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.

Source: bclocalnews

]]> http://cryptoreports.com/bownessie-legend-video/feed 0 http://cryptoreports.com/sea-creature-mysterious-headless-marine-animal-washes-ashore http://cryptoreports.com/sea-creature-mysterious-headless-marine-animal-washes-ashore#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:45:45 +0000 CryPtoReporter http://cryptoreports.com/?p=282

sea creature carcass

Neither local residents Warrick Lovell, Rich Park, Basil Park, or anyone else it seems, knows what the big creature found dead on a beach here this week might be.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Corner Brook intends to check out the Lower Cove site today hoping to find some answers for the question of many curious onlookers who went there to see for themselves what Lovell found during a Wednesday afternoon walk on the beach.

“It would be nice to see if anyone knows what it is,” says Lovell. “First I thought it was a seal washed up (on the high tide earlier in the day), but when I went down to check on my boat that evening, I walked over to see and then I knew it wasn’t a seal.

“But, I don’t know what it is.”

Of unknown origin and species, so far, the odd-looking seaside carcass sits high and dry on the low tide, its approximately 15-foot length includes a pointed, 10-foot tail twisted in the sand, conjuring up Loch Ness monsters for some.

The animal, bearing a single flipper-like appendage on its right side, appears to have been decapitated and shows other signs of damage.

“I didn’t know what to think of it,” says Rich Park, also among the first to see it close up.

The long tapered tail on the squared torso of the carcass caused him to initially think the large hunk of flesh might be a tentacle off a giant squid Park said, but on closer inspection it became clearer what the protrusion was not that. It got hair on it in spots. I couldn’t (determine) what it was.”

“I’ve lived here all my life and never seen anything like it,” says Basil Park, who went Thursday went to take a look with friends and brothers Gilbert and Ernie Park, and neither one of them could say they knew what it was.

“There’s fishermen around here who fished all their lives and they couldn’t tell you.”

John Lubar with DFO says the Corner Brook office receives a number of calls from residents around the region each year reporting seals in brooks or to have rotting carcasses of whales or other dead things removed from a shoreline, but claims reports of unknown creatures from the deeps washing up are rare.

Common knowledge of the McIvers find spread by word of mouth over the past few days and at least one visitor to the site photographed the carcass and has posted it on Facebook.

DFO expects to have personnel in McIvers to do an inspection of Lower Cove by noon today.

Source: thewesternstar

MADEIRA BEACH — If you believe retiree Russ Sittloh, the canals around Crystal Island have their own version of the infamous Loch Ness Monster.

After four sightings of the mysterious creature, he is so convinced that something’s out there that he has dubbed it Normandy Nessie.

Sittloh and his wife, Betty, say they’ve seen the creature from their Normandy Road waterfront home once in the spring, again in September and twice this month.

Nessie doesn’t have a regular routine, Sittloh says, but usually swims by in midafternoon.

The couple used to watch dolphins frolic in their canal, but since Nessie arrived the dolphins have been a no-show.

“At first, I was puzzled. I couldn’t figure out what it was. Then in September I thought it might be a python or some big snake. But then this month, I saw a caudal fin. He looks like he is over 30 feet long and about 15 inches in diameter. We are talking about a big beast out there,” Sittloh said.

When he told friends and neighbors about the first two sightings, he was met with skepticism and even laughter.

So he decided to prove his discovery. He spent $370 on a surveillance camera to monitor the canal from his window. He kept watch and downloaded both video and still pictures to his computer and then posted them on the Internet.

He even sent a letter to a local newspaper.

“At the risk of having everyone think I have lost it, gone bonkers or whatever, I must share this visual sighting with everyone,” he wrote.

He worries that the creature “could pose a real danger to people and small animals,” and particularly to those who swim or kayak in the canal.

Sittloh says his most recent sighting was about a week ago. The creature was in the middle of a school of baitfish, did a double roll and came back toward Sittloh with a “mouthful of fish.”

Now Sittloh’s Nessie sightings have gone viral on the Web.

Depending on how you structure your search, Google returns between 449 and 8,000 Web pages that reference “Normandy Nessie.”

Chatter on Web sites and blogs speculate on what Nessie could be. Guesses range from a large manatee to a Cretaceous-era mosasaur, a serpentine marine reptile that could reach nearly 60 feet long. Fortunately, it is extinct.

As for Sittloh’s first guess — a large python or snake — pythons can swim and have been reported in the Everglades. Presumably they are former pets turned loose by their owners.

A state-sanctioned hunting program reported capturing and killing 37 pythons this month. Officials estimate that 30,000 Burmese pythons live in the Everglades.

In July, an 8-foot pet Burmese python escaped from its terrarium and strangled a 2-year-old girl.

“I don’t know if we have a mutated species here or what,” Sittloh said. “Whatever he is, my God, is he big. He is some kind of big.”

Sittloh said he has warned his neighbors and called the city, but did not report the creature to the Sheriff’s Office.

“From the video, it appears most likely it is a manatee,” said Carli Segelson, media relations coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Marianne Pasha said no one else in Madeira Beach has reported seeing Nessie.

“It sounds like there is something out there, but we don’t know what it is,” she said.

Source: tampabay.com

Jonathan Downes, 50, spotted the “creature” thrashing around in one of the Lakes of Killarney in County Kerry, Ireland, while on holiday last week.

His eerie sighting was in the Upper Lake one of three interlinked lakes that make up the area.

The mystery comes just a few years after bizarre unexplained sonar recordings showing a large body were made in the adjoining Muckross Lake.

Along with his wife and friends who also had cameras, Mr Downes, from Crediton, Devon, managed to capture shapes moving across part of the lake.

Mr Downes, who is director at the Centre for Fortean Zoology, said that he had heard of the sonar reading before visiting the lake, but was “ridiculously” lucky to see anything.

He said: “I was actually there with my wife and a friend on holiday.

“All I knew is what I’ve read and having spent an hour on Thursday night looking down on it.

“What we saw was a thing about nine to 10ft long.

“I’d love to say I saw long necks and humps and things but I didn’t.”

Mr Downes, who studies cryptozoology – which investigates unknown species of animals, described seeing what he see described as appearing to be “a long thin eel-like creature appearing about 10ft long”.

“I believe it must be a large eel,” he said. “It was a pale colour.

“What I saw didn’t actually really come out on the picture as well.”

Pat Foley, deputy regional manager of National Park and Wildlife Service, which oversees Killarney National Park, said that there has been some unusual readings taken about six years ago, which indicated an unknown figure in Muckross Lake.

“I think it was about 2003 there was a survey taken,” he said.

“They were getting some sort of strange picture coming back.

“The image was a large and dark blob which I presume, for economic reasons, was described as a monster.”

The Lakes of Killarney have much in common with Loch Ness – home of the world’s most famous monster – just across the Irish Sea in Scotland.

Both are large very deep lakes with similar fish species including Arctic char.

Loch Ness is the deepest lake in Britain, whilst Muckross Lake measures up to 70m deep, is along with Lough Leane, Ireland’s deepest lake.

At the time of the sonar findings in Muckross Lake in Paddy O’Sullivan, Killarney National Park manager for the National Parks and Wildlife Service said: “I am very excited by these findings and am delighted that the ancient fish community of these lakes are being examined by the Irish Char Conservation Group and scientists from around the world.

“These interesting findings can only be good for Killarney from a public awareness and a tourism point of view.

“Whatever the thing turns out to be it will be afforded our fullest protection under EU law as the Muckross forms part of a Special Area of Conservation.”

Source: thesun.uk

]]> http://cryptoreports.com/irelands-killarney-lakes-monster/feed 0 http://cryptoreports.com/windermeres-bownessie-still-causing-stir http://cryptoreports.com/windermeres-bownessie-still-causing-stir#comments Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:29:35 +0000 CryPtoReporter http://cryptoreports.com/?p=211

photo source lakestv.net- footage also available

The so-called “Bownessie” is fast becoming part of modern Lake District folklore, as reported sightings of the fabled creature continue to be made.

Footage that some people believe appears to show the creature causing ripples in the surface of Windermere was shot by Lakes TV cameraman John McKeown on Saturday.

It has since appeared on Sky News on Sunday evening and American TV network giant CBS is also interested in the story.

People in Windermere are not convinced Bownessie actually exists.

But they believe it could be good for the town’s tourist economy if the legend can capture the imagination of visitors in a similar way to the Loch Ness monster.

Councillor Bill Smith, mayor of Windermere, said: “If they believe it’s actually there, I’m sure it will attract them to come and see.

“Anything that draws interest and awareness to the Lake District has to be a positive opportunity.

“I don’t think the term monster is the best expression of an animal living in the lake that could be of interest.

“It suggests something nasty, not something that could be attractive and positive.

“Bownessie conjures up something that’s a bit more cute.

“The people that have seen it believe genuinely they have seen something, even if there is no real proof yet.

“But let’s be honest, it’s far better for Loch Ness that they’ve never located it because it helps perpetuate the belief.”

Paul Holdsworth, Windermere town centre manager, says the Bownessie phenomenon is the latest in a long line of Lake District mythologies.

He said: “Probably the longest standing one is Tizzie Wizzie, which was first spotted by a Bowness boatman around 1900 and he used to tell stories of this extraordinary creature.

“It was said to have the body of a hedgehog, tail of a squirrel and a pair of bee-like wings and was a shy, water-loving creature.

“So, for the sceptics who think Bownessie is something to get the tourists in, this tale has already been around for over a hundred years. There is nothing new under the sun perhaps.”

Jacqui O’Connor, press officer for Windermere Lakes Cruises, said: “Our vessels sail up and down the lake 364 days a year and we have never seen anything unusual.

“However, our skippers remain alert as always.”

Source: nwemail.uk

Was it a fish, an eel or some kind of serpent-like creature?

She says she didn’t know. But Horvath grabbed her camera and managed to fire off one shot before the batteries failed.

The researchers who specialize in looking for so-called crytozoological creatures — in other words, monsters — spent Saturday on the lake probing the depths with a sonar-like fish finder.

At first, they picked up a couple of large contacts at the bottom of the lake, about 45 metres deep, then something more pronounced on a second pass.

”Something just went `ping’ on the alarm on the fish finder and we saw this absolutely massive object in the midst of various fish,” said John Kirk, president of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club.

They made four more passes and the contact held stable, making it unlikely that it was a school of fish, which tend to scatter eventually, Kirk said.

”We were quite stunned that there was something that big in the lake and it was in about 60 feet of water, less than 30 yards from shore, it was quite amazing,” he said.

Horvath, who lives in Nanaimo, said she was driving along Highway 4 on July 30, 2007, when she saw a strange semi-circle in the lake.

”You could see like a serpent shape,” said Horvath, who isn’t the only person to report something strange in Cameron Lake.

”It wasn’t logs,” she said. ”It wasn’t waves. There were no boats in the area. It was, like, right there. You could actually see a large fish, (an) object, no, not an object, something alive.”

Kirk, who admits his trip to Cameron Lake is being sponsored by the local Oceanside Tourism Association, said the team accidentally lost its underwater camera and was unable to explore further.

Because the weather will deteriorate in the fall and winter, another search will have to wait until next year, Kirk said.

But the team has narrowed the possibilities.

”Maybe it’s a sturgeon, maybe it’s a giant sterile eel….it could be a massive type of salamander,” Kirk said. ”Or it could be something that we’re completely unaware of at this point.”

However, it’s unlikely the small lake is the home of a mysterious sea monster, Kirk said.

”I’m not going to the extent to say there’s anything exotic down there, there’s just something big.”

Kirk has searched for the Ogopogo in Okanagan Lake in the B.C. interior, looked in coastal B.C. for the Sasquatch, tried to find the sea creature Cadborosaurus off Vancouver Island and has hunted for giant salamanders in swamps.

He’s been to Scotland and the republics of Congo and Cameroon in search of strange dinosaur-like beasts.

But it’s British Columbia waters that provide a fertile hunting ground for animal tales, he said.

Kirk said there are 41 different lakes in British Columbia where strange animal sightings have been reported.

”In B.C., we just seem to have a ton of these lakes where these things have been seen,” he said.

Kirk said Cadborosaurus’ range is not confined to the Victoria area. Reports of a similar animal have come from the Gulf of Alaska to the Sea of Cortez in Mexico.

In Oregon, the animal goes by the name Colossal Claude.

But Kirk believes British Columbia is in a class by itself for what he calls crytozoological encounters.

People have actually started to embrace the strange animals to the point where they are showing up in tourism brochures, he said.

”Like Moberly Lake up in the (northeast) area, the First Nations there got in touch with me and told me about the creature that they had been seeing with a horse’s head swimming around in the lake, and now they’ve given it a name,” Kirk said.

”They call it Moberly Dick.”

Source: amherstdaily

One black-colored, unidentified animal was spotted by over 10 tourists in Kanas Lake, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on July 2, 2009. According to witnesses, it appeared at 4 pm and then held still for more than twenty minutes before stirring up huge sprays and finally disappearing.

Kanas Lake is located at the Kanas Nature Reserve in Aletai mountain area of north Xinjiang. As China’s largest alpine lake, it is famous for its beautiful scenery and primitive eco-system.

Source: englishpeople