Mo'o

The Mo’o, or Moho is a semi-aquatic reptilian cryptid inhabiting Hawaii. They are described as large 20 foot semi-aquatic lizards with glistening black scales. They live in underground rivers and deep pools. In Hawaiian folklore, they can shapeshift and control the weather, although this is of course, mythology. Mo’os are generally considered harmless unless provoked. Most Mo’o sightings come from Kaui, although there are also sightings in Oahu, Molokai and Maui. According to locals, Mo’o bones are visible during clear conditions underwater near Lā‘Ie Point, although this hasn’t been verified. 

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The first recorded sighting of a Mo’o was in 1838, when a Mo’o nicknamed Mokuhinia appeared before hundreds of witnesses wading in a pool in Kualapu’u reservoir. Maggie Alu, who lives at Wailua i Maui, reported to the Honolulu Advertiser in 2002, that when she was eight, her mother showed her a Mo’o swimming about in a pond in the Wailua Valley, near Haleakala. There are also locals from Kehei, on Maui, who say there is a pool there which mo'os are thought to live in. When it occasionally dries up, the mo'o retreats into the ocean, which has been seen by many of the locals.