> If I was a senior officer on one of those ships sailing near California, I would have hired 5 camera crews from Hollywood and called Elon Musk to lend me the team who is filming SpaceX launches.

This was back in 2004, before Musk even had any money, before high resolution cell phone cameras were common, and when policy around sightings was basically "don't ask, don't tell". If you're going to dismiss eyewitness testimony, at least get the basic facts right.

Now that the official policy is changing, maybe we'll see better imaging.