The name of the topic here is The Cook Photo so we should be careful on creating too much thread drift.
The object in the photo may or may not be man made. It does have a tantalizing shape. Every time I look at it I see an engine cowling with prop shaft. But, as someone else posted, it would mean the bulk of the engine is "beneath" the cowling buried in coral. Possible but the problem is that this is a photo only. No way to analyze except as a flat view. Its not made of data points that can be rotated, pulled in different directions, examined in 3D or anything else. But it is a "marker" of a point of interest to be noted for examination next time TIGHAR is there. So much of TIGHAR's efforts are recorded in photos or videos. Historical photos, such as those Ric and Jeff are reviewing and capturing right now, are even photos of photos. Ric must have thousands of photos of just the Earhart search alone. Each shot capturing a slice of history or geography but marking an event or scene. Since photography was invented Man has been able to capture fragments of our existence for review. I say this because TIGHAR uses photo analysis and interpretation freely amongst its members as its way of sharing in the search.
Whats my point? Simple. We are all sitting in our various homes, literally all over the world. We are all encouraged to be amateur photo analysts and yet we have no formal training. We share our thoughts on what we see. We discuss our views on a forum that is free to use, easy to access and, I think, most importantly, brings together total strangers who share a common interest.
Each opinion on what one sees in a photo like the Cook Photo is valuable as it teaches each of us more than we knew before about the photo. I would encourage ALL Forum readers to register and post what they see without fear of having their opinions being criticized. We all see different things and, until someone physically figures it out, we are all right.
In My Humble Opinion