Item #: SCP-835
Object Class: Keter
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-835 cannot be physically contained at this time. Current resources are directed toward monitoring and ensuring that SCP-835 does not approach populated coastal zones. Naval assets under Foundation control are to maintain a 200-nautical-mile exclusion perimeter around SCP-835's current position. The position is updated every six hours via deep-sonar relay. Any deviation from SCP-835's established behavioral patterns is to be reported immediately to O5 command.
Personnel assigned to SCP-835 monitoring are limited to a 90-day rotation. Personnel exhibiting signs of SCP-835-associated psychological degradation (see Psychological Profile, Section 7) are to be relieved immediately and transferred to Site-19 for evaluation.
The following sections of this document have been [REDACTED] at the request of O5 command. Clearance Level 4 personnel who believe they have operational need to access the full document may submit a formal request. As of this filing, all formal requests have been denied.
Description: SCP-835 is a [REDACTED] organism of [REDACTED] classification, recovered from the Pacific Ocean at a depth of [REDACTED] following [REDACTED] in [REDACTED]. Its estimated length at time of initial contact was [REDACTED]. Its estimated current length is [REDACTED].
SCP-835's primary mode of locomotion is [REDACTED], which produces a [REDACTED] visible on deep-sonar imagery and described by technicians as resembling [REDACTED]. The organism does not appear to require [REDACTED] to sustain its current size and demonstrates anomalous [REDACTED] consistent with [REDACTED] of entities in the [REDACTED] classification.
SCP-835 has demonstrated awareness of monitoring assets. On three separate occasions, it has [REDACTED] in a manner consistent with deliberate [REDACTED]. The second of these incidents resulted in the loss of [REDACTED] personnel and [REDACTED] naval assets. O5 command has classified the details of all three incidents [REDACTED].
The following excerpt from a monitoring technician's report is included at the recommendation of the Site Director. It has not been redacted, as it was composed before SCP-835's higher classification protocols were in place, and its removal would create an irregular gap in the chronological file that might itself attract attention:
"I want to be clear that I am writing this at the end of my shift and my hands are shaking, and that I understand this report will be reviewed, and I don't care. I need someone to know what I saw on the sonar at 0347 hours. I have described what I saw to my supervisor. My supervisor told me to write it down and submit it formally. So here is what I saw.
"It moved up. Not toward the surface — not the whole thing. Just a part of it. An anterior section came up from [REDACTED] depth to approximately [REDACTED] meters over a period of six minutes and then stopped. It stopped at exactly the depth our sonar array operates at. It stopped at the depth where it could see our instruments.
"And then it was still for four hours. Just sitting there, at our depth, in the dark.
"I don't think it was checking to see if we were there. I think it already knew we were there. I think it was letting us know that it knew.
"I have done this job for seven years and I have never requested reassignment. I am requesting reassignment."
The technician was reassigned. Their evaluation is [REDACTED].
Addendum 835-7: O5-█ has issued the following directive: "Personnel are to be reminded that the existence of SCP-835 does not constitute evidence of [REDACTED]. Personnel who arrive at conclusions regarding [REDACTED] based on their exposure to SCP-835's [REDACTED] are to be regarded as [REDACTED] and handled accordingly. The ocean is not [REDACTED]. SCP-835 is not [REDACTED]. These are operational conclusions and they are not subject to review."
The directive was issued without further context. It remains in the active file.