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The video of a possible Ogopogo sighting in Okanagan Lake has caught the eye of international media.

Two weeks ago, West Kelowna resident Richard Huls said he captured video of the mythical creature in the lake.

“It proves something is down there. Whether it’s Ogopogo or not, it is a different story but there is something at least down there,” Huls said.

“It was not a wave, just a darker colour. The size and the fact that they were not parallel with the waves made me think it had to be something else,” he said.

And many other people seemed to think the same thing.

“Latest Bownessie photo“

The Internet has been buzzing about a recent photograph allegedly depicting a monster surfacing in a British lake. As Eric Niller of Discovery News noted, “The latest entry in the lake monster sweepstakes is making a bid for glory [is the] ‘Bownessie‘ of Lake Windermere, England….Tom Pickles and Sara Harrington, work colleagues who were kayaking at the lake as part of a team-building exercise, snapped this photo of the possible sea creature with a mobile phone. It appears to show a multi-humped black object moving through the water from left to right.”

When the news broke, many people were surprised. Not just that a dark, multi-humped monster had supposedly been photographed on a lake, but that it wasn’t at Loch Ness.

Most people know about Nessie, the denizen in Ness, one of Scotland’s many lakes (or “lochs”). Reports of something odd in Loch Ness only date back to the 1930s, and a famous 1934 photo of a silhouetted, serpentine head and neck helped propel Nessie into international stardom (unfortunately the photo was later revealed to be a hoax).

The lake has been searched for nearly 80 years using everything including cameras, divers, sonar, submarines, and dolphins, yet no real evidence has been found.

“If you’re interested in lake monsters, you needn’t go all the way to Europe,” Daniel Loxton told Discovery News.

Loxton, editor of Junior Skeptic magazine and co-author of an upcoming book on lake monsters, says that “every human culture has stories of water monsters, and besides, Europeans brought their own monsters with them to North America. European-style monsters manifested early in tributaries of the St. Lawrence river, and then along the coast of Maine. They were reported in lakes Eerie and Ontario. Today, monsters are said to haunt dozens of other lakes across Canada and the United States.”

Here’s a sample:

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.

All these monsters have at least one thing in common: a lack of good scientific evidence.

The Lake Windermere Bownessie photo seems likely to be a hoax; in fact Loren Coleman, Director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine, has his suspicions: “The evidence brought forth is only as trustworthy as the people bringing it to us. What do we know about Tom Pickles and Sarah Harrington, who saw the creature during their company’s team building exercise? How is this all tied to a fundraising effort they were in the midst of conducting and desired to obtain publicity for? I’m not saying they are not to be taken seriously, but UK investigators should do some background checks.”

Coleman notes that previous lake monster photos have many explanations. “Some are unexplained. Some are fakes and hoaxes. Some are garbage bags. Some are otters. Some are humans. Some are other known animals.”

With the caveat that “unexplained” does not mean “unexplainable,” whatever the images of “monsters” in Windermere and other lakes truly are, they are probably accounted for on this list.

Source: news.discovery

People have reported seeing what they can best describe as a creature in Cameron Lake, just 30 kilometres west of Parksville, and John Kirk wants to find out what it is.

Kirk co-founded a B.C. group dedicated to hunting unidentified animals, or cryptid, and said he and his fellow members of the Scientific Cryptozoology Club have been fielding calls from people who say it’s time to take a closer look. The author of In the Domain of Lake Monsters plans an expedition to Cameron Lake to look for scientific evidence on Sept. 19.

This initial inspection will determine whether or not people are mistaking natural phenomenon for a cryptid, Kirk explained.

Once he and his team rule out things like submerged rocks or logs, they will return for a more in-depth analysis. So far, people have described the creature as long and serpent-like.

One woman captured a photograph of a similar silver shape, an indication that it could be a fish, which would be just as interesting for Kirk because there are no known species of fish in the lake that can get that big, he explained.

The 70-member club has experienced field researchers from all around the world but its small size and small budget often limit the expeditions they can go on. Oceanside Tourism, which represents both Parksville and Qualicum Beach, contacted the group and offered to sponsor the trip.

“We’ve gotten some feedback from people who are concerned that if we find something it will stop people from swimming but it doesn’t stop people in Okanagan,” Kirk said. “There are no reports of anyone getting attacked at one of these lakes. In fact, it’s a great tourist attraction. People make an absolute fortune on this type of thing.”

Lakes in the province are notorious for creature sightings, according to Kirk, who said there are 39 lakes with some sort of sighting reports. With very few of these sightings confirmed, Kirk does not expect to find anything in Cameron Lake his first time out.

Source: canada.com

Plesiosaur

Cryptozoology can be a lonely hobby. Cryptozoologists are often the butt of significant ridicule from both inside and outside the scientific community.

While not every cryptozoologist thinks critically or is scrupulous about methodology, most are quite serious about what they are doing. The periodic reappearance of species formerly thought to be extinct is the kind of event that keeps cryptozoologists going.

The truth is, whatever might be said about cryptozoologists and their quirks, ancient animals and plants really do vanish and the reappear with surprising frequency. Such animals and plants are discovered so often, in fact, that paleontologists have a term for them: They are called ‘Lazarus taxa’ (after the man raised from the dead in the Gospel of John), meaning they were thought to be extinct for some extended period, then suddenly reappeared, alive and well.

Many people believe that cryptids may actually be extinct species that have found a way to survive. Lake Monsters are especially likely to be attributed to an actual reappearing species, most often, specifically, the Plesiosaur, an aquatic dinosaur with a long neck and fins that lived during the Cretaceous period and disappeared from the fossil record about 65 million years ago.

Could a 65 million year old dinosaur have survived undetected in landlocked glacial lakes?

The Plesiosaur was a carnivore and a large one, so it does seem to be fairly unlikely. Such lakes usually do not have enough fish to support a huge predator. (Lake Okanagan, the home of the ‘Ogo Pogo’ lake monster is one notable exception).

Still, weirder things have happened.  Here are ten of them:

The Coleacanth. This large prehistoric fish was thought to have gone extinct 80 million years ago until a live specimen was found in 1938.

Monoplacophora Mollusks. These innocuous shellfish from the prehistoric Devonian period (circa 380 million years ago) were found happily alive (well, however happy a mollusk can get) in deep waters off Costa Rica in 1952.

The Pygmy Tarsier. This odd, gremlin-like animal was thought to have gone extinct 80 years ago until a Texas A & M researcher found three of them alive and well in Indonesia.

The Laotian Rock Rat. Thought to be extinct for 11 million years, this early mammal was discovered in 1996.

The Lazarussuchus. This very small crocodile was common the late Triassic period and was assumed to have gone extinct about 170 million years ago. So far two living varieties have been discovered, the first in 1982.

Gracilidris. This species of 20 million year old ants, thought to be extinct, was discovered by a team of scientists in Brazil in 2006.

The Dawn Redwood. A small cluster of this extinct prehistoric redwood tree was discovered in 1944 in China by Zhan Wang.

The Wollemi Pine. This tree was only know from fossils between 2 and 90 million years old until it was discovered alive in 1994.

The Chacoan Peccary.  This small piglike animal was only known from the fossil record until scientists discovered living specimens in 1975.

The Mountain Pygmy Possum. Australia’s only hibernating marsupial, this little animal was only known from fossils until its discovery in 1966. It is currently facing extinction once again due to global climate change.

Are all cryptids examples of reappearing animals? It is completely possible that no cryptids are examples of reappearing animals.

It’s just as possible, however, that at least some of them might well be living examples of animals thought to be long gone from planet Earth, animals that may well one day turn up as live specimens.

In the meantime, just knowing that such animals are regularly found is enough to keep cryptozoologists actively looking for more of them.

Source: examiner

A mysterious looking body found along the shore of Okanagan Lake might be the remains of the legendary Ogopogo, an expert says.

Dan Poppoff found the 1.2-metre-long carcass last month while he was kayaking in the lake, close to Kelowna.

The Kelowna resident immediately called Arlene Gaal, who has written three books about the legendary sea creature and documented sightings of the Ogopogo for the last 30 years.

A day later, he sent her a photo of the carcass.

“I told him he had my attention right away,” Gaal said.

She told him to store the body in the freezer and has arranged for two scientists to analyze DNA from the tail.

The carcass had a spinal cord and vertebrae, which made it one of the first interesting discoveries she’s seen in the last 30 years.

“This is something very important to the scientific community. What we’re looking at is an unidentified species and this might open the door to this mystery,” she said.

Like Scotland’s mythical Loch Ness monster, evidence of the Ogopogo’s existence is largely anecdotal.

Since 1978, about 1,000 sightings of the Ogopogo have been recorded in the Okanagan. Every year, at least five people come forward to say that they have seen the sea monster.

Two sightings have already been reported in 2009. Those who claim to have seen the animal say it resembles a whale in its size, the way it moves and the commotion it creates when it emerges from the water.

“We’re looking at a definite large animal that is swimming in the Okanagan Lake. I’m sure of that,” Gaal said.

Source: canada.com

There has been a mysterious looking specimen found on the shores of Lake Okanagan that could possibly be linked to “Ogopogo”. There will be a tissue sample sent to scientist in Ontario to do some DNA testing and then the specimen itself will be sent to Alberta to be examined.

A Kelowna resident named Dam Poppoff found the specimen about two weeks ago as he was going along in his kayak at the far end of Lakeshore Road. The specimen is said to measure a little over a meter long and is being kept in Poppoffs freezer. Poppoff has not yet claimed that the strange carcass is indeed an example of Ogopogo but he said he is very interested on finding out exactly what the strange creature is.

Poppoff contacted long time Ogopogo researcher and writer Arlene Gaal with information about his findings. Gaal has since set up the tissue sample and carcass to be observed by unnamed researchers , Gaal did not want to identify the researchers so they could work without any distractions. Its not yet known when the results will be available or a match made as to what this creature actually is , but many in the cryptozoology world are waiting in anticipation.

This would ofcourse be a major find if it is indeed a yet unknown creature. Lake Okanagan has been the site of many sightings and reports of Ogopogo over the years yet to produce any solid evidence of the creature existance. We will track this story and hopefully have some more information to report.