a dock near Campbell River. They described the creature as a serpent with a three-foot-long head, fangs, and a spiky tail. Kirk calls the creature a cadborosaurus.

I don’t doubt that there are creatures in the sea that scientists have not formally identified, but I’m not inclined to go looking for sea serpents, either. Maybe some creatures have no interest in encountering humans.

I do, however, like hearing stories of sea serpents. People have had fears of sea creatures for as long as humans have ventured out onto the waters of the sea. Fishers have gone to sea and not returned, leaving their loved ones with no definitive knowledge of what happened to them. While it is easy to imagine storms intense enough to sink ships, our imaginations often lead us away from everyday occurrences to something more mysterious. There are places in the sea that are very deep and unexplored. It isn’t hard to imagine that there could be creatures that we have not yet seen, and, given the giant whales that do visit our waters, it isn’t difficult to imagine that some of the unseen sea creatures might be very large.

I’ll keep looking out to sea, and if I see any monsters, I’ll be sure to report my sightings. In the meantime, I’ll keep listening for stories. I will, however, be careful to choose which stories I repeat to my grandchildren.