Thoughts on the Controversial Galician Trawler UFO
Although the “Galician Trawler UFO” video has all the marks of a “Blair Witch Project” event, it appears to have been embraced by the UFO community as proof of extraterrestrial visitation. Angel Rodriguez, director of Spain’s GEIFO organization, is a former officer in the Spanish Navy and suggests that the video is actually showing a fishing boat being warned away from an area where naval aviation maneuvers are about to take place, hence the helicopter and the dropping of a marker buoy into the water (the “UFO” that plunges into the ocean, as in a Gerry Anderson TV production)
“Military maneuvers,” writes Rodriguez in his Universo Prohibido group, “are always notified, and target areas, while usually permanent, are often only activated when exercises are about to occur, and must be drawn on nautical charts. When target practice is about to occur, navigation is forbidden in these waters during the indicated times. There are always fishermen who refuse to abide by these warnings, or who pay no mind to these notices and sneak into the area. It becomes necessary to chase them out to avoid turning them into accidental targets.”
Rodriguez explains that Spain’s Instituto Hidrográfico de la Marina publishes “Navigation Notices” which have been employed by GEIFO when investigating its own UFO cases if these have taken place over the sea or in the vicinity. The most controversial of all these cases was the Conil Incident, a CE-3 that allegedly involved the presence of humanoids on Los Bateles beach.
“In this case [meaning the Galician video] there is the possibility that the trawler was expelled from the target practice area and that the images were manipulated by adding a UFO. What’s curious about this Galician case is the expectations it has raised, with thousands of people interested in the subject. There are numerous partisans in favor and against it. It would appear that it has not been accepted as real in the UFO community, except for some exceptions. Many may consider this to be a promotional device for some movie production, which would be financially feasible, given the interest it has caused. There are others who believe that it is a garden variety hoax, like many that have come about since the early days of ufology.”
“Manipulations of this sort,” he goes on to add, “have caused photographs as well as film and video to become suspect, or considered unreliable as proving the reality of the phenomenon, given the ease with which hoaxes can be confected, especially nowadays using computer software, which makes detecting these frauds very difficult.”
Readers will remember some fascinating computer hoaxes – very convincing ones – featured in some of the Robert Kiviat productions of the 1990s, including one of a pair of UFOs, flying in tandem, over the palm-tree filled littoral of a tropical city. Such creations are a staple on YouTube and they include an amazing depiction of Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon from Star Wars caroming over Mexico City in broad daylight. Such is the degree achieved by computer imaging.
Mr. Rodriguez draws our attention to a number of specific points that lead him to believe that there is less than meets the eye in Galician Fishing Boat UFO video:
1) The tone of voice of the sailor who allegedly expresses his bewilderment. He repeats the questions excessively, and the sound demonstrates that his surprise is exaggerated, making it unconvincing. “He is acting for the camera and he’s a bad actor.”
2) The erasure of the names of the vessel from the lifesavers, to keep it from being identified and making investigation impossible.
3) The erasure of the sailor’s face, for the same reason.
4) The total absence of data – no date or time of the event, no position of the vessel or the place where the alleged event occurred, to hinder investigations.
“There is no data to enable a minimum of research,” Rodriguez goes on to say. “It is adduced that this is for safety reasons, as the crew fears for its safety after having seen something that is supposedly very secret. This is, in fact, a very foolish explanation, because they would have been plainly identified by the authorities that allegedly intercepted them. If these were the maneuvers of a military flying disk, or a pursuit of a strange object my interceptors, as the video seeks to purvey, the authorities would have taken very drastic measures and the news would have never become public. A patrol boat would have intercepted the trawler and the elements of a search and seizure detachment would have come aboard. The trawler would have been towed to a naval facility and the rest is best left to the imagination.”
The director of GEIFO is therefore unconvinced by this sensationalistic video. “In short, I believe nothing about this case. Even the helicopter and the planes could be fake. Everything can be manipulated.”