Aquabeasties

Changes at Aquabeasties

2011-10-04T19:11:00.000-07:00

I'm writing to let you know that Adam and I, the two runners of the site, have both gone to college now. We will have a lot less time to post news on sea monsters around the world; instead, the Monster Galleries section will grow as we research over 400 lake, river, and sea monsters. Check out the section here, and check back often as we add new pages full of photos, videos, and histories of each monster.

Coming investigation: The San Francisco Bay Serpent

2011-07-17T12:12:00.000-07:00

I'm in Berkeley, staying in a place with a broad view of San Francisco Bay. I thought I'd take the opportunity to perform a mini-investigation into the fabled San Francisco Bay Serpent (Monster Galleries page soon to be completed). I'll let you know what I get.

New Champ video!

2011-07-06T20:34:00.000-07:00

A cell phone video captured earlier this week purports to show Champ, the monster of Lake Champlain. From ABC News:

Captured by Burlington, Vt., resident Eric Olsen, 37, and posted to YouTube May 31, the nearly two-minute video of the lake at sunrise shows an unknown object moving across, and ducking below, the surface of the water.

"I was just filming the water when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move, and I turned toward it and tried to zoom in on it," Olsen told the Burlington Free Press, which first reported the story Wednesday.

Along with the video, the Web site developer and musician posted the following comment to YouTube: "I shot this video (with cellphone) of SOMETHING in the lake at Oakledge Park on Sunday (05/31/09) early am (0530 or so). Was anyone else out and about around Oakledge on Sunday just after sunrise who saw this as well?"

YouTube Video Attracts Leading Cryptozoologists

In the past few days, the video, titled "Strange Sighting on Lake Champlain in Burlington, VT," has attracted more than 59,000 views.

Olsen did not immediately respond to requests from ABCNews.com for comment, but told the Burlington paper, "You can see that it is moving both horizontally, across the water, and vertically, going under the surface and coming back up. ... It struck me as something that was long, that it didn't have much girth."

The new video is already causing a stir among local residents and leading cryptozoologists, who study animals whose existence has not been proven, or "hidden" animals.

"If this pans out, this will be the most convincing moving picture of this creature," said Loren Coleman, a leading cryptozoologist and author of "The Field Guide to Lake Monsters. "And that's the kind of evidence we need to get closer to what these things really are."

The rest of the article goes into the history of Champ, but does not give the link to the Youtube video. We'll get that for you as soon as we can find it.

New Ogopogo sighting!

2011-07-04T21:46:00.000-07:00

New Ogopogo sighting, July 2nd, by a Mokele Mbembe author. Check it out on Cryptomundo!

UPDATE: Photos have surfaced from the sighting. The "monster wake" looks like just a wave, but Woetzel claims he saw humps before the creature submerged. See his explanation of the photos here.

Dead 25-foot giant squid caught by fishermen

2011-07-02T19:09:00.000-07:00

From University of Florida News:

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida researchers received a rare 25-foot-long, deep-water giant squid Monday, the only one of its kind in the collections of the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Recovered by recreational fishermen who found the creature floating on the surface about 12 miles offshore from Jensen Beach Sunday, museum scientists collected the specimen from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Tequesta Field Laboratory in Palm Beach County and returned to the Gainesville campus late Monday.

“It’s so rare to get these specimens and they’re such deep-water animals that we don’t know much about how they live,” said John Slapcinsky, Florida Museum malacology collection manager. “This specimen provides an excellent opportunity to learn things about these creatures we couldn’t find out any other way.”

Robert Benz, who was fishing with friends Joey Asaro and Paul Peroulakis, said they spotted the giant squid, Architeuthis dux, about 11 a.m. After realizing what it was, the men slid the dying squid onto the back of their 23-foot boat.

“I thought we definitely need to bring it in, because no one’s going to believe us if we don’t,” Benz said. “I didn’t want to leave it out there and just let the sharks eat it.”

Giant squid only reproduce once in their lifetime, and then often die slowly, after becoming lethargic, Slapcinsky said. The animal was likely in that state when the fishermen found it, he believes, because it was barely alive and near the surface in 170 feet of water.

Giant squid are one of the largest invertebrates, growing up to 60 feet long and weighing more than 1,000 pounds, but because they are seldom seen, little is known about their reproduction, ecology and life span. Depicted as sea monsters throughout history, squid are normally deep-water dwellers and some are known to spar with sperm whales, a common predator, Slapcinsky said.

“This is a pretty massive animal,” he said. “It took about six people to move it, and it wasn’t light.”

The animal is white with red skin containing chromatophores, or color-bearing cells. Squid can activate these pigment cells, rapidly changing their color and color intensity for communication and in some species camouflage, Slapcinsky said.

The specimen is from the same genus as the giant squid depicted in the Florida Museum‘s 2006 temporary exhibit, “In Search of Giant Squid.” The exhibit produced by the Smithsonian Institution focused on the fact the creature had never been witnessed alive in its natural habitat — a feat later accomplished by a Japanese film crew.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission scientists extracted genetic samples from the squid, which were brought with the specimen to UF. Scientists injected formalin into the body cavity before submerging the squid in a 10 percent solution of the preservative.

“It looks nice, it’s still in fabulous shape and it’s big,” Slapcinsky said. “It would be really cool to exhibit something like this, if it turns out that it preserves well enough and we can find a way to exhibit it so that it doesn’t damage the specimen.”

It will take about two weeks to complete the preservation process, after which researchers will further examine the squid to determine its sex and age and compare it with other specimens. Scientists hope to gain a greater understanding of the life of these elusive creatures, including their range, diet and how they reproduce.

The genetic data will be of particular interest to researchers trying to determine if there are one or more species of giant squid, said museum invertebrate paleontologist Roger Portell.“We don’t really have a good handle on the biogeography of these critters, so this will add to that knowledge base,” Portell said. “Because they are so rare, we have so few samples where we get a fresh specimen and can actually do genetic work.”

John Kirk on new Caddy show

2011-06-30T14:07:00.000-07:00

Cryptozoologist John Kirk has posted on Cryptomundo about the new Discovery Channel Caddy show:

Well fellow Cryptomundians. I am am excited and horrified that this is finally going to air. Excited because now it is possible that they will show the footage that Paul Leblond and I viewed and horrified because I see guns and explosions. I don’t think that they got anywhere near the Cadborosaurus-like creatures we witnessed so the guns and bangs are hype.

Nobody else has seen the creatures in that area since. In fact, the last Caddy sightings in Alaska were reported in Ketchikan in 2010, quite a ways from the Nushagak Bay footage as I have now ascertained it took place in 2008. On that occasion, two families saw two of the animals and they witnessed them come ashore briefly before entering the water.

All I can say is they better do a good job. The parts they show in the above video are just teasers, there’s way better sequences than they have tantalized us with. If they show the footage with the enhancements done by Captain KN and his crew who filmed it as Paul and I have seen it, then it will be mind-blowing.

At last everybody is going to get at least a look at what I say is probably a whole pod of Caddys. Let’s hope they do this justice amigos, or I am going to complain like there is no tomorrow. I hope and pray that we get the best of this precious footage.

Cadborosaurus

New "Deadliest Catch" spinoff searches for Caddy in Alaska

2011-06-30T12:47:00.000-07:00

Brothers Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand, stars of Deadliest Catch, are the subjects of a new Discovery Channel spinoff, Alaskan Monster Hunt. With their famous professional manner, the brothers will search Cadborosaurus in Alaska. Why they're calling a sea serpent off the Alaskan coast Cadborosaurus is still unclear, as Caddy's home is known to be Cadboro Bay, British Columbia.

Check it out:

9-foot gator freed from South Carolina drain

2011-06-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

Workers have freed a 9-foot alligator trapped for days in a storm drain on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

A crew worked for five hours Friday using fishing lines, ropes, PVC pipes, and snares to free the gator from a drain at Hilton Head Island Plantation.

Officials first heard about the gator int he drain 10 days ago but wanted to give it a chance to wriggle back through the storm pipes.

After the gator it was released, it was released into a community lagoon.

SOURCE: Herald Online

"Misunderstood lamprey thriving in Sedgeunkedunk Stream"

2011-06-25T18:52:00.000-07:00

New article about strange critter. Check it out!

New info about giant blue catfish

2011-06-25T18:31:00.000-07:00

Nick Anderson, left, his father, Rick
Anderson, center, and brother, Jeramie
Mullis show off the record-setting blue
catfish.

According to the Charlotte Observer, the massive blue catfish caught in the John H. Kerr Reservoir in Virginia a week ago breaks the world record by 13 pounds, although there has been no official declaration yet.

The same source says that Anderson hooked the fish just before dusk Saturday just over the Virginia line.

The catfish is 57 inches long and 43.5 inches around.

He won't reveal his bait choice beyond a "family secret," nor his tackle beyond a "rod and reel," but the Virginia weekly Mecklenburg News-Progress listed his gear as an "Ugly Stick" rod with a Shimano reel and 30-pound test line.

Blue catfish are not a native species, and their growth varies wildly depending on food and temperature, said Wayne Starnes, curator of fishes for the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences. He guessed a blue cat that large would be about 20 years old.

TDN.com goes on to quote Starnes:

"They’re known to scavenge when striped bass tear into a school of gizzard shad," he said. "They hang out like jackals after a lion kill."

Anderson’s fish drew a small crowd, but it couldn’t be kept alive long enough to find out if it outweighs all its unlucky brothers.

So it sits in a freezer, waiting to be mounted and immortalized in fish stories that will require no exaggeration.

Lake Monster in Oakland?

2011-06-25T16:36:00.000-07:00

Recent photo of an apparent lake monster in Oakland's
Lake Merritt.

UPDATE: It turns out this whole thing was made up. Are you kidding me?

Oakland, California is rumored to be home to a lake monster, according to the Oaklandnorth.net.

Lying just east of downtown Oakland, a tidal lagoon known as Lake Merritt has on occasion revealed what a local non-profit director believes to be a lake monster.

"It's black, it's big, it has spikes on its head and its tongue sticks out," says Dr. Richard Bailey, local expert on the rumored Lake Merritt monster and executive director of the Lake Merritt Institute, a non-profit dedicated to cleaning the lake. "It's got typical round monster humps."

According to Dr. Bailey, who has a masters degree in zoology and a doctorate in natural resources, sightings of this Lake Merritt monster, which he fondly refers to as the "Oak-ness monster," have become more frequent in the past five years. Dr. Bailey believes the creature prefers clean lakes, so perhaps it is no coincidence that he says these appearances coincide with massive lake clean-ups that make it easier for lake-goers to spot monster-like objects in the water. "There were reports of him years ago," he says. "The water quality got bad for awhile, and then it got better."

Reports have gained momentum recently.

Various recent reports from people who insist they have seen the beast say that sightings begin with a slow roiling bubble on the surface of the lake. Then what appears to be a dragon’s head attached to an eel-like body with undulating humps emerges. It may stay aloft for several seconds and then will bubble back down, vanishing into the inky water.

Rumors have it that the best spot to catch a glimpse of this half-sea monster, half-fresh-water-dwelling megafauna is from the docks of the Lake Chalet restaurant, which sits on the southwest shore of the lake. Lake Chalet bartender Laurance Alvarado claims to have seen the beast a handful of times. “I remember the first time I saw it,” he said as he prepared drinks at the dockside bar last week. “It went in and out of the water, then disappeared. It was literally right there, I could’ve thrown a stone at it.”

Alvarado described the monster as about 8 feet long and said that it doesn’t surface often; it’s something you’d be lucky to see. And although some may doubt that such a mysterious creature actually exists, Alvarado just says, “It wouldn’t surprise me at this lake, some mutant thing.”

“He thinks that climate change may have opened a crevice under the lake,” says Dr. Bailey, “and this thing may have swum in after that.” (For the record, there is no account of Dr. Spelunker outside of the Lake Merritt Institute’s own newsletters, which only adds to his mystery.)

Cryptozoology is a touchy field of study, and scientists like Dr. Bailey have their work cut out for them in attempting to not only prove to a skeptical public that the monster actually exists, but in explaining how it got into the lake. Dr. Bailey says he’s consulted with experts, including someone he claims is a retired UC Berkeley geologist named Dr. Kenneth Spelunker who believes the monster could be an abominable reptile that crawled through an open fissure at the bottom of the lake.

Although sightings at Lake Merritt have only recurred recently, Dr. Bailey believes this monster is as old as time. “These things go back to antiquity era,” he says. Quoting James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, he says the monster has probably been around since “joshuan judges had given us numbers or Helviticus committed deuteronomy.”*

Recorded Lake Merritt monster sightings date back to the 1940’s. According to Jack Burroughs, a former reporter for the Oakland Tribune, the monster once inhabited the lake and then left (although, if Dr. Bailey is correct, he seems to have returned again). On June 21, 1946, Burroughs wrote in his weekly column:

The legend, which some go so far as to disbelieve, dates back to that far-off time when turgid streams snaked their way down from the hills to form the San Antonio creek. On a day of untoward lightnings and unseemly thunderings a vast, slimy, amphibious creature slithered along one of these water courses into San Antonio creek, waded along the creek till he came to the estuary, swam out the estuary into the Bay and thence out to sea. But before he left he hollowed out with a fillip of his tail, the basin that later became Lake Merritt. He must have been wired for sounds, for before he left he roared, in a voice that echoed from Mt. Diablo to the Farralons, a prophecy that has since been freely translated from the old Crow Indian dialect as follows: “Lake Merritt… home!”

This archival article was recently dug up from Oakland’s Main Library by Oakland resident and artist Justin Kanalakis, who has quickly become a monster buff and started making and selling t-shirts with the creature’s likeness. “He’s kind of a slithery dragon amphibian,” says Kanalakis describing the monster. “He’s wingless—he’s a water bearing creature.”

Cryptozoologists know that lake monster apparitions have been sighted all over the world. Of course, there’s the famous Scottish Loch Ness monster, and the Champs monster that supposedly lives in Lake Champlain in New England. Less famous sea beasts reportedly inhabit Oregon, Brazil and China. Dr. Bailey believes some of these monsters may be related and notes that the humps on the Loch Ness monster are strikingly similar to those on the Oak-ness monster.

Even though there are thought to be monster fish, sea serpents and waterborne hump-backed dragons in several countries, Dr. Bailey nevertheless says that such creatures are endangered species. Recently, he asked the Oakland City Council to write a proclamation to honor and protect the Lake Merritt beast. There’s been no response from the council yet, but Dr. Bailey remains hopeful. “It would be nice if the city council would recognize it,” Dr. Bailey says. “We’re lucky to have this rare creature.”

Dr. Bailey adds that despite the monster’s frightening appearance and prodigious size, he believes that it’s actually quite harmless. “We think it’s docile, it’s never really attacked anybody,” he says. “But we warn people not to get too close—just to be safe.”

*The interview with Dr. Bailey happened to be on June 16, Bloomsday, which is why he quoted James Joyce.

The picture seems to defy explanation--it's not the usual urban lake monster phenomenon which could be explained away by a duck's ripples or an escaped carp. What it really looks like is someone's pet crocodile that they dumped into the lake when it (gasp) grew. What do you think?

New tidbit on Canadian cryptozoology

2011-06-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

Here you go.

Smithsonian: history of the giant squid

2011-06-24T21:05:00.001-07:00

Check it out.

Huge globster washes up in China

2011-06-22T20:33:00.000-07:00

A 55-foot, 4.5-ton carcass has washed up in China.

UPDATE: This is old news. Someone reposted it on The Sun.

A 55-foot carcass has washed up in Guangdong, southeast China.

People have flocked to see the globster, which reportedly weighs at least 4.5 tons. It is too badly decayed to be identified, and is tangled up in ropes, leading some to theorize that it had been caught by an area fisherman who couldn't reel it in.

Its identity is a mystery, but Live Science reports that it may be a whale:

Upon seeing a photo of the carcass, three marine biology experts — Scott Baker of Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute, Bill Perrin, senior scientist for marine mammals at the National Marine Fisheries Service, and Bob Brownell, senior scientist for international protected resources with the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration's Fisheries Service — all think it's a whale.

Based on its throat grooves, "[we agree] that it's a balaenopterid," Baker told Life's Little Mysteries. "Judging from the reported size of 55 ft., maybe a fin whale. From the photo, however, it does not really look to be 55 ft., and so might be a smaller balaenopterid, like one of the 'Bryde's' whales."

"We all hope somebody collects the bones and a tissue sample for genetic analysis as recovery of whale carcasses is rare along the coast of China," he added.

SOURCES: Live Science, The Sun

Catfish caught in Virginia may set world record

2011-06-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

An angler caught a 143-pound blue catfish in a Virginia reservoir on Saturday, says the Washington Post. According to state wildlife officials, the fish may set a new world record for size.

The catfish is almost five feet long and nearly four feet around, according to Virginia's Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Of course, this will only be the biggest blue catfish caught. In 2005 fishermen caught a nearly nine foot-long Mekong giant catfish in the Mekong River, and an unverified source listed on Wikipedia claims that the biggest one ever recorded was 10.5 feet. Giant catfish are considered a cryptid the world over where such explained species as the Mekong don't normally live. See more on Giant Catfish in the Monster Galleries.

Nick Anderson of North Carolina was fishing with his father and brother the John H. Kerr Reservoir at the confluence of the Dan and Roanoke rivers in rural Mecklenburg County, along the Virginia-North Carolina border. When he felt the catfish tug at his line, he spent 45 minutes reeling it in.

Berk Pennington,owner of Mecklenburg Supply, holds
the catfish.

“This thing was big enough to be a sea monster,” said Dallas Weston, editor of the local newspaper, the Mecklenburg News-Progress. Weston captured some photos of the catfish after it was pulled out of the water. The monstrous fish was weighed at Mecklenburg Supply Inc., one of the few places that had a large enough scale.

Lee Walker, a game department spokesman, said officials and biologists were “shocked” at the size of the fish. The previous world record blue catfish weighed 130 pounds (it was caught in Missouri in 2010).

It is the second blue catfish of unusual size caught in the reservoir this year. In March, a 109-pound fish caught there set the state record.

Perhaps something similar can explain monster sightings in another reservoir a bit to the south, in North Carolina--The Lake Norman Monster.

The John H. Kerr Reservoir.

New Nessie sighting by locals

2011-06-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

Nessie has finally been spotted again, reports The Inverness Courier.

Jan Hargreaves, a shop and cafe owner in Foyers, was taking a break on the store's front deck with kitchen worker Graham Baine last Wednesday, between 2:30 and 3 pm, when they spotted an unusual figure cutting a strange shape through the water.

“We were standing looking out and saw something that looked bizarre,” said Mrs. Hargreaves.

“I said to my husband to come and have a look.

“We stand here all the time and look out and we see boats and kayaks but it didn’t look like anything we have seen here before.”

The strange figure was far away from the deck, but Mrs. Hargreaves, 51, said it was black and had a long neck--too long to be a seal's.

“It went under the water and disappeared for probably 30 to 40 seconds and then came back up again,” said Mrs. Hargreaves.

“It was around for a good four to five minutes. It was just so strange.”

Mrs. Hargreaves is positive that what she saw is the Loch Ness Monster, but stresses that she is not seeking publicity.

"It was so exciting," she said.

The Hargreaves' shop sits
across from the village's
famous Falls of Foyers.

Mr. and Mrs. Hargreaves and her husband have run The Waterfall Cafe and Foyers Stores with post office since last August.

Nessie hunter Steve Feltham, who lives in a former mobile library on the banks of Loch Ness and searches for the monster full-time, heard about the sighting when he popped into the store last week. He believes that since the sighting came from locals rather than tourists, it is more credible.

“I’m excited by the fact it was locals who had seen it,” he said.

“It’s quite a distance from the shop to the water and they watch everything that goes on there.

“For them to be impressed then there is a possibility it could have been Nessie.”

Feltham also noted excitedly that the sighting was from the exact same vantage point where in 1960 Tim Binsdale shot what is considered the best footage of Nessie.

“I’ll put the sightings with the other sightings,” he said. “I will also continue to carry out surface observations.”

Let's do some critical analysis: off the bat, the sighting sounds credible. Although of course Mrs. Hargreaves would have a financial motive to spread belief in Nessie's existence (tourism), she doesn't sound like she's lying. One does wonder why the sighting is only being reported now when it happened on Wednesday. This mystery aside, the sighting is exciting news for those of us who were heartbroken when now-late Nessie researcher Robert Rines announced that he thought the monster may have died as a result of climate change.

Turtle Days are on!

2011-06-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Loren Coleman for reminding us on Cryptomundo that Turtle Days in Churubusco, Indiana commenced yesterday. Turtle Days is a multi-day event celebrating Oscar the Turtle, also known as the Beast of Busco.

Oscar the Turtle is the reason Churubsuco is called Turtle City. He is a giant snapping turtle fabled to live in a small lake on a local farm. In 1898, farmer Oscar Fulk claimed that a huge turtle was living in his lake--of course no one took him seriously, but subsequent owners began to see the creature too, naming it Oscar. Some said the turtle had Oscar Fulk's initials carved into its shell. In 1948 the turtle allegedly surfaced and stole two fishermen's poles, spurring a series of sightings of the giant turtle. In 1949 the townsfolk conducted a monster hunt, trying to catch the creature with guns, nets, and a female turtle to attract Oscar. The townsfolk finally drained the lake to five feet, and there was no sign of Oscar. The locals speculated that he had migrated to another lake or river through underground channels.

The townsfolk of Churubusco are apparently quite excited about the fabled giant turtle in the lake. The festivities at Turtle Days celebrate the monster with live bands, raffle drawings, rides, turtle races, and a parade. This year it goes from June 15 to 18. Here is its official website.

For more on Oscar the Turtle/the Beast of Busco, see its page in Monster Galleries, one of Aquabeasties' newest features!

New Book: Sea Monsters of Scandinavia

2011-06-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

Weird Waters: The Lake and Sea Monsters of Scandinavia and the Baltic States is a new book by Lars Thomas that investigates aquatic cryptids of, well, Scandinavia and the Baltic states (a.k.a. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). According to famed cryptid author Nick Redfern, the book is one of many recent publications from the Center for Fortean Zoology in Britain. He writes in a review:

"This is a superb study of unknown water-based creatures – sea-serpents, Scandinavian equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster, and much more.

"Regional titles, such as this one, are incredibly important when it comes to understanding and appreciating the complex nature of cryptozoology. And it’s seldom that we get to see such an in-depth, focused, and thoughtful title on such matters. So, if it’s monsters of the deep and dark waters that interest you, I recommend that you invest in a copy of Lars’ book at the earliest opportunity."

Trunko identified?

2011-06-06T20:08:00.000-07:00

In this article on Fortean Times, Karl Shuker (famed dracontologist and cryptozoologist) claims to have surmised the identity of Trunko from old reports. Trunko (see monster page in Aquabeasties' new Monster Galleries here) is a monster that washed ashore on Margate Beach, South Africa sometime in the 1920s after being sighted off the coast battling two killer whales. Now Dr. Shuker believes he and a colleague have finally I.D.'d the elephant-sized, trunk-bearing polar bear-like creature.

In the long and all-inclusive article, Dr. Shuker recounts the many various Trunko accounts and finally reveals that, with the discovery of an old photo of the carcass, he has discovered what it is:

"What the photo of the Trunko carcase [sic] shows bears a striking resemblance to classic hairy ‘globsters’ reported from beaches all over the world down through the decades. The zoological identity of these huge, amorphous, hairy masses formerly incited considerable controversy in scientific circles, but recent DNA analyses of tissue samples taken from various specimens have confirmed that a globster is merely a massive, tough skin-sac of blubber containing collagen (and occasionally an isolated bone or two) that is sometimes left behind when a whale d ies and its skull and skeleton have separated from the skin and sunk to the sea bottom. Moreover, its external surface is usually covered in exposed connective tissue fibres that resemble pale, shaggy, scraggy hair or fur, and there is no trace of blood as this has long since drained or been washed away."

And as for the alleged battle with the killer whales? How could a chunk of blubber do battle with two killer whales? Dr. Shuker has an answer for that, too:

"In fact, long before I had discovered Jones’s photos and article, I had documented what I believed to be the answer to this riddle. While preparing the Trunko section for my book Extraordinary Animals Revisited (2007), I had come across a meticulous examination of the Trunko phenomenon undertaken and posted by American cryptozoological investigator Lance Bradshaw on his Kryptid’s Keep website.In his account, Lance had postulated that the Trunko battle could be reasonably explained as an optical illusion. That is, observ ers on the shore looking some distance out to sea thought that they were watching some bizarre furry mega-beast battling two whales, but what they were really seeing was two whales repeatedly throwing into the air a huge but already dead carcase, playing with it in an animated manner already on record for certain cetaceans (particularly killer whales, which are indeed native to South Africa’s coast). It is eve n possible (as I’ve already proposed for the Daily Mail-reported giant squid) that this carcase had originally been propelled from the sea depths up to the surface by the recent Margate seaquake mentioned by Jones."

As scientifically motivated amateurs, sometimes we have to be impartial. It seems that this really does solve the mystery of Trunko, however disappointing it may be.

But wait. After the carcass washed ashore, a Mr. HC Ballance wrote to a local newspaper describing the event, and also mentioning that

“For 10 days, this mass lay inert. On the eleventh day there was not a sign of the creature.

“I met some natives who told me that while fishing they had seen the monster out at sea, going up the coast, and that is the last we have seen of it.”

What could explain this last sighting of the creature, if the native fishermen weren't mistaken (fishermen tend to know the local aquafauna well enough)? Did they just see the inanimate blubber bobbing by? Or did they see Trunko, blissfully migrating to clearer waters, completely unaware that he would one day be inexorably shelved away as a glob of whale fat?

Monster croc caught in Australia

2011-05-15T11:56:00.001-07:00

From Nine MSN News (video at original source):

"A monster saltwater crocodile has been taken out of the wild after being hauled from a river trap in the Northern Territory.

"The 4.6 metre long reptile was caught by wildlife officers in the Katherine River, at Donkey Camp, about 10km from the town of Katherine.

"Rangers said a member of the public last week reported seeing a large crocodile in the area, and the 700kg beast was snared at the popular fishing spot yesterday.

"Its huge size meant it had to be sedated and dragged from the water using a four wheel drive truck.

"Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife Service Wildlife Ranger, Joey Buckerfield said: 'He was quite an impressive animal.

"'He filled the trap out and had no trouble turning around.'

"The huge crocodile, which has been named Karl, is the largest of the 116 reptiles to be caught in the Northern Territory this year, but was the first to be pulled from the region.

"He was tied down, taped up and taken to a croc farm in Darwin.

"Mr Buckerfield said a 3.4m male saltwater crocodile was also removed from a permanent trap about one kilometre downstream from the popular Wangi Falls, in Litchfield National Park.

"He warned people to remain vigilant around waterways in the area despite it coming towards the end of the wet season.

"'This is another reminder to people to be extremely cautious about any waterways in the Top End, because estuarine [saltwater] crocodiles can and do move around throughout the year,' Mr Buckerfield said.

“'The traps are removed from Katherine River at the beginning of the wet season as they become difficult to bait and check with rising river levels and may be swept away or damaged by heavy rain.

“'The traps have recently been placed back in the Katherine River for the duration of the dry season.

“'Only swim in designated swimming areas.'"

John Kirk talks aquatic cryptids

2011-04-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

Cryptomundo reports an interview with John Kirk, president of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club and leader of the hunt for Cammy, the monster of Cameron Lake. Check out the interview, in which Kirk talks about the variety of aquatic cryptids in British Columbia, here. Kirk does seem to accept without question the presence of Caddy, Cammy, and others, and to see every minor sighting as definite evidence of a monster. In this interview at least, he doesn't seem to consider that some reported sightings could just be of sturgeon, eels or other animals. It's still an interesting interview, though. Check it out. Also check out Aquabeasties' Cameron Lake Monster page (still very much under construction) in the fledgling Monster Galleries.

Previous news on Aquabeasties about John Kirk and the Cameron Lake Monster:

Search on Cameron Lake (9/10)

Recaps (8/10)

Welcome Back and a New Cammy Sighting! (1/10)

More Past Sightings (10/09)

A Bit More on Cammy (9/09)

Cameron Lake Monster Update (9/09)

The Search Begins (9/09)

Monster Hunter Team Time (9/09)

Scientists prove that Nessie does not exist

2011-04-01T12:34:00.001-07:00

Experts at the British Zoological Society today announced they had come up with conclusive evidence that the Loch Ness Monster does not exist.

Dr. Ernest Shepherd, in an interview with CBC News, shocked Nessie fans everywhere when he announced that, using new sonar technology just recently released by the Royal Navy, he and a team of investigators had just finished a complete sweep of Loch Ness. They were not only able to see every crevice and peat particle in the loch in full color, but they were able to see the entire contents of the loch at one time, meaning Nessie could not dodge the sonar boat. While the team was surprised to find two very large schools of fish, they failed to find anything resembling the Loch Ness Monster.

Furthermore, Dr. Shepherd and his team scanned the adjacent lochs with similar results. A spokeswoman for the team, Ms. April Fool, addressed media questions at the announcement. Ms. Fool said that the team would not be making a return trip, that this should confirm for all of science that Nessie isn't real, and that the plesiosaurs did indeed die out with the rest of the dinosaurs.

Speaking of which, check out this April Fools joke in Australia.

Next Beast Hunter: Swamp Monster of the Congo

2011-03-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

This Wednesday, March 30, the latest episode of Pat Spain's new series "Beast Hunter" will air at 3 PM. He will look for the Swamp Monster of the Congo. From the show's description:

Ever since the earliest missionaries and explorers returned from Africa, stories have been told of strange water-dwelling monsters living in the Congo Basin. The native Pygmy tribes speak of the Mokele-mbembe, an animal with a long, thin neck and a body the size of an elephant that seems to resemble a sauropod dinosaur. Could there be a population of dinosaurs living in the remote jungle?

Muck Monster of Belfast, MD

2011-03-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

Every year, a group of student designers at the Maryland Institute College of Art goes to Belfast, Maryland to participate in Project M, a camp that challenges students to immerse themselves in the community and create socially relevant art. When this year's students arrived in Belfast, they found some mentions of a serpent in a local lake while researching local folklore. Deciding to delve into the legend, the group interviewed residents. Only a few had heard of the monster, but nearly everyone had heard some kind of legend about Kirby Lake.

One resident thought that the muddy pond was 1,000 feet deep.

Another had heard that an elephant had drowned in the lake.

"All of these stories started sprouting up," said Project M participant Stephen Edmond. "When we heard about The Muck, we imagined this ocean-width body of water, and found that it was just this little frozen pond."

Numerous cars have gone into the pond, not all of which have been recovered. One interviewee claimed to have seen a serpent in the lake on two occasions, but may have been drunk.

So the students put together a creative art exhibition with imitation artifacts from the monster's history:

The students researched the mythology of serpents in Penobscot Bay and found legends that could arguably be applied to The Muck dating back centuries, from settlers and in the folklore of the Penobscot tribe. During the course of a week, they assembled a show of recreated artifacts relating to the Muck monster myth, using distressed paper to make plausible-looking samples of the monster's skin, recreating drawings of Penobscot encounters with the serpent, and including the requisite grainy and blurred photographs of what might be the head and neck of the serpent emerging from the water.

On Friday, March 18, Edmonds and four others from the group were busy hanging the artifacts on the walls of an empty downtown storefront, in preparation for a one-night-only show that evening dedicated to the monster, for whom the group appeared to have developed a charitable fondness, giving him the approachable name “Melvin.”

"We feel like he's gotten a bad rap," Edmonds said, recounting a Penobscot story of a woman who was supposedly eaten by the monster.

"We don't think Melvin would have done something like that. We think maybe he was so excited to have some company and he tried to give her a kiss or something," he said.

Another Project M participant, Colin Dunn, was standing nearby and he summed up the plight of the ancient monster in modern terms.

"He's misunderstood," he said.

The two were looking at a drawing resembling a compass rose that Edmonds said was a reproduction of a Penobscot image. Edmonds and Dunn gave a deadpan explanation of the piece, which was affixed to the top of wooden disc — a hockey puck, as it turned out. It was a ruse, but a sly one that made a facsimile of an old artifact from modern day one, likely found by the students at the pond. Whether people believe it or not wasn't the point.

"We wanted a forum in the community where we could get younger kids talking to stakeholders," he said. "Maybe we can bring people into the same space to talk about something interesting."

Edmonds said he was impressed with the humor and kindness of people in Belfast but was aware that the group could easily come off as interlopers.

"I think people will realize we're not making fun of the town," he said. "And that they will be excited that we're doing something interesting in the community — that we're latching onto this legend and getting really artistic with it."

You'd have to research more local mythology to find the origins of the monster myth. Whether a serpent could live in a small, freezing pond is a good question up for debate.

Which reminds me. Aquabeasties will soon be opening up a forum section, where we can discuss any sea monster issues out there. It should be pretty cool.

SOURCE: Villagesoup.com

IMAX's Sea Rex to premiere at British aquarium

2011-03-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

The British premiere of IMAX's SEA REX: Journey to a Prehistoric World will be held this Easter at Bristol Aquarium. Already released in America, the film travels 200 million years into the past to see what ruled the seas before the time of the dinosaurs. Animated with CGI, the film is "aimed at visitors of all ages"--which may mean it treats it audience like elementary schoolers, much as IMAX's Under the Sea did. Perhaps Aquabeasties will go see this movie and review it on the site.

SOURCES AND MORE INFORMATION: AttractionsManagement.com

Bread-dough sculpture of Bear Lake Monster included in new book

2011-03-27T08:58:00.000-07:00

A new book by artist Robert Fontenot of photographs depicting sculptures of some of Utah's weirdest icons includes his impression of the Bear Lake Monster. The book covers

"a quirky gamut of Utah icons, including the Salt Lake Temple, Bear Lake Monster, the LDS Church’s underground storage caves, the Duces Wild strip bar, the hangar of
the nuclear bomber Enola Gay, the Thistle flood, the Bar-X, Brigham Young’s pistol, giant Snelgrove ice-cream-cone sculpture, a sacred salamander, B-movies filmed in the state, and a whale that was supposedly released into the Great Salt Lake in the 1890s."

Interesting about that whale in the Great Salt Lake. See more about the book at The Salt Lake Tribune.

Fossilized sea monster back on display in England

2011-03-27T08:53:00.000-07:00

Picture by Gary Longbottom

From the Yorkshire Post:

THE complete fossilised remains of one of the biggest sea monsters ever found in Britain have gone back on display for the first time in 20 years after being painstakingly restored.

The fossil of the giant ichthyosaur, which was around eight metres long and swam in the tropical waters which covered North Yorkshire 180 million years ago, is now on display at the Yorkshire Museum in York. It is examined here by Isla Gladstone, Curator of Natural Science.

The ichthyosaur was found in Jurassic rocks near Whitby, a place renowned for its fossil discoveries, and was acquired by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society in 1857, which made an effort to keep it in Britain and in a public collection.

Is Bownessie a string of tires?

2011-03-08T17:16:00.001-08:00

Just days after a man took a picture of something he thought was a monster in England's Lake Windermere, a vacationer there has found a cut-open tire on the shores of the lake which he says resembles the object in the photo.

“We were walking in the area where the picture was taken and suddenly saw this tyre cut open lying on the footpath, said John Phillips, 46, who was on a half-term break with his wife Liz and their three daughters. “I thought, this looks like it.”

He threw the tire into the water and said he was stunned by its resemblance to the object in the photo.

“If you looked at this tyre floating from a distance, it did look a Nessie-like creature,” he said.

“But in the original picture there was a wave of water behind it, which suggested it was moving at speed. I think it was being pulled with a rope by a person or a boat. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s fun, but maybe this tire is the Bowness Monster.”

Let's compare the description by Tom Pickles, who took the photo, with this tire. Pickles said:

"Each hump moved in a rippling movement and it appeared to have a huge shadow around it suggesting it was much bigger underwater. Its skin was like a seal's, but its shape was completely abnormal. We watched for about twenty seconds before it plunged out of sight."

According to Mr. Phillips, the tire is black and tread gives it a "leathery" look from a distance, resembling the skin of a seal or a snake.

But Mr Phillips’s photo of the tyre has failed to convince everyone.

Thomas Noblett, who reported a run-in with Bownessie in 2009, said, “I am not convinced by the tire explanation and I still believe there is a creature out there,” he added.

Nigel Wilkinson, of Windermere Lake Cruises, claimed Bownessie in Mr. Pickles’ photo is a bunch of otters.

He said, “The problem with the tire theory is that if it is a hoax, you don’t normally leave the evidence behind just lying around.”

SOURCES AND MORE INFORMATION: News & Star

PREVIOUS BOWNESSIE: Oct. 2009 Feb. 2011 March 2011

Search for Bownessie delayed

2011-03-02T12:58:00.000-08:00

From News & Star:

Langdale Chase Hotel managing director Thomas Noblett was due to lead an expedition to Windermere at the weekend as intrigue about the existence of ‘Bownessie’ grows.

A psychic from the north east was also due to be on-board a boat fitted with sonar equipment and 3D imaging equipment.

But the trip was cancelled at the last minute because of problems with the boat. Organisers hope it will be rearranged soon.

Mr Noblett has said he is in no doubt that a large creature – possibly Cumbria’s version of the Loch Ness monster – lives in the lake after an experience he had while swimming in Windermere in July 2009.

PREVIOUS BOWNESSIE: Oct. 2009 Feb. 2011

Discovery News lists American lake monsters

2011-03-02T12:49:00.000-08:00

In light of the recent Bownessie photograph, Discovery News has put together a short list of some interesting lake monsters we have right here in North America:

Crescent Lake is a picturesque body of water in northeastern Newfoundland near the small town of Robert’s Arm. Robert's Arm is gorgeous, with walking trails snaking over lush green hills and around the placid lake. The lake, deep and cold, is allegedly home to a lake monster known as Cressie. As you enter the town, a life-size(?) model of Cressie greets visitors.

Quebec's Lake Memphremagog, which extends down into north-central Vermont, is said to be home to a lake monster, Memphre, with reports supposedly dating as far back as 1816.

In British Columbia's Lake Okanagan, there supposedly exists the Ogopogo monster. It is said to be dark, up to 70 feet long, and have a series of humps. It is the world's second most famous creature after Nessie, and like many lake monsters, native Indians are said to have described the beast in their legends and myths.

America has its share of reputed aquatic beasts as well, including Lake Tahoe's Tessie. But the best known lives in Lake Champlain, which forms the border between Vermont and New York. "Champ," as the creature is called, has allegedly been seen by hundreds of witnesses and is anywhere between 10 and 187 feet long, has one or more humps, and is gray, black, dark green, or other colors.

The small town of Port Henry, New York, is the self-proclaimed "Home of Champ" and has a large wooden board that records monster sightings. The best evidence for Champ -- in fact, for any lake monster -- was a 1977 photo taken by Sandra Mansi showing what appeared to be a dark head and hump in the lake. Later investigation showed that the object was almost certainly a floating log that looked serpentine from a certain angle.

Gray Whale Spotted off Washington

2011-03-02T12:42:00.000-08:00

From B-Town Blog:

Around 11:15am on Tuesday, March 1st, Burien Parks Director Michael LaFraniere sent out the following Tweet:

Sources tell us a 40-ft long gray whale was spotted feeding about 10am this morning approx 100 ft from the beach at Seahurst Park in #Burien

We were able to reach Miriam Castro at the Environmental Science Center, and she shared with us the following photo that she took of the whale, which, while isn’t “great,” still shows its size:

Here’s a closeup of the same pic, which Miriam says “looks kind of like the Loch Ness Monster!”:

According to the Orca Network’s tutorial on gray whales:

In late winter or early spring gray whales begin to arrive along Pacfic Northwest coastal waters from winter migrations. In various fertile mudflats from Oregon to the Bering Sea they find invertebrates burrowing in the mud. By digging up the mudflats for shrimp and worms and leaving pits that attract all sorts of detritus and prey items, gray whales increase the productivity of the mudflats for sea ducks such as scoters, and for themselves a year later.
The Gray whale gets its name from its mottled gray skin, which is covered with barnacles and whale lice. Many biologists believe Gray whales may have been among the first of the great whales to have evolved into their present form.
They are 15′ – 16′ at birth, live to be 50 years or more, and grow to a length of 40′ – 45′ and a weight of approx. 30 tons, reaching sexual maturity at five to eleven years of age.
The Gray whale has two blowholes, and its spout resembles a heart shape.

"River Monsters" back in April

2011-03-02T12:38:00.000-08:00

According to M & C,

Animal Planet's River Monsters: Season Three swims upstream to your TV on Sunday, April 10, at 10 PM ET/PT.

Meet British Badass Jeremy Wade: He was detained as a suspected spy and threatened at gunpoint. He survived a bout with malaria and narrowly escaped drowning. He survived a plane crash in the Amazon, and his hand was sliced by a machete.

And now, the man responsible for my absolute refusal to enter fresh water anywhere (except a pool), Mr. Wade himself returns for more dangerous mystery and freshwater sleuthing in a new season of "River Monsters."

This one will prove to be the most exotic and bizarre yet.

Animal Planet’s top-performing series ever returns with seven brand-new episodes beginning Sunday, April 10, at 10 PM (ET/PT) as biologist and extreme angler Wade travels worldwide to solve freaky freshwater fish tales and lures in watery culprits that allegedly attack mankind.

From Animal Planet:

This season, Jeremy finds himself in places he’s never explored as he travels to the far reaches of the globe – from serpentine underwater caves to remote rivers filled with freshwater crocodiles.

In the first episode titled “The Mutilator,” Jeremy searches for the giant cousin of the piranha that – with its gnarly teeth and gnawing jaws--has turned from vegetarian to meat eater, with a particular interest in male genitalia.

The second episode features “The Flesh Ripper,” a fish with toxic blood. In order to test his hypothesis, Jeremy has to use himself as human bait and lure the fish by covering himself in fresh fish guts.

In addition to new episodes, several special editions of the series will air, including “The Deadliest” (May 8 at 9 PM) and “Most Bizarre” (May 30 at 9 PM), highlighting the biggest moments and catches in Jeremy’s career; TRIBAL FISHING (May 22 at 9 PM), a special where Jeremy works with indigenous tribes to learn their special techniques at angling, including fishing with spider webs and using only his voice to lure fish; and RIVER MONSTERS: THE LOST REELS (June 5 at 9 and 10 PM), two specials from Wade’s early years searching for what lurks below.

“This season, I get into even more unfamiliar territory,” notes Wade. “The destinations are diverse, the stories strange, and the fish every bit as fearsome but in unexpected ways. I encountered fish with invisible powers, others that live to a century, the largest true freshwater fish so far and the longest struggle I’ve had with a live fish to date.”

This series is a weekly murder mystery, following Jeremy’s worldwide search for harrowing tales of man-eating fish, with the hope of proving these freshwater mysteries as tall tales or frightening fact. Wade has taken his life-long passion and turned it into a full-time career, searching for a variety of aquatic vertebrae while navigating the globe’s waterways. Wade’s River Monster quests have him diving in with and reeling in fascinating and mysterious creatures – all alleged man killers…

By April MacIntyre

Golden eagle snatches lamb from hillside

2011-03-02T11:53:00.001-08:00

Photo: KETTS NEWS

This photo was taken sometime during the last week of February near Ben More on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. A birdwatcher who didn't want to be named, so a golden eagle with and 8-foot wingspan snatch a lamb from a hillside.

The birdwatcher recounted the sighting: “There were a few other cars parked close by and some eagles circling, possibly by an eyrie.

“Suddenly this massive eagle swooped into view. We could see it was carrying something beneath it and my wife, who had binoculars, thought it was a white mountain hare.

“As it got closer, I said to her, ‘That’s no hare, it’s a lamb’. It was a very unusual sight and a bit sad for the lamb, but that’s nature. It’s certainly a sight that neither of us will forget.”

It is thought that the lamb belonged to a flock of 1,700 kept by Donald MacLean, who farms 10,000 acres on the island. Mr. MacLean said, “This is a hugely significant photograph, catching the eagle in the act. It proves eagles are carrying off lambs, evidence that farmers need to make their point.”

It is for such a reason that the birdwatcher refused to divulge the exact location of the sighting, for fear that angry farmers would raid the eagles' nests. Local farmers are upset over a recent program that aims to reintroduce white-tailed sea eagles to the region. Britain's largest bird of prey is thought to have taken more than 200 lambs on one Highland peninsula in a single year.

Indeed, farmers were probably glad when the golden eagle went extinct in Scotland due to hunting during the Victorian era, and the species was reintroduced to Scotland from Norway in 1975. Despite the fact that there are only 30 breeding pairs in Scotland, some poisoned carcasses were discovered last year and an outcry over the poisonings led to the establishment of special protection areas for golden eagles.

This picture lends credence to the theory that known species of giant birds could be responsible for many supposed Thunderbird reports in which birds carried of pigs or children.

SOURCES AND MORE INFORMATION: The Telegraph

Fishermen to help in search for Loch Ness monster

2011-02-25T18:54:00.000-08:00

Check it out. From the Evening Express:

By Mark Davies

Published: 22/02/2011

HIDDEN DEPTHS: A TV crew is to quiz Peterhead fishermen in a bid to unlock Nessie secrets.

More Pictures

NORTH-EAST fishermen are to help a documentary team in their search for the Loch Ness monster.

The Peterhead fishermen are to be enlisted by an investigative team working for National Geographic on a documentary set to be called The Truth Behind The Loch Ness Monster.

The Buchan fishing crews are to be quizzed by the TV documentary team for their views on what they have seen in deep seas.

Sewergators a misunderstanding, says veteran sewer inspector

2011-02-23T00:30:00.000-08:00

The longest-standing sewer inspector in New York City says the idea of alligators in the city's sewer systems may have stemmed from a misleading photograph. In a recent interview with the New York Times, Luis Baerga was asked about the persistent legend of gators in the sewers of New York. He said:

"At 40 Worth Street, in the old Bureau of Sewers, Fred Pocci [former division chief of sewer construction and sewer maintenance] had a picture. There were some workers pulling an alligator out of the sewer system. I think a lot of people that came to visit the office on the ninth floor mistook that for the city of New York."

The picture was actually taken in Florida.

Of course, this theory doesn't take into account the multiple reports, many confirmed, of actual gators or crocs crawling around in New York City. Here and here are two recent examples.

New photo of Bownessie

2011-02-22T19:39:00.000-08:00

A new photo of Bownessie? Tom Pickles, 24, took this photo with his cell phone last Friday, February 18 while kayaking on Lake Windermere in England with Sarah Harrington, 23. It was the last day of a team-building residential training course with the consulting and outsourcing company Pickles works for, CapGemini.

Pickles said the creature, which was the size of three cars, sped past him and lingered near the surface for 20 seconds. “It was petrifying and we paddled back to the shore straight away. At first I thought it was a dog and then saw it was much bigger and moving really quickly at about 10mph. Each hump was moving in a rippling motion and it was swimming fast. Its skin was like a seal’s but its shape was completely abnormal. It’s not like any animal I’ve ever seen before.”

The photo, which is said to be the best evidence yet of Bownessie's existence, shows four humps rising out of the lake. "Each hump moved in a rippling movement and it appeared to have a huge shadow around it suggesting it was much bigger underwater. Its skin was like a seal's, but its shape was completely abnormal. We watched for about twenty seconds before it plunged out of sight," said Pickles.

Harrington also said: “It was like an enormous snake. I only saw it for a few seconds but all I could think about was that I had to get off the lake. . . . It freaked us out and it was not until we saw the pictures that we believed our own eyes."

The pair had kayaked 300 meters out into the lake and were near Belle Island when Pickles took the photo.

Photo expert David Farnell was not able to say whether or not the photo had been edited. He said, “It does look like a real photo but because it’s been taken on a phone the file size is too small to really tell whether it has been altered on Photoshop or not.”

Dr Ian Winfield, a lake ecologist at the University of Lancaster, said: “It’s possible that it’s a catfish from Eastern Europe and people are misjudging the size but there is no known fish as large as the descriptions we’re hearing that could be living in Windermere. We run echo sounding surveys every month and have never found anything.”

"It's a bit of fun, it adds a bit of spice to life," he said. "It would be wonderful if it was true. I mean if we had some kind of creature alive in the British Isles it would be fantastic but I really don't think it can be so."

Here is a news "report" from ABC on the sighting. The reporter mispronounces "Bownessie" and misidentifies the Surgeon's photograph of 1934 as possible evidence for Nessie (it was revealed to be a hoax in 1994), but here it is:

Steve Burnip, who made the first reported Bownessie sighting in 2006, said, “I’m really pleased that someone has finally got a really good picture of it. I know what I saw and it shocked me, it had three humps and it’s uncanny the likeness between this and what I saw five years ago.”

This is believed to be the eighth monster sighting on the 11-mile long lake in the past five years. In 2006, Burnip, a University lecturer, claimed that he and his wife had seen a creature with a small head and two small humps following in its path which looked "like a giant eel."

They were standing at Watbarrow point, a well-known lookout spot.

"I was absolutely flabbergasted," said Mr. Burnip, "I just stood there and couldn't believe what I was looking at."

In July 2009, a swimmer and his trainer paddling along in a boat were hit by large waves that had apparently come out of nowhere; they spotted a large bow wave up the middle of the lake. Like Burnip, the swimmer became open to the idea of a monster in Lake Windermere after his sighting. Soon after, as psychic Dean "Midas" Maynard was preparing to conduct a search for the monster, Steve Burnip commented:

“I am absolutely convinced that there is a big creature in the lake. I am really pleased that there is a renewed interest in it because I know what I saw. I can see it in my head now, this grey lump and the humps breaking the water like you see in the classic Loch Ness pictures. There is something in there, something quite big and elusive.”

Maynard's search yielded a surprising sighting of something that looked like a monster's head emerging from the lake.

Here is Aquabeasties' first post about Bownessie, covering several previous sightings.

SOURCES AND MORE INFORMATION: ABC News, Shropshire Star, The Telegraph

Happy Birthday, Steve Feltham!

2011-01-31T19:44:00.000-08:00

According to Cryptomundo, today is the birthday of Steve Feltham, the man who gave up everything to follow his dream of Nessie-hunting full-time. He moved into a converted mobile library and watches the loch constantly. From Loren Coleman on Cryptomundo:

Today, January 31, 2011, Steve Feltham is 48 years old. He is the ultimate seeker of the Loch Ness Monsters.

I was delighted to have met him and spent some time with him in his “caravan” on the shores of the Loch with my sons Malcolm and Caleb in 1999. He is a true gentleman and a scholar. If you visit him, buy a few of his “Nessie on a rock” sculptures, as I did, to support his work.

To see the rest of the article on Cryptomundo, including a whole other article that covers Feltham's story, click here.

2011-01-25T22:20:00.000-08:00

Logan Canyon in Utah is home to Bear Lake, purportedly the habitat of a fabled lake monster. Stories from Logan Canyon, including the lake monster, are being featured in a podcast series by the Stokes Nature Center.

"Telling stories gives you a sense of place and makes you feel you belong," says Annalisa Paul, director of operations at the Stokes Nature center, "so many people in the community are interested in history. We wanted to find a compelling way to share these stories."

Elaine Thatcher, program coordinator of the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies, said for the article that Thomas Sleight, a resident of Paris, Idaho, claimed to have seen the monster swimming quickly and eating sheep and barbed wire. The monster has been described as brown, green, hairy, and scaly. Reports of the monster caused a panic and between 1868-70 gun sales "skyrocketed."

You can find the article about the podcasts on The Utah Statesman and the actual podcasts on the nature center's website.

New pathway for Nessie namer

2011-01-24T22:42:00.000-08:00

Wetland walk honours conservation hero

Published Date: 25 January 2011

By Jane Bradley

Environment Correspondent

HE FIRST discovered an interest in wildlife because his Antarctic explorer father believed it was "better than games".

Now the man credited with giving a scientific name to the Loch Ness Monster and founding a string of conservation charities is to be honoured with the creation of a commemorative walkway at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust's Caerlaverock reserve in south-west Scotland.

The Sir Peter Scott Centenary Walkway, which has been designed to showcase the reserve's dragonflies and barnacle geese population, has been built to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the eminent conservationist, who founded the reserve in the 1970s.

Sir Peter, the son of explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott, is also a co-founder of the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) and the global conservation organisation WWF.

The circular hike takes in a new dragonfly pond and has hides where bird-lovers can watch the kingfisher and sandmartin population, as well as look out for badger setts.

"It is the only area of the reserve with both trees and foliage, which attracts the small birds," said the centre's manager, Pam Mundy. "It also gets people walking among the reed beds, so they can see the reed warblers."

Reserve warden Mike Youdale said the WWT tried to continue the legacy of the work carried out by Sir Peter - who was born in 1909. The idea for the walkway has been in planning for more than a year.

"It was his centenary year and we thought it would be an ideal way to honour him as our founder," he said.

"We have had this area for a long time and we wanted to do something with it.

"We thought it would be really nice to open it up to the public and recognise the work of Sir Peter at the same time."

Sir Peter founded the Caerlaverock reserve, on the Solway Firth, in a bid to conserve the dwindling population of barnacle geese. There were just 250 in the area at that time - but the population has rocketed to as many as 35,000 today.

"We still try to follow his vision when we're working," added Mr Youdale. "He wanted to protect endangered species, not just in the UK, but across the world."

Sir Peter, best known to the public for his wildlife programme Look, which ran from 1955 to 1981, is credited with giving the scientific name of Nessi-teras rhombopteryx to the Loch Ness Monster, so it could be registered as an endangered species.

The name was taken from the Ancient Greek for "the wonder of Ness with the diamond shaped fin", but it was later claimed to be based on an anagram of the words "monster hoax".

The walkway is to be officially opened next month by Sir Peter's son, Falcon - named for his explorer grandfather.

It is believed that Capt Scott encouraged Sir Peter - who was just two when his father died on an Antarctic expedition in 1912 - into his chosen career through a final letter to his wife, advising her to "make the boy interested in natural history if you can; it is better than games".

Dr Richard Dixon, director of WWF Scotland, said the walkway was a fitting memorial for Sir Peter.

He said: "He was one of the great figures of the environment movement. One of the things he is most strongly identified with is his bird-watching interest - so a walk by the Solway Firth where you can see a range of birds and wildlife is a fitting tribute."

During his career, Sir Peter received the WWF Gold Medal and the J Paul Getty Prize for his work, as well as being cited as a member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, which credited him with playing a duck call on the song The Intro and the Outro.

Basking Sharks on the decline

2011-01-16T11:32:00.000-08:00

Basking sharks, whose corpses have been mistaken for globsters (sea monster carcasses) for hundreds of years, may not be fooling ignorant beach-goers much longer. Check it out:

Once abundant local 'sea monsters,' giant basking sharks are now endangered

BY LARRY PYNN, VANCOUVER SUN OCTOBER 26, 2010

One year after my birth in 1955, Vancouver Sun news reporter Jim Hazelwood headed to the west coast of Vancouver Island to witness the federal slaughter of the world's second largest fish.

The crime of the basking shark -- a gentle beast that strains small marine life from the ocean and poses no threat to humans -- was becoming entangled in commercial fishing nets.

Pressured by fishermen, Ottawa installed a special knife that could be lowered down the bow of the federal fisheries vessel, Comox Post, to slice open the sharks. The contraption even made the pages of Popular Mechanics.

"The marauders have begun swarming off the west coast of Vancouver Island in the past three years -- and we were out trying to run them down," Hazelwood wrote in a story published on May 16, 1956.

"The great shark slaughter began at noon and continued for hours. We littered the beaches with their livers and the bottom with their carcasses.

"Up and down the length of Pachena Bay we sailed, slashing and rendering. ... It was a colossal fight between the ship and the sea monsters, with the ship winning all the matches.

"By dusk we had a record one-day kill of 34 definite, about five possibles and 10 misses."

More than half a century later, I represent a distinctly different Sun reporter, this time scouring the B.C. coast not to witness the destruction of basking sharks, but to help document that they still exist here at all.

An endangered species

The basking shark is an endangered species, so rare that there's only about one documented sighting per year in B.C. waters.

Ottawa -- the same level of government that once sought to destroy the basking shark -- now begins to atone for its mistakes by conducting air patrols twice a month, May to October, in search of the animals.

Romney McPhie, a federal shark biologist with the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, alternates her patrols between two areas where basking sharks have historically occurred in abundance: Rivers Inlet, on B.C.'s central coast; and Bamfield to Estevan Point, on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

McPhie earned her master's degree on Canada's East Coast studying skates which, along with sharks and rays, are elasmobranch or cartilaginous species. B.C. waters are home to three species of ray and 10 species of skate.

Known to her B.C. colleagues as the "shark lady," McPhie has yet to see a basking shark. They would be difficult to miss at up to 12 metres in length, second only to the tropical whale shark.

On this particular patrol, I'll be McPhie's extra set of eyes on board a Cessna 182 amphibious aircraft chartered from Island Air at Courtenay. The four-hour return flight will take us up the Strait of Georgia past Campbell River to Johnstone Strait and Port Hardy, then on to Rivers Inlet and Moses Inlet.

"Basking sharks will be about the size of a big floating deadhead, a medium-sized motor boat or a minke whale," McPhie said over aircraft headphones.

They differ from whales in that they move their tails from side to side, and don't display a blowhole.

"Now, let's go find one," McPhie said, her enthusiasm tapered by reality. Since 1996, there have been only 13 confirmed sightings in B.C. waters.

Pilot Mike Seib believes he saw one at Active Pass seven years ago. At the time, he wrote it off as a sturgeon, having no knowledge of basking sharks.

"Unfortunately, my phone is not ringing off the hook," McPhie said. "Sasquatch, Ogopogo, basking sharks are almost in the realm of mythical creatures."

Occasional sightings

Rare as they may be, encounters do occur. In July 2009, a German-born, Britishtrained marine biologist turned underwater cinematographer residing on Whidbey Island, Wash., says he encountered basking sharks just south of the Canada-U.S. border.

Florian Graner travels the world capturing marine environments, including for BBC's acclaimed Blue Planet nature documentary series, and was researching his new film, Beneath the Salish Sea (the new name for the shared waters of Washington's Puget Sound and B.C.'s Strait of Georgia).

An observer of basking sharks off the coast of Britain and Canada's Bay of Fundy, he was aboard his 8.5-metre fibreglass power boat off the southern end of Washington's San Juan Island when he spotted "very familiar" looking fins.

"I basically tied myself to the boat and jumped in," he recounts over the phone.

Graner carried his camera in a waterproof housing and used a rebreather unit that allows divers to stay underwater longer without releasing air bubbles that might scare off marine life. He came within about three metres of the plankton-feeding sharks while drifting with the current.

"Mouths open, skimming through the water," he said. "They weren't all at the surface, but I'm pretty certain there were three. There could have been four, a shadow in the background."

After five minutes, Graner drifted away from the sharks. When he got back in the boat, they had vanished.

"It was pretty unconventional," he said. "I never realized this sighting was so rare. I knew they historically had shown up and I knew they had been extensively hunted in the past, but I didn't know that they were faring that badly."

A recently released draft recovery plan under the Species At Risk Act estimates a population of 321 to 535 basking sharks still exists on the Pacific coast, from B.C. south to the California-Mexico border. The population is estimated to have declined by more than 90 per cent from pre-exploitation numbers. So few are seen in B.C. waters it could take two centuries for the species to recover.

If that happens, Ottawa would have to manage commercial fishing and aquaculture to avoid conflicts with basking sharks and to ensure commercial shark-watching trips are carried out in a sustainable manner.

Scott Wallace, a scientist with the David Suzuki Foundation and co-author of Basking Sharks: The Slaughter of B.C.'s Gentle Giants, had the opportunity to snorkel with basking sharks two years ago off the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.

Because visibility was obscured by plankton blooms, the shark literally emerged from the shadows.

"You see the fin coming closer, closer, closer. You're waiting for this thing to appear, and all of sudden there it is, this massive mouth, four or five feet wide, going past you. It's exhilarating. I felt pretty lucky.

"We've closed that opportunity here, to watch them."

Basking sharks went into serious decline in B.C. as a result of directed fisheries for liver oil between 1941 and 1947 and a federal eradication program from 1945 to 1970, according to the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. Current threats include commercial fisheries, as well as collisions with ships, coastal development and ecotourism.

Basking sharks most recently appeared in numbers in B.C. at Clayoquot Sound in the summer of 1992, when 27 individuals were recorded. They never returned; no one knows why.

A satellite transmitter attached to a basking shark off San Diego, Calif., this past summer could eventually shed light on their movements.

Hope remains

While whale sharks traditionally occurred on the B.C. coast near the water surface, recent research in the Atlantic shows they can travel across oceans, between hemispheres, and to depths of hundreds of metres.

"There are more unknowns than knowns with this species," Wallace said.

Flying at an altitude of about 300 metres affords a commanding view of one of the world's most diverse and productive marine ecosystems.

Off St. Vincent Bight in Johnstone Strait, we spot the blow spray of four killer whales. East of Port Hardy, across Queen Charlotte Strait on the mainland, the body of a grey whale looms just below the surface. At the entrance to Rivers Inlet, two dozen fast-moving Pacific white-sided dolphins almost send sparks from the water.

The dreamy perspective from the aircraft belies the dark history that once pitted B.C. fishermen against basking sharks.

In Rivers Inlet, the conflict reached a crescendo in the late 1930s and '40s. As Wallace wrote in his book: "The net boss for the Canadian Fishing Company at the time reported that '70 nets in a period of seven days' were lost by his boats alone."

Our search continues to the head of the inlet, losing count along the way of the glistening harbour seals below, before circling over the Oweekeno native reserve, and flying up the glacial waters of Moses Inlet, a narrower passage with veiled waterfalls.

Partway up, we spot a young grizzly bear swimming the inlet. He looks up at the aircraft, doesn't like what he sees, and returns to the shoreline brush.

But, alas, not a single basking shark -- even though the diversity of marine life is evidence that conditions already exist for their return. If only they'd give humanity another chance.

"There's always hope you'll find something," McPhie said, her voice trailing off as the aircraft turns for home.

lpynn@vancouversun.com

- - -

Retired Detective reignites debate over footage

2010-12-18T18:29:00.000-08:00

Simon Dinsdale, a retired Detective from Essex, recently decided to reignite a debate over whether some footage his father shot on Loch Ness fifty years ago is of the Loch Ness Monster.

The two minute-long film was shot by Tim Dinsdale in 1960 and is one of the best-known videos that could prove Nessie exists. Tim Dinsdale was an aeronautical engineer for the Royal Air Force and a leading Nessie-hunter (with 56 expeditions and multiple books on the subject under his belt) until he died in 1987.

When he showed the footage to the Royal Air Force, they concluded that the mysterious shape in the loch was not a boat or a submarine--it was an "unknown inanimate object."

Now, fifty years later, Simon Dinsdale is on a mission to convince the world that Nessie exists. He recounts two of his sightings from the past:

“My sightings were one where there were five of us and the other where there were three of us. . . . I saw this immense, extraordinary object, it looked like the back of a huge animal," he said.

"It stood two or three feet (0.6m to 0.9m) out of the water, four or five feet (1.2m to 1.5m) across, reddish brown and had a blotch on the left flank which I could see very clearly.

"And then it started to move - a most electrifying moment."

Simon said, “You should never discount eye-witnesses – after all, I’m an eye-witness myself. More than 1,000 people are recorded as having seen something large in the loch.

"I'm experienced at looking at evidence and I can tell you that on the balance of probabilities there is something large and unknown living in this loch."

See the footage HERE.

SOURCES AND MORE INFORMATION: BBC, Southend Standard, The Telegraph

Lancashire Monster

2010-12-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

A man named Pat Regan has claimed to have shot a video of something strange in a Lancashire, England lake. From his article on UFODIGEST:

I am not going to say whereabouts I took this clip but it was in Lancashire, UK, at a private location south of Preston, and I was fishing all alone at the time.

The lake is mainly freshwater, yet if does has an overflow that links it to a local estuary leading to the Irish Sea. This ensures that sea water can enter the lake at times.

I have caught sea fish (flounders and eels) in this watercourse although it is mainly known for trout and coarse species, such as roach, perch, pike and tench etc.

I am extremely familiar with the lake after angling there for decades. I am just not 100% certain what this ‘creature’ was.

The water was almost freezing when the footage was taken and at this icy temperature most self-respecting fish are happily hugging the warmer bottom layers of lakes for sheer survival. Indeed trout fishing methods frequently involve pulling a sunk lure very slowly along the bottom to entice the lethargic fish to feed.

The old jetty behind the unidentified object is about 10 - 12 feet in length so that may present us with some comparative scale.

Strange things are to be discovered in the sky (UFOs) and also it seems in the waters about our frequently mysterious planet. And no – before you ask we do ‘not’ have crocodiles/alligators in this part of the world, thank goodness!

Make of it what you will – but please don’t shoot the messenger for simply bringing this one to your attention.

The man is not just some ordinary citizen--he has authored a book about UFOs, so he probably is predisposed to see monsters. But check out the video:

Thunderbird Stuff

2010-12-07T18:59:00.001-08:00

Giant marabou stork. What do the words conjure up in your mind? A white, prehistoric bird standing on one leg at the beach? The giant marabou stork actually stood 1.8 meters--5' 11"--tall and some fossils of this newly discovered bird were just discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores. The island is known as an ancient home to human-like "hobbits" (see picture). The hobbit-thing (Homo floresiensis) is closely related to modern humans and the giant stork must have seemed huge to the hobbits.

Homo floresiensis, though there is no direct evidence of this.

Leptoptilos robustus, as the stork is called, was taller than current stork species (and heavier, at 16 kilograms--35.333 lbs. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation:

Palaeontologist Hanneke Meijer of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, and affiliated to the National Museum of Natural History in Leiden, the Netherlands, made the discovery with colleague Dr Rokus Due of the National Center for Archaeology in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Finding large birds of prey is common on islands, but I wasn't expecting to find a giant marabou stork

Palaeontologist Hanneke Meijer

They found fossilised fragments of four leg bones in the Liang Bua caves on the island of Flores.

The bones, thought to be belong to a single stork, are between 20,000 to 50,000 years old, having been found in sediments dating to that age.

The giant bird is the latest extreme-sized species to be discovered once living on the island, which was home to dwarf elephants, giant rats and out-sized lizards, as well as humans of small stature.

"I noticed the giant stork bones for the first time in Jakarta, as they stood out from the rest of the smaller bird bones. Finding large birds of prey is common on islands, but I wasn't expecting to find a giant marabou stork," Dr Meijer told the BBC.

Only fragments of wing bones were found, but the researchers suspect the giant stork rarely, if at all, took flight.

Instead, the size and weight of its leg bones, and the thickness of the bone walls, suggest that the now extinct stork was so heavy that it lived most of its life on the ground.

It is thought to have evolved from flying storks that colonised the relatively isolated island.

Map showing the location of the Liang Bua caves on the island of Flores

"Flores has never been connected to mainland Asia and has always been isolated from surrounding islands. This isolation has played a key role in shaping the evolution of the Flores fauna," says Dr Meijer.

Many species on the islands evolved into either giants or dwarfs.

This phenomenon is known as the "island factor", and is thought to have been triggered by few mammalian predators being on the island. That led to abundant prey species becoming smaller, and other predators becoming larger.

"Larger mammals, such as elephants and primates, show a distinct decrease in size, whereas the smaller mammals such as rodents, and birds, have increased in size," explains Dr Meijer.

Among the giants evolved the giant stork, and the giant rat,Papagomys armandvillei, as well as Komodo dragons, the largest surviving species of lizard.

Dwarf species included the dwarfed elephant, Stedgodon florensis insularis, and the human species , popularly known as the 'hobbit' H. floresiensis.

BIG BIRDS

More pictures of the bones of the now extinct giant stork (pictured above) can be viewed at the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (subscription required)

Remains of the earliest known pelican, including a preserved beak, were discovered earlier this year in France

Watch video of modern storks and other long-legged wading birds

Indeed, the remains of the giant stork were found in the same section of cave as the remains ofH. floresiensis.

Discovered in 2004, H. floresiensisis thought to be a new human-like species standing just 1m tall, which survived until around 17,000 years ago.

It is thought to be descended from a prehistoric species of human - perhaps H. erectus - which reached island South-East Asia more than a million years ago.

"The status of this human contemporary has been subject of intense debate since its discovery," says Dr Meijer. "But in my opinion, the associated fauna is crucial in understanding the evolution of H. floresiensis."

The distinct difference in size between the 1.8 m-tall giant stork L. robustus and 1m-tall the tiny hominin H. floresiensis raises some interesting questions.

Would the hominin have eaten the giant stork?

Direct evidence of H. floresiensis 's diet is hard to come by, but it is suspected of hunting animals on the island for meat.

However, modern marabou storks mainly eat carrion, but they do take fish, frogs, and small mammals and birds.

So would the giant stork eaten the hominin?

A modern, smaller marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus)

"Whether or not this animal may have eaten hobbits is speculative: there is no evidence for that," Dr Meijer told the BBC.

"But can not be excluded either."

The giant storks towered over the hobbits.

More importantly, juvenile hobbits were no bigger than giant rats that existed on the island, which themselves may have fallen prey to the giant stork, she adds.

As yet is it unclear why the giant stork, and the pygmy elephants and hobbit hominins, went extinct.

"But we have several clues," says Dr Meijer.

"All the bones of the giant marabou as well as those of the pygmy elephants and the hobbits are found below a thick layer of volcanic ash," suggesting a recent volcanic eruption.

"Second, the giant marabou and its contemporaries go extinct right before modern humans appear at the cave."

Around 15,000 years ago, the climate of Flores went from dry to being wetter, and a combination of any of these factors may have been enough to drive species on the islands to extinction.

SOURCES AND MORE INFORMATION: BBC

Loch Ness Monster says "I'm not dead yet!"

2010-12-04T11:24:00.000-08:00

Nessie may have made another appearance, relieving fears for some that she has died because of global warming.

Richard Preston, 27, a landscape architect working for Aldourie Castle on Loch Ness' southern shores, snapped a picture of three humps in the water at about 3 PM on November 26. He was working on the castle grounds when he spotted the humps in the loch near the opposite shore.

“It was a glimmer,” he said. “It was like a reflection. The rest of the water was still and dark. It was quite odd."

"When I looked closer, I could clearly see the four hump-like features. I thought I’d take a picture, to see if there was anything in it, to see what others thought."

He took several pictures on his cell phone, facing towards Lochend.

“I was surprised that it stayed there as long as it did. I took various shots before it suddenly disappeared. I literally just turned my back and it was gone. There were no ripples in the water, no boats, nothing around. I have no idea what it was, but it undoubtedly looks like Nessie.”

“I was gobsmacked,” he said. “I have been working here for the last two or three years and have never seen anything like it.”

Steve Feltham, who lives in a former mobile library on the banks of Loch Ness and searches for the monster full-time, said, “I am quite excited about these photographs. To me, they are unexplained and Richard is a reliable character.”

“About three-quarters of the way across, you can see what looks like three humps,” Mr. Feltham explained. “Initially, I thought they could be the wake of a boat. But there are several photos and the image does not move, whereas if it was a boat wake it would move along to the shore. I don’t know what it is. ”

Adrian Shine, who runs the Loch Ness Project, described the picture as interesting but suggested it could be the reflection of the sun on the water, perhaps against a house or leaves.

In October, a man bought an old tugboat with plans to return it to its old use: cruising on Loch Ness, where its wake was once responsible for many mistaken monster sightings. According to UPI,

The buyer of an icebreaking tugboat hopes to return it to duty on Scotland's Loch Ness, where its wake was responsible for many monster sightings.

Dan Clark, a former lockkeeper on the Caledonian Canal and now a cruise-boat operator in Fort Augustus, says the Scot II can help keep the Fort William-Inverness Canal, which includes Loch Ness, open all winter, The Scotsman reported. He says the boat, which produces a long wash, will also draw tourists with more frequent reports of the Loch Ness monster.

"Scot II, with its icebreaker bow, was the cause of many monster sightings, as it caused wonderfully sinuous waves which people mistook for the monster, sometimes more than 20 minutes after the vessel had disappeared from view," loch-ness.org reports.

Clark says his father, James, a former captain of the Scot II, will help with restoration.

The boat, built in 1931, was retired from icebreaking 60 years later. It put in some time as a floating restaurant and ended up on Bute as a hulk.

SOURCES AND MORE INFORMATION: Express.co.uk, The Inverness Courier, News.scotsman.com, UPI.

GATOR

2010-09-15T00:23:00.000-07:00

A monstrous alligator was recently caught in South Carolina's Lake Marion. 10 WIS TV says,

"He's a world class alligator," said Bert Sorin. "He's definitely a monster still, no doubt about it. It's like shooting a tank, they do not care."

"He turned our boat around and pulled us out to sea," recounted Sorin. "Gut-busting work for the next hour of your life."

"Hits the boat," Sorin continued. "Pow! And he goes berserk. Boom, boom, boom, tail hits the boat, knocks all of us back, tail hits the engine, beats us all up, and then he's gone."

"And now it's just like Jaws," said Sorin. "He has those two big floats and he is taking off.

"But Bert and his crew won out. "We got him into the landing and everyone was pretty freaked out," he said. "We had five men to pull him into the cooler."

While all this is pretty exciting, it is a fisherman's story. So there's always the other part to these stories, 'the one that got away.' "There's a bigger one out there," said Sorin. "He's a 13- to 14-foot complete beast."

"We have a 17-foot boat," Sorin added. "I honestly don't know where you'd have room for this alligator."

Search on Cameron Lake

2010-09-15T00:13:00.001-07:00

From the Canadian Globe and Mail:

Brennan Clarke
Coombs, B.C. — From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Published on Tuesday, Sep. 14, 2010 9:10PM EDT Last updated on Tuesday, Sep. 14, 2010 9:13PM EDT

It’s a cool overcast fall morning on Vancouver Island as John Kirk and his assistant, Adam McGirr, set a course across Cameron Lake – an excellent day for trout fishing and even better weather for lake-monster hunting.

About a kilometre from the beach, Mr. Kirk directs the driver to cut the engine along the steep rocky shoreline, while Mr. McGirr lowers a fish-shaped underwater camera through the lake’s glassy surface, hoping to capture some images of “whatever is down there.”

“We already had contact this morning, which was really surprising,” Mr. Kirk said. “The fish finder picked up two very large objects eight to 10 feet from the bottom. They were definitely moving.”

It’s the second straight year that Mr. Kirk, co-founder of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, has organized an expedition to Cameron Lake to investigate a recent spike in reported sightings of an Ogopogo-like creature.

Still, after a 20-year career as an amateur hunter of lake monsters, sasquatch and other “cryptids” – creatures that have been reported but not scientifically proven to exist – he has serious doubts about the existence of the so-called Cameron Lake monster.

“From Day One, I’ve been very skeptical of this being a so-called lake monster,” he says, noting that the narrow, glacial lake near Port Alberni is only five kilometres long.

“It doesn’t make sense scientifically to have a massive great beastie living in a wee lake.”
“Sonar hits” the club recorded during last year’s excursion, and the images captured early Tuesday, indicate that whatever is down there is less than three metres long, Mr. Kirk said.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if somebody may have introduced some very large fish, maybe some sturgeon, into the lake as prank,” he said.

Since 2004, Mr. Kirk has received about a dozen reports from people claiming to have seen an unusually large fish-like creature in Cameron Lake. In one case, a couple driving along the Alberni Highway, which hugs the south side of the lake, “saw a black object swimming parallel to the highway at high speed,” he said.

Perhaps the best-known sighting occurred on July 30, 2007, when Nanaimo resident Brigitte Horvath snapped a photo of what appears to be one or several large silver-backed creatures in the lake.

The club has received reports from people who witnessed “some kind of lake creature” as early as 1981. Local aboriginal legends include tales of a serpent-like creature in Cameron Lake called “sisiutl chameleon,” added Mr. McGirr, the club’s vice-president.

Mr. Kirk’s fascination with “cryptids” dates back to 1987 when he and his family had, while vacationing in Kelowna, what they believe was a close encounter with Okanagan Lake’s legendary underwater monster, the Ogopogo.

Two years later, Mr. Kirk and a group of “like-minded people” formed the cryptozoology club in hopes of either proving or disproving the existence of cryptids around the world.

Author of In the Domain of the Lake Monsters, Mr. Kirk, who has no formal scientific training, has dedicated more than 20 years to his search without finding any definitive proof of previously unidentified life forms.

Still, he insists the club is dedicated to serious investigation, not the promotion of crackpot theories.

The club gets most of its scientific credibility from co-founder Paul LeBlond, former head of the University of British Columbia oceanography department and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, he said.

“We’re not like paranormalists or people who are looking for ghosts and werewolves and fairies.
“We’re serious. We want to put these stories to rest and find the ultimate truth.”

2010-09-14T23:50:00.000-07:00

After a baby crocodile was found under a car in New York City in late August, a 26-inch long alligator has surfaced in, once again, New York.

A man brought the gator into a police station in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn and claimed he had found it in a Brooklyn park. Police, however, think he was just keeping it as a pet and it got too big (it happens--gators get big). It's illegal to keep a wild animal as a pet in the city.

Mike Pastore, head of field operations for Animal Care & Control of New York City, said:

"He has teeth wrapped around his whole head. He can definitely do some damage to someone."

Kevin Lawrence, 27, said that if the gator was in a park, children could have been in danger. "It's crazy and not safe," he said. "Those aren't animals to be pets."

Apparently the crocodile found in August was one of three found that day in New York City.

SOURCE: New York Daily News

September 11

2010-09-11T19:13:00.001-07:00

I think we should all consider what impact September 11 had on America. I just don't know what it is. Did any good come from the terrorist attacks?

Anyway, what we can do is remember what it was like on September 11, 2001 and hope that no families ever have to go through that again. It's impossible to know how those families feel, but let's hope it never happens again.

Psychic to search Lake Windermere for monster

2010-09-11T19:02:00.000-07:00

Dean "Midas" Maynard, a British psychic who predicts the outcomes of horse races and reality TV shows, is searching Lake Windermere in England's Lakes District for a monster. Bownessie, which we reported on last year, is supposedly a 20-foot monster sighted by many over the past few years. Maynard decided to launch the expedition after Andrew Bury, from Lancashire, came forward with details of a sighting he had 30 years ago. His expedition last year left a few loose ends. He believes some images from the expedition show an unusual creature in the depths of the lake.

"There are a lot of sceptical people who may not believe in what we are doing. But whatever happens, we are hoping it will provide a major tourism boost to the area, which in recent months is much needed," said Maynard.

He plans to spend the weekend on a yacht and use sonar to search the deepest parts of like Windermere.

SOURCE: Metro

Fossil News

2010-09-11T12:01:00.000-07:00

The enormous skull and jaw of a massive sperm whale have been uncovered in a coastal desert of Peru. Discovery News says that

The extinct cousin of the modern sperm whale is the first fossil to rival modern sperm whales in size — although this is a very different beast, say whale evolution experts.

"We could see it from very far," said paleontologist Olivier Lambert of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, France, who led the team which found the fossil.

The giant 3-meter (10-foot) skull of what's been dubbed Leviathan melvillei (in honor of the author of "Moby Dick") was found with teeth in its top and bottom jaws up to 36 centimeters (14 inches) long. The discovery is reported in the July 1 issue of the journal Nature.

Living sperm whales have teeth only in their lower jaws and are specialized to feed on giant squid, Lambert explained. They suck down squid like large spaghetti noodles rather than catch the prey with their teeth. The much toothier fossil sperm whales, however, may have eaten more like a outsized-orca, or killer whale: chomping great big bites out of its prey.

"These are very unusual attributes," said cetacea evolution expert Ewan Fordyce of the University of Otago in New Zealand. "It's remarkably big. That is unexpected."

Another sign that this ancient whale had a killer bite is the large hole in the skull to accommodate a large jaw muscle.

"This was a hunting predator that took chunks out of prey," said Fordyce.

It most likely fed on baleen whales, Lambert and his colleagues report, and lived in the same waters as the monster-sized shark called Carcharocles megalodon.

To learn more about its eating habits, Fordyce said it would be useful to look at the microscopic wear patterns on the teeth. If the wear lines are horizontal, it probably sucked in prey like today's whales. But if the wear lines are vertical, it would suggest a biter, like the orca.

"Many fossil sperm whales have been found in the past," said Lambert. "Most have been much smaller than modern sperm whales."

There have also been discoveries of isolated large sperm whale teeth fossils before, said Lambert. Those made it clear to researchers there was a bigger animal out there waiting to be found. And now they have found it.

"I think it's a great advance," said Fordyce of the discovery.

The fossil appears to also be a distant relative of today's sperm whales, said Fordyce, rather than a direct ancestor.

Alligators in the Sewer!

2010-09-11T11:22:00.003-07:00

A crowd was hovering around this baby alligator in Queens on August 22 when Joyce Hackett went over to see what the noise was all about. According to the New York Times,

“It was about two feet long,” Ms. Hackett, a novelist, said. “It was like the urban legend washes up from the sewer and says, ‘What the heck am I doing here?’ and hides under a Datsun.”

Ms. Hackett quickly, carefully, slung her iPhone to ground level and snapped a shot, she said. A police officer on the scene warned her that maybe she should not do that.

But angling for a better shot, she stuck her phone down a bit further.

“Be careful!” the officer said, with a bit more urgency.

Then the officer snuck a peek at the pictures on Ms. Hackett’s iPhone and asked her to e-mail them to her.

The officer also made a call asking for some help to wrangle the critter.

The Police Department’s emergency service unit arrived and used a pole to hook and cage the animal and take it to the local precinct station house, said James Duffy, a police spokesman. The police also called Animal Care and Control of New York City to come get the animal.

“We’re not sure if it’s an alligator or a crocodile because we’re not zoologists,” Officer Duffy said. “No one knows where it came from, if it came from the sewer or not.” He called the creature “tiny and harmless.”

“No one had to come and wrestle with it,” he said. “It’s not big enough to eat a dog — maybe a mouse.”

Later on Sunday, Richard Gentles, a spokesman for Animal Care and Control, said the animal was indeed an alligator. Where it came from is unknown. And exactly where it would end up is unclear, but Mr. Gentles said it would most likely go to a licensed rehabilitator or reptile sanctuary. On average, he said, his agency rescues two to four alligators, crocodiles or caimans (a related reptile) in the city every year.

What often happens is that someone brings a small alligator or crocodile north from its natural habitat down south — usually in Florida — to keep as a pet, then dumps it in a pond when it gets too big, said David Quinn, a nuisance wildlife control operator for DQ Pest Control.

In 2006, authorities captured a 15-inch alligator on the grounds of an apartment complex in Brooklyn. And in 2001, a two-foot-long spectacled caiman was discovered living in a lake in Central Park. A reptile hunter was dispatched from Florida, and the caiman was plucked from the water and taken to a zoo.

It is illegal to keep alligators, crocodiles or caimans in homes in New York City. Most of the reptiles that are illegally kept in New York City apartments are certain kinds of snakes, Mr. Quinn said, though every now and then someone decides a baby alligator is cute enough to take home.

Anyone who would do that, he said, is a “real screwball.”

Here is Ms. Hackett's firsthand account in the UK Guardian:

The day I found an alligator in New York

Tales of giant reptiles in the city's sewers are one of the city's most enduring urban myths. Or so one local writer thought until last Sunday . . .

Joyce Hackett
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 24 August 2010 19.00 BST

gator

An alligator? A crocodile? We were stumped. But it was definitely, well, quite a reptilian reptile. Driving back from JFK airport in torrential rain, I had turned off the flooded, bumper-to-bumper highway. As I threaded my way back to my home in Manhattan through the side-streets of Queens, I noticed a crowd of about 30 people gathered around an old navy Datsun. I rolled down my windows, and signalled to the lady cop.

"What's going on?"

She rolled her eyes. "Alligator," she said, as if the overriding issue here was that she should already be on her break.

Ah, New Yawk, New Yawk. Recently, I was dining in a fancy Italian restaurant, and noticed a rat making its way along a high ledge above a wall of wine bottles. "A RAT!" I screeched loudly. The room went dead for exactly 30 seconds, after which everybody went back to their pasta. Rats and cockroaches, of course, are our constant companions, dining on every subway track, scurrying across every late-night sidewalk. But alligators in the sewers?

This celebrated urban legend begins in 1935, with a New York Times story about an alligator found in Harlem. The headline alone deserves a Pulitzer: "ALLIGATOR FOUND IN UPTOWN SEWER: Youths Shoveling Snow into Manhole See the Animal Churning in Icy Water. SNARE IT AND DRAG IT OUT: Reptile Slain by Rescuers When It Gets Vicious – Whence It Came Is Mystery."

Reading on, however, it becomes clear that the alligator is not a lurking predator living in our drains, but rather a sickly, exhausted, accidental passenger that has fallen from a Florida ship, then struggled to drag itself out of the icy East river.

Well, no matter. No matter that a recent new $400,000+ machine, built to clear the city's overloaded sewers, found everything but an alligator. And no matter that the man interviewed in a 1959 book, The World Beneath the City, about his campaign to clean out all the gators from the system had never been sewer commissioner. This is a myth with legs and traction here; one that jumps from children's book to horror film, from Thomas Pynchon's V to a bronze, subway-art sculpture in a 14th St station of a happy gator clambering out of a manhole to chomp on a baby. Nothing gives more pleasure than leaning over to a young New Yorker on the subway, who has just flicked his gum into your hair, and quietly introducing them to the concept.

Then, last Sunday afternoon, I pulled the car over, got out, and came upon a real, live alligator. Storm drains and gutters all over the neighbourhood were flooded from the downpour – maybe a wave had washed this creature on to the pavement of civilization, separating it from its pack? At a distance, people were snapping photos with big-lens cameras. Workers in overalls were throwing out names. One pulled his friend's finger towards the car, as if to offer him up for dinner. "Oh, scaly-pie!" he cooed. As we waited for pest control to turn up, everybody seemed strangely cheered by the appearance of a bad-ass reptile that could bite them.

I squatted down, and there it was on the wet asphalt, crouching motionless. Not an 8in baby alligator: this was more like 2ft. I thought of my dog, poised to hunt, and wondered if the gator's stillness was a prelude to lunging for the ankle of one of its hecklers. Looking away (no eye contact – I learned that trick early on when approaching my skittish dog), I held my iPhone at the edge of the car, and snapped, hoping for a shot.

I missed, so I looked again. And slowly, bewilderedly, the gator blinked. It seemed less like a menacing predator, more like an abandoned pet cowering under a car, forlornly hoping for tips on how to play its role. In fact, it reminded me of me, at every publishing party I'd attended during my first years in New York.

Here was a fresh-off-the-boat New Yorker, like the baby arctic seal seen floating on an ice floe on the Hudson near the Chelsea piers, or the handsome, bewildered coyote who managed to wander over a train bridge in Inwood that swings open and closed, and into Central Park. Maybe the gator would settle in among us, like the peregrine falcons who nest on the wide ledges of celebrities' fancy Fifth Avenue co-op buildings, or the flock of tropical parrots (released or escaped pets) that flourish year-round near the warmth of a Brooklyn electrical substation. I found myself imagining a happy life for the gator, in the streams that still flow below the basements of some of Manhattan's oldest buildings, fed by some gentle janitors.

The lady cop cautioned me to be careful, but the poor thing seemed one of us, a stage-one New Yorker, blinded by its lights. I stared at it, thinking: "Little, lost alligator washes up out of the New York sewer and is menaced by tough New York rats, bureaucrats, and push-cart owners that almost run over its tail, until finally it returns to its safe, cozy sewer. Surely, there's a children's book in here somewhere." By now we were almost friends, so I reached in further.

"Careful!" the cop urged.

One thinks of novelists as inspired by muses, and living by their wits. But reality, especially the New York variety, is sharper and stranger than fiction. A few years ago, the spark came for the novel I am currently writing, a love story between a male abolitionist and a female suffragist. I had intended to read the papers of Frederick Douglass, the heroic, ex-slave abolitionist, and Susan B Anthony, America's legendary suffragist, just for background. But I could not put down their letters. Here was the staid, buttoned-up Anthony after a speaking tour engagement, chopping her way through a foot-thick wall of winter ice that had formed around the home of her hosts for the night. And who could have imagined that, beneath our concrete jungle, are streams that may once have hidden fugitive slaves from their hunters? As the cop in Queens remarked to me on Sunday afternoon: you can't make this stuff up.

Finally, I reached my arm completely under the car, and took a last shot of my new neighbour. The cop warned me again. Then I stood up and showed her my best shot.

"Wow!" she said. "Can you email that to me?"

"Did you ever expect to see an alligator on the streets of New York?" came a reporter's first, lead-footed question later that day.

Well, kind of. Because New York is a city where one expects the unexpected; a city where alien creatures take root, and whose gutters, basements, archives and streams serve up more stories than all its writers can think up. A city that writes itself.

It turned out to be a crocodile. So did it come from the sewer?

“It’s a big mystery,” Police spokesman James Duffy told the New York Post. “It could have been dumped from a car, or it could have come out of a sewer.”

But Michael Pastore, director of field operations for the nonprofit Brooklyn organization Animal Care and Control, told the New York Post: “Somebody probably dumped him there.”

SOURCE: Today

Gators or crocs also appeared in other US cities around the same time. According to Tonic,

In Brockton, just outside Boston, a fire fighter on his way to work stumbled upon a 3-foot alligator crossing the street on Sunday. Taking matters into his own hands, the man threw the gator into the back of his pickup truck and brought the animal to his station where he showed off his impressive catch to his buddies and waited for animal control to arrive. According to the Enterprise News, the juvenile alligator was wearing a collar, suggesting it's an escaped pet. But authorities doubt its owner will claim the animal since it's most likely unlicensed by the state.

On Monday, a 3-foot alligator was spotted swimming in the Chicago River. As of last night, the animal was still at large, probably somewhere along the murky waterway's banks. But maybe not for long. At 65 degrees Fahrenheit, the Chicago River is much too cold for the animal to maintain its 85 degree body temperature, according to FOX Chicago News. If it isn't captured soon, the swimmer will soon be a floater.

Still, the alligator might have the right idea in hitting the concrete jungle and its toxic waters. Once caught, the animal will be held for several days and then released into the Florida Everglades — a much nicer place to live than the Chicago cage from which it outgrew or escaped.

Sea Monster Books

2010-09-11T11:07:00.000-07:00

"Champ and Me by the Maple Tree," a rhyming children's book, was recently published. It is about a young Vermont tomboy who has a chance encounter with the monster of Lake Champlain through which she forms a lifelong bond.

And that's it for now.

SOURCE: VedicSutra

SyFy's "Beast Legends" kicks off tonight

2010-09-09T18:32:00.000-07:00

The SyFy Channel's six-part series "Beast Legends" kicks off tonight at 10/9c with an investigation into the infamous Kraken. This is what pre-viewer Cynthia Boris says about the episode on Gather.com:

Working the case are adventurer and veterinary surgeon Leonard, Kathryn Denning, myth expert, anthropologist, archaeologist and professor at Toronto's York University. Also along are Scott Edwards, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Curator of Ornithology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University and Francis Manapul, renowned comic book artist.

Throughout the episode, the team members approach the investigation from a variety of angles. They go to sea to examine a giant octopus and test its strength. They construct computer mock-ups and drawings based on a variety of legends, and they board an old sailing ship to see exactly how big the creature would have to be in order to sink the hearty boat!

For the most part, Beast Legends is a fascinating look at what's real and what's not. Where they get bogged down is with the whole "comic book" aspect. They use a number of animations and drawings which really have no part in a scientific investigation. At the end of the episode, the crew shouts with joy when their 3-D monster attacks a computerized ship and it's silly.

The show also has a tendency to sound scripted and phony. Hearing the team members react with faux shock or state obvious facts doesn't add to their credibility.

On the other hand, parts of the investigation were fascinating, including the close-up look at a real octopus and the visit to a special effects lab where they reproduced the spikes that can be found on some tentacles.

If you like monsters and myths, check out Beast Legends. There are only six episodes and here they are:

The Kraken – Thursday, September 9, at 10PM (ET/PT)
The Beast Seekers investigate the sailor's legend of the Kraken, a terrifying multi-tentacled sea monster that snatches men from ships' decks and crushes entire vessels, sending them to the ocean bottom.

Fire Dragon – Thursday, September 16, at 10PM (ET/PT)
The Beast Seekers venture deep into the primeval forests of Poland in search of the truth behind ancient legends of a terrifying, fire-breathing dragon called Smok.

Megajaws – Thursday, September 23, at 10PM (ET/PT)
The Beast Seekers travel to Fiji to learn about Dakuwaqa, an all-seeing, all-knowing Shark God - a huge beast that can change shape at will.

Winged Lion – Thursday, September 30, at 10PM (ET/PT)
The Beast Seekers explore Mongolia's Altai (Golden) Mountains in search of a massive, legendary creature with the head of an eagle, razor-sharp talons and the body of a gigantic lion - the vicious beast known as the Griffin.

Wildman of Vietnam – Thursday, October 7, at 10PM (ET/PT)
The Beast Seekers explore the remote, unexplored jungles of Vietnam in search of the Wildman, a giant, hairy, bloodthirsty beast similar to North America's Bigfoot or Sasquatch.

Bird Monster -- Thursday, October 14, at 10PM (ET/PT)
In the ancestral Navajo lands of New Mexico, the Beast Seekers investigate the legend of a giant bird predator the size of a small airplane.

Now here's a clip from tonight's episode.

Note that they estimate the kraken's size to be 200 feet--exactly the size of the squid or octopus for which evidence washed up in 1896. Scientists discovered that the blob which washed up on an island off St. Augustine, Florida was from an octopus or a squid. The size of the blob indicated that there would have to be a squid or octopus 200 feet long! Could this have been the kraken? Check it out in our new Galleries section here.

2010-09-05T23:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a new book about the Bear Lake Monster.

Online PR News – 27-August-2010 – As the waves splash gently upon the shore and the full moon shines brightly upon Bear Lake, a deep foreboding is in the air. A few feet from shore, the water abruptly parts and exposes a gigantic brown lump about 90-feet long. Water trickles down its sides as it floats in the stillness of the night.

The mystery of the Bear Lake Monster has been an exciting part of Idaho history since the early 1800s and David begins to wonder about this legend in “David and the Bear Lake Monster” (ISBN: 978-1-58982-532-1). When David returns to the Robert’s family for a visit, he learns about the great Indian legend: the Bear Lake Monster. When he discovers people still believe in this legend, he sets out to prove that it doesn’t exist but the community is insulted that anyone would try to discredit something they have believed in for years. Their legend is part of Bear Lake history.

“The fun part of David and the Bear Lake Monster is wondering if there is truly a monster in the lake,” wrote Allison King, Allison’s Attic Book Review. “It makes for an interesting adventure, with a surprising ending to the tale of the monster. I love that the author based the monster on a local folklore. It is also a heart-warming story of finding that right person to live the rest of your life with. It teaches us that people with disabilities are just like any other person who has dreams for their life. So, if you want to laugh, learn and live in the life of some wonderful characters...read this book and enjoy the journey!”

While searching for true happiness, David finds himself entranced with one very special lady and ends up defending her honor several times. She isn’t like the average woman. Sarah is different. This charming young woman has a disability that no one seems to notice. He finds out that Sarah has gone through more trials than the average person. She teaches him the importance of not dwelling on the past and how to love life. After a few teases, tricks, and mischievous deeds, David begins to overcome his troubles. As time passes, he realizes he must now face the dilemma of choosing between his career and matters of the heart.

“David and the Bear Lake Monster will keep readers entertained right up to the last page,” wrote Kim Atchue-Cusella of Book Loons. “Linda Weaver Clarke creates another winner with this installment of her Family Saga in Bear Lake Valley series.”

Visit “You Tube” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPc1BsArhKQ.

About the AuthorLinda Weaver Clarke travels throughout the United States, teaching a “Family Legacy Workshop,” encouraging others to write their family history and autobiography. Clarke is the author of the historical romance series, “A Family Saga in Bear Lake, Idaho,” and the new mystery series, “The Adventures of John and Julia Evans.”

“David and the Bear Lake Monster” (ISBN: 978-1-58982-532-1, American Book Publishing, 2009). For more information, visit www.lindaweaverclarke.com. Publicity contact: www.american-book.com.

THUNDERBIRD SIGHTING?

2010-09-01T18:28:00.000-07:00

Wow! A possible Thunderbird sighting! Check it out:

August 26, 2010

Was this Another Close Range Encounter with a Thunderbird Near South Greensburg, Pennsylvania?

By Researcher Stan Gordon
www.stangordon.info

On the evening of August 26, 2010, about 8:10 pm, there was a sighting of a monstrous bird in South Greensburg, PA. Just as it was getting dark, four people were sitting around in the yard having a barbecue and enjoying the beautiful weather when suddenly, their attention was drawn skyward by a sound like a “swish” or a “swoosh” or as one witness stated, “like air coming straight down.”

Several of the observers at almost the same time yelled out some exclamations including one man who said, “What the hell is that?” They were all startled to see a tremendously large bird that was flying over a tree in the yard about 30-40 feet overhead. The man who was doing the cooking turned and looked up to see the creature fly above him at a distance of about 40 feet away. As the bird passed the tree, it veered slightly to the right and went straight down the road ahead, maintaining its low level path.

When first observed, the massive wings of the creature were in an upward position and were beginning to drop slowly, almost as if they were rolling to the bottom. The swoosh sound could be heard when the wings were moving. The powerful bird had flown about 125 yards down the road, at which time the wings were coming back up. The creature was observed as it continued to move steadily down the road, passing just above the roof top of a house with its wings flapping slowly and steadily about 3-4 time until it reached a group of trees about ¼ mile away, where it was lost from sight. It took about 20 seconds to go the ¼ mile distance.

I interviewed two of the witnesses at the scene and they were able to provide a detailed description of the giant flying creature. As it passed over, it appeared as though it was peering below, with its head and beak positioned downward. It was estimated that if the bird was on the ground it would stand between 4 ½ to 5 feet tall. The entire body was the same dark color, either darkish brown or black. The body width was about 25-30 inches wide. One witness said the body, “was very bulky and husky.”

The head was oval shaped, and the beak was short for the size of the animal, about 8-10 inches long. The tail was about 2 feet long and came out wide to a point. It was the size of the wingspan of the creature that impressed the witnesses, which they estimated at 10 feet or more in length. When asked why nobody thought to take a picture, they pointed out that while there were cell phones lying there with camera functions, all involved were mesmerized by the encounter. One fellow I talked with said that after the experience he felt as if he was “almost in shock.”

It was later learned that another witness who lived along the road where the big bird flew over also reportedly saw the creature. One witness has been a long time hunter and is very familiar with birds native to the state and is certain that he saw something quite unusual. The area where these observations have taken place, while surrounded with some wooded locations, is well populated, and nearby Route 119 is a highly traveled roadway.

There has been a long history of sightings of giant birds with oversized wingspans in Pennsylvania as well as other sections of the United States and elsewhere. Many refer to these giant flying creatures as “Thunderbirds.” It is interesting to note that over the years around the same general area as this sighting, other residents have reported a similar strange “swoosh” sound, as though a huge bird had passed overhead, but nothing was seen.

Now years later, here is another detailed close range observation of a huge flying creature just a short distance away from the location where in 2001, a similar observation had taken place. It was on September 25, 2001, that a witness reported seeing a huge, dark colored bird flying about 50-60 feet above the traffic along Route 119 in South Greensburg. The observer was drawn to look upwards when he heard a sound, “like flags flapping in a thunderstorm.” That witness was stunned by the wingspan of the flying creature which he estimated was between 10 and 15 feet.

If you have any additional information on this incident please contact me at: paufo@comcast.net.

Return of Normandy Nessie?

2010-09-01T18:09:00.000-07:00

Normandy Nessie--the Florida sea monster, or perhaps anaconda, which captured the state's attention last year--may be back.

In Clearwater, Florida, a family vacationing from Ohio says they saw a 30-foot long serpent like creature swimming in the water off Sand Key Park on Monday. Clearwater is near Tampa Bay like Madeira Beach, where the creature was spotted last time.

Russ Sittloh, the man who captured the creature on film in front of his house last year, believes this might be the same creature. He now believes that it's an anaconda, though. "People don't want to believe that. They don't want it to be true, because of the tourist stuff," Sittloh said.

"Most of the time when people see this stuff, they don't get to see it for any real length of time and it's so far away, it's really hard to make out," said Vernon Yates of Wildlife Rehab and Rescue.

Yates said he'd captured several dozen anacondas in the Bay Area over the years with the largest measuring about 15 feet long. But Yates says anacondas will usually stay away from salt water. "Does the possibility exist it could be an anaconda? Very much so. Probability, not really, because again, he would stay out of the salt water."

Other theories include a manatee or perhaps a dolphin.

10 News coverage at this link.

SOURCES AND MORE INFORMATION: 10 News

Recaps

2010-08-29T20:04:00.001-07:00

Hi there,

After a quick break, we're back to carry out the true responsibility of Aquabeasties: to provide you with news and information that aids in proving sea monsters are real, and to provide thoughtful discussion on that fun and scary topic: do sea serpents slither through the vast oceans of the world, the deep Scottish lochs, the crystal-clear Amazon rivers?
world

Here are some overviews of what's been going on in the sea monster world:
spotters

Monster Sightings

Victoria News:

By Natalie North - Victoria News

Published: August 02, 2010 3:00 PM

He’s been a media star since the ’30s, lighting up newspaper headlines and television interviews.
And there’s no telling when he’ll pop up.

You could be washing your dishes and gazing out the front window or walking your dog on the beach.

The mythical sea serpent namesake of Cadboro Bay only shows his head when he’s ready and on his own terms.

The few locals who track Cadborosaurus, and who are determined to prove it exists, won’t rest until hard photographic evidence is secured. Evidence that could be on the verge of being revealed.

Jason Walton, cryptozoologist and head of the current search for recognition and classification of the legendary creature, says video footage of the creature is set to air next month on the Discovery Channel.

“There’s a guy up in Alaska who filmed about 15 (Cadborosauruses) swimming across an Alaskan Bay,” Walton said, adding that the video was shot from a boat and is close-up to the subjects.

Should Caddy show up back home, Walton hopes to capture his own film, thanks to 24-hour digital video surveillance across sighting-rich waters of Telegraph Bay.

“I didn’t know what to think about the whole thing at first, but when you speak to a witness who’s so adamant about the Cadborosaurus – what they see and what they describe is so unlike anything else that’s swimming off of Vancouver Island.”

The accounts have included what appear to be loops (presumably the body) coming out of the water or heads and necks.

Sometimes it’s a single, two-and-a-half-metre-long head and neck and sometimes there are several heads, as reported by ferry captains, Walton said.

In 1991, one woman claimed she met Caddy on the steps to the beach as she walked her dog.
In 1937 a 3.2-metre carcass of a reptilian-looking animal with a camel-like head was reported found in the stomach of a sperm whale in Naden Harbour. The remains, Walton said, were shipped to Bellevue Wash. for display as proof of a baby sea serpent, and later lost. Hundreds of sightings of believed-serpents off local waters have been recorded, yet no concrete proof of Caddy’s existence has ever been documented.

“People are totally open-minded nowadays,” Walton said. “I think they find it fascinating, but there is a certain tilt of the eyebrow, shall we say. Scientists will start laughing outright. Most people are uninformed.”

Before the days of Walton’s tracking efforts, which includes a “Caddy Scan” website, he was critical of the mythology too, believing the legend was “totally unreal” until he spoke with his first witness. But Walton’s not interested in converting skeptics.

“We’re not out to change people’s minds or opinions. All we’re out to do is provide a service for people who have seen the Cadborosaurus and try to accumulate new information.”

Walton asks anyone who thinks they may have seen Caddy to report the sighting at 250-721-3836 or caddyscan@shaw.ca.
expedition

nnorth@saanichnews.com
serpent

Here is a link to Cryptomundo's coverage of the story, written by Johnk Kirk (correspondent for Cryptomundo and president of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club--the guy who searched for a monster in British Columbia's Lake Cameron with some good results).

Cameron

Ootsa Lake creature sighting

‘Creature’ at Ootsa Lake

By Rebecca Billard - Burns Lake Lakes District News

Published: August 17, 2010 11:00 PM Updated: August 23, 2010 10:47 AM

The last thing Darlene Thompkins expected to see on her holiday was something she referred to as the 'Ootsa Lake monster.'

Thompkins who is holidaying in Burns Lake with her family from Edmonton, said she named the mysterious sighting in Ootsa Lake a monster because she didn't know what else to call it.

Thompkins and her granddaughter were wading in the water near the Ootsa Lake spillway last week, while her friend George sat on the shore.

"A plane flew over and we watched that go by, it looked like the pilot was doing some sort of training exercise, then when we looked back down there was a big wave in the water," she said.

Thompkins said the wave struck her as being unusual at the time so she watched the large ripple in the water about eight to 10 metres from where she and her granddaughter were standing.

Thompkins then said she and her granddaughter saw a head appear out of the water.

"It looked like a huge snake head, and it was a dark grey colour," she said.

"I called out to George to come and look, but he said to come out of the water and was a little scared. I didn't think about being scared because I was trying to see what it was, I grabbed my video camera and recorded but I was in a hurry and the focus was zoomed in so the footage is blurry," she said.

Thompkins then grabbed a camera to take a picture of the creature and snapped a shot.

"It looks further away in the photo that what it was .... we saw it much closer," she said.

"We saw it twice, then another one came up beside it and a third one came too," said Thompkins adding that the creatures were very long like a snake.

"You could see the head while they were swimming along then further back there was another part of it - like a hump .... I can't stop thinking about what we saw and wondering what it was," she added.

"My uncle said it was probably a sturgeon, but this creature was swimming along with its head out of the water .... right up and out of the water .... and it was really big," she said.

"I wish I knew what it was, I have heard other people say they have seen something similar ..... these lakes are so big, you would never know what is living in them," she added.
loch

The next one is not actually real as lake monsters go, but it's still interesting:
perpetrate

From the Longford Leader:
made-up

Could Lough Ree Monster be our newest tourist attraction?
By Ailbhe Gillespie

You've heard of the Loch Ness Monster but visitors may be flocking to Lanesboro in the near future to catch a glimpse of the elusive 'Lough Ree Monster'.

Ree

The creature was the brainchild of a man named John Farrelly who recently entered the 'Your Country, Your Call' campaign which was created by President Mary McAleese and her husband Martin in the hopes of creating thousands of jobs in Ireland.
Lough Ree

Entrants to the Internet based competition could receive up €100,000 in prize mone and €500,000 to develop their ideas.

phony

John Farrelly wrote to the organisers saying: "What if we had a tourist attraction that was so fantastic that each and every one of our visitors would be falling over themselves to see it?

"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Lough Ree Monster. I know what you're thinking. 'Hasn't this already been done in Scotland?' Yes it has."

scheme

Mr Farrelly then pitched what he feels will make the Lough Ree Monster stand out in the annals of history.
fake

"I feel the Lough Ness Monster's one major drawback is a lack of credibility in its existence. The Lough Ree Monster will not suffer such a fate.
lake

"It will be first sighted by two members of the community who are so trustworthy in character as to render its existence beyond fact.... I would suggest a local politician and a member of the clergy."

Since the Loch Ness Monster was first 'discovered' in the 1930s the shy creature has earned millions of pounds for the Scottish tourist industry through submarine and boat rides, souvenir gifts and stays in the Loch Ness Hotel.

story

And through this innovative project, who knows, maybe guests will be flocking to the Lough Ree Monster Hotel in a few years and trawling the lake for evidence of a local resident with a difference?

British Isles

So next time you're passing by Lough Ree you should keep your eye on the lake for shadows or unusual objects, you never know who or what you might see!
Canada

Cameron Lake Monster Search to Resume
BC

Yes, that's right! Johnk Kirk and his British Columbia Scientific Cryptzoology Club are at it again! In September of last year they spent a weekend searching for the legendary Cammy, and they found a creature-like blob on the radar screen.
British Columbia

See some Aquabeasties coverage of Cammy lore here and here.

Now, a year later, they're going on a second expedition. From September 13-15, the team will be on Cameorn Lake searching for the monster. Kirk is not optimistic that the lake could be a habitat for a monster.

"If you had an apex predator that was seriously big, that food source could
diminish pretty quickly," he said.

This time, they'll use a simpler method:
Okanagan

“We are going to use a tactic that has worked — intentionally and unintentionally — in Okanagan Lake,” said John Kirk. “The creature seemed hostile to boats under full power, and it doesn’t show up, but when they are just drifting, that’s when so many fishermen have had a surprise sighting of the creature.”
Vistoria Island

Still, he feels that as long as the mystery remains, the team should go clear up the mystery. The jury's out: Is Cammy real or is she just a sturgeon? Aquabeasties will have full coverage of the search.
hotspot

SOURCES AND MORE INFORMATION: BC Local News, Times Colonist
Alaska

Regular old animals that are monster-like (and actually were monsters at one point until they were confirmed by science):

Giant squid: How do you film one?
Search for reclusive sea monster will need to go 3,000 feet below ocean's surface
By Jorge Ribas

The search for the world's last great sea monster is on. But given the reclusive nature of giant squid, the question is exactly how can the deep-sea leviathans be filmed in action up to 3,000 feet below the ocean's surface?

Giant squid can reach up to 60 feet in length. The carnivores have eyes as large as a human head. Until recently, what little was known about them came from dead specimens that washed ashore or got snagged in fishing nets.

It wasn't until December 2006 that zoologist Tsunemi Kubodera of Japan's National Science Museum recorded the first video of a live giant squid.

But mere glimpses of the giant squid won't suffice for an ambitious new project, spearheaded by the Discovery Channel, the Science Channel and the Japanese production firm NHK Enterprises.

The aim is to create a two-part documentary featuring the giant squid (Architeuthis dux).

Veteran filmmaker Mike deGruy was one of a group of experts that gathered at Discovery recently to brainstorm about how to film the creature in its habitat.

"You're dealing with an animal that while it is large, it's in an environment that's far larger," he said. "It's not like a piece of coral that's on the ground and all you have to do is find it. It's moving constantly."

Thanks to Kubodera's research, Japan's Ogasawara Islands will likely be the prime location to start the search. Local fishermen are known to catch giant squid in the region, and it's also prime habitat for the sperm whale, the giant squid's main predator.

Finding the animal is step one. Learning its behavior and finding a way to film it come next.
NHK Executive Producer Hiromichi Iwasaki has a variety of techniques planned for filming Architeuthis, including a modified critter camera that could be suctioned onto a sperm whale's back.

Roger Hanlon, of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Clyde Roper, zoologist emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution, have provided key information on the animals' behavior and physiology, information that may prove essential in finding them.

"You have to be a little bit quiet, you have to be patient, and if you can bring the animal in with a visual trick that might imitate the animal looking for its bioluminescence food item, then you might actually getArchiteuthis close enough to a submersible or an instrument that can film its natural behavior," Hanlon said.

Edith Widder, co-founder and president of Ocean Research & Conservation Association, has pioneered deep-sea observation techniques, building a battery-powered stationary submersible that helped her discover a vast array of previously undocumented sea life.

"But still, we're very limited because (the machines) we go and explore with make loud noises and bright light. And these animals have evolved to be very sensitive to that," Widder said.
Why make all this effort to film an animal that's so difficult to find?

"The giant squid is one of the last, unexamined, quasi-mythical beasts of the world," James Barrat, the documentary's producer, told Discovery News. "He's part of the very human quest to understand things we don't know and things that we're frightened of."
Comedian

Fossils

As Lewis Black said, "Whenever anybody tries to tell me that it took place in seven days, I reach for a fossil and say 'fossil.'" A few sets of fossils have been discovered in the past few months that prove (discounting the possibility of Wile E. Devil) the existence of some prehistoric sea monsters. These are important to cryptozoology because many think the Loch Ness Monster is a plesiosaur. Could some of these creatures explain current monster sightings?

evolution

Giant sea reptile swam like sharks 85 million years ago (link)
Thursday, 12 August 2010
by Becky Crew
Cosmos Online

SYDNEY: Giant marine reptiles capable of plowing through the water like highly adapted sharks once terrorised our oceans 85 million years ago, scientists said, debunking the long-held theory that mosasaurs were slow-moving ambush predators.
shark

After dusting off and re-examining a rare, virtually complete fossil of Platecarpus tympaniticus - a sleek, sharp-toothed aquatic lizard with powerful steering flippers and a large, crescent-shaped tail fin - scientists have preconceived the animal's morphology and movement.

"This specimen is very significant for the understanding of the palaeobiology of mosasaurs," said co-author Luis Chiappe from the U.S. Natural History Museum (NHM), in Los Angeles.

"It tells us that this group evolved very rapidly and in convergence with other Mesozoic reptiles.
"It has transformed our view that these animals were much more adapted to the pelagic realm in which they lived than what we had thought previously," he said.

Referring to the Platecarpus' highly specialised 'shark tail' as evidence of its superior swimming ability, the research team reported in PLoS ONE that the movement of these Cretaceous carnivores is better compared to that of a shark, its serpentine body misleading scientists in the past to compare it that of an eel.

"Many modern, higher groups of sharks propel themselves through the water by tail-driven locomotion where the anterior portion of the body moves very little, and the tail fin does all the work," said Michael Caldwell, one of the researchers from the University of Alberta, Canada.

"The effect is that these animals move very quickly and as large-bodied carnivores they can be very effective crown predators in their trophic systems. Eels have evolved a very different locomotory system."

"Considering the giant size of the mosasaurs, their global distribution in every single sea and ocean we currently understand existed, and their great biodiversity, it only makes sense that as marine predators they would have been fast, powerful swimmers."

The P. tympaniticus fossil the researchers studied is said to be the finest preserved mosasaur in existence, consisting of four slabs which make up an almost perfectly complete, six-metre-long specimen.

Discovered in 1969 and acquired by the NHM soon after, the fossil retains rare traces of a partial body outline, external scales, a down-turned tail, branching bronchial tubes, stomach contents of the Platecarpus' last meal of fish, and what appears to be skin colour markings.

"Beautiful specimens are always a pleasure because you can answer longstanding questions about the tiny things... as well as the big things like caudal driven locomotion with the presence of a large tail fin. It does not get much better than that," said Michael Caldwell.

"The specimen is beautiful," said Michael Taylor from University College London, "and speaking as someone who works on terrestrial sauropods whose remains are usually very fragmentary and badly crushed and/or eroded, I am deeply jealous of the awesome material available to those that work on marine reptiles."

The team's research argues that the fossil shows evolution in action, and underscores how several groups, including Mesozoic marine reptiles and extant whales, adapted to a fully aquatic existence.

It shows how a successful design can be developed time and again by different types of organisms as they adapt to life in similar - in this case open water - environments.

"Moving backwards in time, we see that whales and dolphins (45-55mya) have converged on the anatomy and function last in mosasaurs (65-94mya), who converged on the anatomy last seen in metriorhynchid crocodiles (150mya) who had converged on the anatomy first experimented with by ichthyosaurs (100-240mya)," said Michael Caldwell.

"In other words, the secondary acquisition of aquatic adaptations in tetrapods seems to follow consistent patterns (fusiform bodies, tail driven locomotion, paddle-like limbs) attained over rather similar periods of time (within the first six to nine million years of the evolutionary history of the group). This is incredible."

Of the researchers' assertion that the P. tympaniticus fossil had a 'shark fin', Michael Taylor said, "The evidence from changes in caudal central proportion along the column looks fairly compelling. The downward bend comes out to only two degrees per vertebra, and uneven cartilage could very easily account for that."

"The downward-turned part of the tail in the reconstruction of figure 8 is much shorter than in the actual preserved specimen in figure 1, which leaves me still a little skeptical. I'd like to know what a marine-reptile specialist makes of this."

Thunderbird History: Thunderbirds Attack Boy

2010-07-26T23:02:00.000-07:00

From Sunday's Tucson Citizen:

While our eyes are turned to the sky this summer with mass UFO sightings, we should also be on the lookout for another type of UFO in the sky: reportedly giant birds.

An event that occurred 33 years ago triggered a period of mass sightings of the mythical Thunderbird.

On July 25, 1977, three little boys were playing in a Lawndale, Illinois back yard when two giant birds swooped down on them. Two of the boys ran away, but the birds shifted their focus toward the third boy: ten-year-old Marlon Lowe.

One of the birds clamped onto the boy’s shoulders and reportedly attempted to fly off with him. The boy was reportedly lifted two feet off the ground by the bird before he fought back against it, which caused the bird to lose its grip on him. Some accounts report that the boy was lifted up to ten feet off the ground.

The good news is that the boy escaped the clutches of the bird.

Thunderbirds haven’t escaped the clutches of the media, especially in the Grand Canyon State. The earliest known published account of a giant bird can be found in a Tombstone, Arizona newspaper.

In April of 1890, two cowboys were said to have killed one. The men said it had the face of an alligator, smooth skin and featherless bat-like wings. The description matched that of a prehistoric pterodactyl.

A photograph of the dead Thunderbird was said to have been published in the Tombstone Epitaph.

However, searches through the paper’s archive for a photo have proved to be as illusive as the Thunderbird itself. Archives do not reveal a photograph, but simply an article about a dead bird with a 16-foot wingspan.

About Aquabeasties' Revamping and Some Nessie Items

2010-07-15T21:04:00.000-07:00

Aquabeasties Revamped is off to a great start. We're finally completing the Thunderbirds section, the "Is it a Water Monster?" section, and many others. We're also going to record our second Podcast, The Current. Meanwhile, here's some Nessie stuff:

A government file was released in April containing a letter to the under secretary of state in Scotland. The letter was from the 1930s and was written by William Fraser. It stated:

"That there is some strange creature in Loch Ness now seems beyond doubt. But that the police have any power to protect it is very doubtful."

Later on, the Scottish Office was asked to confirm the creature's existence (after the hubbub about the photos and reports that filled the papers during the 1930s). Officials would stake out the lake and, if Nessie was found, catch her for research; the file ended by acknowledging that it would be better to let the matter continue uninterrupted, rather than risk killing Nessie.

Metro.co.uk

Here's a cool feature from Alibi.com: a personal look into the life of Steve Feltham, the only full-time Nessie hunter. Feltham has spent years on the shores of Loch Ness and become part of the Loch Ness Monster culture. The feature covers Feltham's interests, motivations, and personal inspiration as the author attempts to understand why someone would drop everything and devote their life to finding a lake monster. Read it here.

Strange Creature in an Indiana Pond

2010-07-13T19:40:00.000-07:00

This is from Wayne, Indiana's Journal Gazette:

Frank Gray

Lakeside Park, with its Rose Garden and fountains that drown out the sound of nearby traffic, is probably one of the more tranquil spots in the city, not the place to go if you’re looking for excitement.

Lately, though, there’s been a buzz in the neighborhood about the goings-on in the pond. It involves something that has come to be called Lakeside Nessie.

Yep, Lakeside has its own sea monster.

Well, sea monster might be a bit of an exaggeration, but whatever it is, it’s big and it has features that in some respects aren’t exactly fish-like.

One of the people who has seen the creature is Hannah Ramsey. She was walking her dog a couple of weeks ago by the pond, near a small bridge next to a building, when she saw a large fish-like creature near the shore.

“It was really weird,” Ramsey said. “It had a snake’s tail. It was really long and really big in the middle and it had fish scales.”

Ramsey said she was only about 6 feet away from it.

“It stayed there for a couple of minutes, but it wouldn’t turn so I could see its face. It was acting like it was strangling a fish or something.”

Ramsey’s mother, Laura, said she believes it was a giant carp. People feed bread to the ducks at the pond and some of that food sinks, attracting the fish. In the past, she’s seen two gigantic carp near the shore in the pond.

But her daughter’s description of a snake-like tail makes one wonder: Is it something else?

Then there is the account of Larry Kenner, who is a photographer. Last summer, he was trying out a new camera when he happened to see a weird creature in the water near the pillars that surround the rose garden and snapped a photograph.

That picture shows a long, snake-like creature in the water.

“It looked bigger than a snake. It had a lot of girth,” Kenner said. “But it was long.”

“Some friends say, ‘Oh, that’s a carp,’ ” Kenner said, “but it kind of slithered through the water.”

The photo shows an animal that does seem to be slithering and bending its body, sort of like a giant snake.

Kenner posted the photo on his Facebook page, and suddenly friends who had lived in the Lakeside area for years started telling stories of the odd things they’ve seen in the pond.

So far, no one has reported seeing anything dramatic, like a duck disappearing into a hole in the water, a la Jaws.

We talked to park officials about the report, but they had heard nothing about strange sightings in the water. One official, though, jokes that tales like that might be a good way to keep people out of the pond. Swimming is prohibited there.

At the park last week, there was nothing odd-looking going on, just ducks lazily floating around.

People who work at the park also reported seeing nothing unusual.

So, for now, we’ll just have to label it a mystery. There’s nothing wrong with mysteries, though. They add a little spice to life.

And if Loch Ness can have its elusive monster and Fulk Lake in Churubusco can have its elusive giant turtle, why can’t the Lakeside pond have its own elusive creature?

Photo courtesy Larry Kenner
Larry Kenner of Fort Wayne got a photo of “Lakeside Nessie” last summer.

Upon comparing this picture with photos of eormous carp, we have determined that on this one, imagination ran away with itself. This is a fish. Crap . . . or should we say carp.

Chinese Monster

2010-07-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

From the People's Daily Online:

Zhu Xioquan, a tourist from Beijing, found an unidentified creature underwater in Xinjiang's Kanasuhu Lake when he was climbing a mountain on July 2.
Asia

Zhu took out his camera and recorded the whole process of its swimming under the water slowly. Because of the distance, the "Nessie" was only reflected as a strip of black shadow. According to the tourists who had witnessed the creature, it is even longer than a yacht. About 10 minutes later, "Nessie" disappeared from people's eye sight by sinking into the water.

Meet "Nesski"

2010-07-13T18:48:00.000-07:00

It seems Russia's Lake Chany is home to a lake monster that is as elusive as Nessie--but much more agressive. "Nesski," as she has been dubbed, has been blamed for at least nineteen drownings in the lake in the past three years.

Witnesses describe the monster as having a long neck, a "huge tail," and a "snake-like" appearance.

The latest death came last week, when a 59-year-old man was dragged below the surface.

"I was with my friend . . . some 300 yards from the shore," said 60-year-old Vladimir Golishev. ''He hooked something huge on his bait, and he stood up in the boat to reel it in. But it pulled with such force that he overturned the boat. I was in shock--I had never seen anything like it in my life. I pulled off my clothes and swam for the shore, not daring hope I would make it. He didn't make it--and they have found no remains."

The story is all too familiar to residents of the province of Novosibirsk. Of the nineteen who have drowned without explanation in the lake within the past three years, only a few remains have been found. Many others vanished without a trace. And locals claim that there have been many more than the official estimate of nineteen, and that some bodies have washed up with bite marks.

Located in the province of Novosibirsk, Lake Chany is 57 by 55 miles, but only twenty-three feet at the deepest.

Siberia

SOURCES: Metro.co.uk

We're BACK

2010-07-13T18:45:00.000-07:00

Readers,
It is inexcusable. We haven't posted anything on this site for months. As your Aquabeasties blogger, I promise to amend for past mistakes. In fact, I am excited to announce that we are launching a new, spiffy, versatile and COMPREHENSIVE Aquabeasties. Expect new pages and layouts, more organization, and further ease of use. That said, here are a few recent news items.

Okay

2010-05-03T22:21:00.000-07:00

The San Diego Tax Fighters are fighting a major climate bill passed several years ago. AB 32, a "strong" global warming bill, will apparently be very bad for the local economy. The Tax Fighters are pushing to put a measure on the November ballot that will delay the climate bill until the state's unemployment rate drops to 5.5 percent, or until the earth bursts into flames, whichever comes first.

The effort to delay the climate bill is partly funded by oil companies. No surprise there. Anyway, I promise there'll be more monster news soon. We've got some stuff in the works. For now, be wary of that big government being led by that Marxist Obamer something-or-other.

Peace.

What the Frijoles, Arizona?

2010-04-27T20:08:00.000-07:00

So why is it that Arizona is being so incredibly racist? Or, rather, Arizona's state government, seeing that quite a few Arizonans definitely oppose the new bill passed in the state that cracks down on illegal immigrants with inhospitible zest.

The new bill, which encourages police officers to stop anyone who looks illegal and ask for ID, has many Americans up in arms and others claiming that we need this law to protect us from crimes committed by illegal immigrants. So let's get 'em all out.

Arizona

To be fair, being in this country illegally is already illegal. But since when does that mean it's wrong? I believe that any law which limits people's freedom of movement is immoral if the person restricting the movement doesn't have a fair claim to the land. In San Diego County, where different Indian tribes used to meet together yearly to dance, sing and find mates, a lot of problems have arisen because of the border fence by which many bands of local Indians find themselves on the wrong side of the border. Movement over land is one of our natural rights. I don't believe the government owns the land in Arizona. Why is it theirs to fence off?

Immigration

In any case, this bill makes Aryanzona the rudest state in the nation. So much for Western hospitality.

Southwest

If Arizona really is going to become AryanZone, we can be pretty sure that anyone who is Mexican (especially if they have an accent) can be sure they won't feel welcome in the state. And seeing as we can't isolate Arizona from the rest of the country as far as trade and finance are concerned, shall we protest?

Bring Back the Loch Ness Monster!

2010-04-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

What does Nessie have to do with a theme park in Williamsburg, Virginia? According to Caleb Phillips, a guest columnist at thrill-rides website Behind the Thrills, Busch Gardens Williamsburg used to feature a fantastic rendition of the Loch Ness Monster. But if you read the description,

You are traveling at high speeds through a dark cave. Suddenly a bright light flashes, but it’s gone in an instant. Then another flash hits you making you completely blind. You are still recovering from the flashes then you see something beside you, a long reptilian tail whizzing by. Faster and faster it goes, and yet still it doesn’t end. Then when you least expect it, a large beast barely misses you, so close you could feel it’s cool, moist reptile breath. You just witnessed the Loch Ness Monster.

and watch a video in the column, the monster looks more like an asiatic sea dragon. Anyway, Phillips is offering readers the opportunity to demand, through a petition and a Facebook fan page, that Busch Gardens bring back the cool effect. Read the whole thing here.

Now do we really want to support Busch Gardens in the first place? As the company which owns SeaWorld, Busch Gardens has been complicit in the capture of far too many wild dolphins and killer whales over the years, one of which killed veteran trainer Dawn Brancheau at SeaWorld Orlando in February. Dawn's death shocked America and devastated SeaWorld workers at all three locations, but SeaWorld refuses to do anything to acknowledge that killer whales and other members of the dolphin family are not meant to be kept in tanks. Honestly, those Shamu shows are amazing, but it's not cool, for trainers who get hurt or for the majestic orcas, that killer whales should be kept in what for them is an oversized bathtub.

What's Kraken?

2010-04-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

Entertainment guide Tonight has published a feature by Billy Suter about the newly released Clash of the Titans, explaining many of the film's special effects elements and noting actors' views on the film. In it, visual effects supervisor Nick Davis explains some of the finer points of kraken-making:

"Aaron Sims, our character designer, worked with Louis, the art team and me until we had something everyone was happy with, and then the people at MPC (Moving Picture Company) took over to work through the texture, and so on.

monster

"The water was also a huge element. The Kraken rises out of the sea, so it's got water cascading off it on a massive scale, but part of it is always in the water, thrashing around. It was quite a challenge."

Director Louis Letterier notes:

"The Kraken is mysterious, it's a legend, so we didn't want to reveal it right away. Our team did an amazing job creating this unfolding sea monster.
Kraken

"There is transparency in the scales, because this is a monster that hasn't lived in the sun for thousands of years, so there would be subsurface transparency and light would come in and bounce into the shell."

sea monster

The Kraken took about five months to form. Clash of the Titans, by the way, is battling with Date Night for the current number one spot in the US box office. Maybe this means Date Night is good after all; with Tina Fey and Steve Carell paired up, I would hope it's a hit. The commercials make it look a little stupid, but personally I'm okay with a little stupid if Tina Fey and Steve Carell are the main characters. But this talk has little to do with sea monsters. Come to think of it, it's been a while since we've had a report of an actual sea, lake, or river monster, hasn't it? Don't you worry, dear readers, we at Aquabeasties will be digging even deeper to find reported sightings of those ever-elusive aquatic beasties.

tentacles

Conversion of Biofuels by Ocean Critters?

2010-04-11T21:55:00.001-07:00

In days of old, sailors lived in terror of these wretched beasts that could devour large parts of their ships. These sea-terrors, however, are surprisingly adorable. They are also very tiny.

Wood-devouring gribble, petit isopods of the ocean that burrow into submerged wood and devour it, can help convert wood and straw into biofuels. Or rather, the stuff in their digestive system can. Scientists at the BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre at the Universities of New York and Portsmouth have found that enzymes in the little buggers' digestive systems attack polymers which make up wood. One of the most prominent enzymes degrades cellulose. This enzyme has never before been seen in animals.

lice

“Unlike termites and other wood-eating animals, gribble have no helpful microbes in their digestive system. This means that they must possess all of the enzymes needed to convert wood into sugars themselves,” explains the BBSRC.

green

According to the Centre, Duncan Eggar, BBSRC Bioenergy Champion, said, "The world needs to quickly reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and sustainably produced bioenergy offers the potential to rapidly introduce liquid transport fuels into our current energy mix."

"The scientists at York are now studying the enzymes to establish how they work, and whether they can be adapted to industrial applications. Perhaps one day soon seafarers will be sailing the seas on ships powered with biofuels produced with gribble enzymes," says the Centre.

For now, wood-devouring gribble continue to gnaw at coastal docks and piers, and continue to look adorable.

legs

Images by Dr. Simon Cragg and Graham Malyon (Institute of Marine Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Portsmouth, UK).

Portsmouth

SOURCES AND MORE INFORMATION: Earth Techling, BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre

Riverside Lake Monster (It's Actually a Python)

2010-04-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

New report from our friends in Riverside: Lake Evans apparently has its own monster, the same kind of creature that's invasively slithering through Florida's Everglades:

RIVERSIDE -- The Loch Ness Monster has nothing on Riverside County's own "Monster of Lake Evans."

For one thing, Riverside County Animal Control Officer Kristina Hillegart can personally testify that, unlike Scotland's "monster," Southern California's monster is definitely real.

The photos and the actual capture of the "Monster of Lake Evans" is all the proof that is needed.

Hillegart took the call on Friday of a huge snake slithering out of Lake Evans, north of Riverside in Fairmont Park.

What she found was a 15-foot-long, 60 pound Burmese python near the bank of the lake.

Animal control officers believe the snake was dumped at the park when it got too big for the owner to take care of.

Hillegart was able to wrangle the serpent and get it into her vehicle without too much trouble.

Burmese pythons, while very large, are also considered docile and easy to handle.

The "Monster of Lake Evans" is now in the able care of an animal control employee with a love for things that slither.

If no one claims the snake, it will be given to a rescue group that specializes in caring for exotic pets.

This is the second time in a year that a big snake has been found in Riverside County.

In August, two animal control officers managed to capture an 11-foot-long, 50 pound Burmese python.

That snake was returned to its owner.

Python

SOURCES AND MORE INFORMATION: KTLA

"Replace the Kraken!"

2010-04-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

Such is the cry of io9 writer Cyriaque Lamar in a new article on the website.

Scoffing at the recent Clash of the Titans' rendition of the fearful beastie from the deep, Lamar presents us with 7 real strange ocean inhabitants with the instructions to vote on which one should be the kraken of the 21st century: "a new, real-life kraken that will strike fear into our beach-going hearts."

Check out the very entertaining, highly informative and wildly interesting article here. I won't tell you which competitor is winning in the poll, but it does happen to be the one I voted for. I'll give you a hint: Cloverfield.

Destination Ogopogo

2010-04-10T18:54:00.000-07:00

Destination Truth has filmed a new episode in which they search for Ogopogo and other creatures in Canada's Lake Okanagan. Did they find Ogopogo? I guess we'll see when this one airs.

World-adventurer show host Josh Gates takes viewers through exotic spots all over the world investigating the mysterious, especially monsters. Past episodes have searched for an answer to such myths as giant birds in Gambia, Phaya Naga (a river serpent in Tahiland), and the ever-giant Thunderbirds. A new episode will air this Wednesday at 10/9 c.

Probably Just a Dog. But Again, the Location of the Carcass Begs the Question . . .

2010-04-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

Check out this blurb from Saanich News in November:

Saanich News reader Graham Lamb took this photo just before noon on Tuesday (Nov. 24). It shows a carcass washed up on the beach by Cadboro Bay. The animal remains, which hadn’t been disturbed by crows or seagulls, are about four feet long and don’t smell. It has a smooth skin and many bones sticking out.

Lamb was out harvesting kelp when he came across the carcass, which he speculates could have been a dog that drowned and washed up with the seaweed.

Whale Carcass in September

2010-04-04T14:47:00.000-07:00

Another reminder that seeming globsters can be simple minke whale or juvenile humpback (or so we think):

By Lynne Hendricks for the Gloucester Daily Times, Massachusetts

NEWBURYPORT — A large, foul-smelling blob with small bones protruding from it that floated into the Merrimack River as far as the Gillis Bridge yesterday is believed to be the remains of a 30- to 35-foot minke whale or a juvenile humpback, scientists said.

The mass, which was towed from the harbor toward the mouth so currents could sweep it out to sea, created a buzz along the waterfront since it first floated in on Saturday.

The 25-foot-long carcass was nothing more than a mass of white blubber attached to some monster-sized vertebrae when it was discovered in Newburyport Harbor near the Coast Guard station over the weekend.

Scientists from the New England Aquarium were unable to officially identify from photographs what species of whale swept into the river, but they narrowed it down to the two probable varieties based on its size.

Aquarium spokesman Tony LaCasse said that since the creature was too far along in the decomposition process for experts to pick out any defining characteristics to specifically define its origins.

"We call it spooge — congealed fat," said LaCasse of what they term the foul-smelling blob. "Most of the bones have fallen out of it."

He said from photographs the U.S. Coast Guard forwarded of the carcass this past Saturday, the animal had most likely been dead for approximately 30 days, with most of the bones having fallen out and the meat and tissue picked clean by birds and various marine life.

The remains came into the harbor on a swift incoming tide and were first noticed by Salisbury Harbor Patrol on Saturday afternoon. They called the Coast Guard to inspect the mass. The Coast Guard in turn contacted the aquarium and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to determine what to do with the remains. At that time, it was encumbered by a floating dock near the Coast Guard Merrimack River Station.
By Sunday morning, the carcass had drifted all the way to the Route 1 Gillis Bridge, where it became lodged on a sailboat mooring. Its presence caused quite a stir among recreational boaters and longtime fishermen who congregated on shore to catch a glimpse of it.

Bob Yeomans Sr., who keeps his fishing vessel the Erica Lee II docked down by the Black Cow, said a group of guys — including Butch Frangipane of Newburyport Marinas, George Hilton and Billy Neelon of the Prince of Whales whale watching vessel — went to take a look.

"It was wrapped around a sailboat's mooring," said Yeomans, who guessed the creature's spine and tissue measured about 25 feet long.

"They went out to take a look at it to see what it was, and Billy said it was the carcass of a whale. They don't know if it was a minke or a small humpback."

LaCasse agreed with that species assessment and refuted earlier reports that suggested the remains might be of the sperm whale variety that once populated off the shores of New Bedford.

"It definitely probably was not a sperm whale," LaCasse said. "Sperm whales are a pelagic whale. They're not in the Gulf of Maine. If they show up in the Gulf of Maine, they're going to be in the continental shelf. If they come ashore, they're going to come ashore on Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket. It's most likely a minke whale — a little whale that can be between 25- to 35-feet long.

That's just a guess, he added, noting it could be a piece of a larger whale that has broken apart with the tides.

If what locals observed was the entire carcass, he added, the whale was likely about 35 feet long, since the head of the creature would have fallen off early on in the decomposition process.

The condition of the carcass makes it near impossible to determine the creature's cause of death, which LaCasse said could range anywhere from the kinds of sicknesses that plague humans to ship strikes and possible entanglement.

LaCasse said the majority of whales seen in these parts bear visible scars from such entanglements.

"Most of the time they survive it," LaCasse said. "But sometimes they don't."

If you didn't catch sight, or sniff, of the decaying mammal by yesterday morning, you've likely missed your opportunity.

Newburyport Harbor Marina Dockmaster Jay Larcome had the carcass towed out to the ice breaker buoy at 10 a.m. yesterday morning in hopes it would drift back into the ocean on the swift outgoing tide. It was expected to make the two-mile trek to the mouth of the river in as little as 45 minutes, given that the current was traveling at a brisk 4 to 5 knots.

Per New England Aquarium policy, unless the carcass comes ashore, they'll allow nature to take its course and leave the animal alone.

"We do keep track of whale floaters out there, and sometimes if it's a valuable animal we will try to tow it in and do a necropsy," said LaCasse, who noted another carcass was reported on the South Shore this past week. "But otherwise we let it decompose naturally. We don't get involved until something comes ashore. It's expensive to tow something to shore. If you're going to tow a whale carcass to shore it's probably going to cost you $20,000 to $30,000."

So it was just a whale. Or was it? This report brings to mind an old purported monster that caught a lot of attention and is one of the most talked-about sea monster incidents in American History: The Gloucester Sea Serpent. Could they be related? Check out more on the Gloucester Sea Serpent here, and decide for yourself.

Water for Haiti

2010-03-29T22:01:00.000-07:00

Water is the key to life.

March 22 was World Water Day and Invisible Children announced an exciting new partnership with Charity:water, which Aquabeasties has previously supported. As they described it,

After January’s earthquake devastated Haiti, Invisible Children felt compelled to act and pledged $100,000 to recovery efforts. Adam Finck, our Mission Director, traveled with a team from charity: water to identify the best projects for the implementation of this money. Relief organizations were already hard at work providing much-needed aid in the destroyed city center, so the team set off to address the challenges of swelling population in rural areas caused by an exodus from the city. It became clear that these villages, now overrun with people, had little to no access to safe drinking water. So we teamed up with local partners and found a project that would meet the long-term needs of thousands of people.

Watch the video for details and find out how you can get involved with IC and charity: water in providing lasting solutions for Haiti.

Please donate to Charity:water and have your whole donation go to help get water, the source of life, to people in Haiti now.

To get this thing on the road as far as Aquabeasties is concerned, Aquabeasties has donated $100 to this cause. Please donate to help support the Haitians! Water makes life!