IS THIS A PHOTOGRAPH OF A NORWEGIAN LAKE MONSTER?

THE WATER: Andreas Solvik and his two companions took this picture on the way home from the volunteers on Wednesday evening. Solvik believe the explanation is the sea serpent, while biologist Peter Buckman at the Natural History Museum denies this. Photo: Andreas Solvik

Full story and pictures

Many thanks to Peter Thain for sending this story.

MORAG OF LOCH MORAR

Following on from our tales of the Loch Oich Monster. The witness who told me that story also mentioned an experience a friend had in the late 80s or early 90s at Loch Morar:

"Another pair of friends were seakayaking in Loch Morar, heading to Tarbert to portage through and paddle back down Loch Nevis and camped the night on an island in Loch Morar. During the night one got up for a pee and as he was standing in the dark a huge commotion in the water nearby went on for several minutes, then stopped.

Suddenly a large wave of displaced water rushed up the shingle beach evidence of a large object having moved about vigorously. Nothing to see and no signs of anything in the morning, and no boat engines or evidence of other craft."





http://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2012/03/some-tales-of-mhorag-of-loch-morar.html

JON'S JOURNAL: Ness than Zero

So it's that time of the year again; the time that the media, prompted possibly by those jolly nice people at the Loch Ness Monster Fan Club remind all and sundry
that there is a prize on offer for the person or persons who made the best 'Nessie' sighting of the year.

There were, apparently, three sightings last year, and two of them were photographed. According to Fox News (and as someone who hardly ever watches television any more, I don't understand nuances of the 'Fox News Jokes' that circulate the web on a regular basis) the contenders for the prize are as follows:

1. While on vacation in May, William and Joan Jobes saw what appeared to be a head peaking above the water 200 to 300 yards off shore in Fort Augustus, Inverness-shire.
2. In June, Jan and Simon Hargreaves caught a glimpse of Nessie in the Loch near the village of Foyers, but didn't manage to get the monster on film.
3. Then in September, fish farm worker Jon Rowe snapped an idyllic photo of a large, dark shape and two humps in the water beneath the arch of a rainbow.

All very well and good, but the pictures themselves are hardly conclusive:

Joan Jobes' picture

---

Jon Rowe's picture

---

At least both pictures appear to show something. Many pictures from Loch Ness show nothing more than peculiar waves (this picture below was taken by yours truly in December 2005, when Richard and I visited the Loch to make a particularly futile slice of Mickey Mouse television).

I have no idea what either of them show, but I have my doubts that either are of a bona fide unknown species of animal. I would, however, love to be proved wrong.

Whilst on the subject of Loch Ness check this out:

http://news.discovery.com/earth/loch-ness-monsters-home-not-on-the-level-111231.html

A blog post by Tim Wall on Discovery News, claims that: "Just as the bubble in a carpenter's level moves back and forth depending on the surface it rests upon, Scotland's Loch Ness tilts back and forth according to the movement of the ground beneath it caused by the tides on the nearby North Sea. The motion is so subtle GPS couldn't even track it."

What impact this peculiar geophysical enigma has on the cryptozoological life of the Great Glen, I don't know, but it is interesting nonetheless.

LINDSAY SELBY: Mysterious Lewis

The Isle of Lewis is a place of several reports of lake and sea monsters.

The first was in 1856 and there was report in the newspapers.

1856 The Times March 6th (attached)

Norman Morrison, a zoologist, told Cyril Dieckhoff in 1941 about Searrach Uisge, a monster that was said to inhabit Loch Suainbhal. Supposedly resembling a capsized boat, this creature has been reported since 1856 (and was probably the one reported in The Times). Locals say lambs were once offered annually to the creature. Another description described it as forty feet (13 metres) long and eel-like.

A sighting was reported in 1882 by a German ship off the Butt of Lewis. The ship, just off the coast, reported sighting a sea serpent around 120 feet (40 metres) long. It was described as having several bumps protruding from the water, along its back. In 1895 a similar creature was seen off Bernera. This creature was supposedly 120' long (40 metres) as well.

Loch Urabhal is a body of water 2 miles north of Achmore where on 27 July 1961 a lake monster was claimed to have been seen. Ian McArthur and Roderick Maciver, two local teachers, were fishing in the shallow end of the loch. The story goes that Maciver jumped to his feet and shouted there was something in the loch. There was a creature about 135 feet (42 metres) away. It surfaced 3 times. They described it as having a hump with a small head or possibly a fin about 6 feet (2 metres) from the hump. It swam like a dolphin but was much bigger and undulated. It was a bright day and the loch was calm. McArthur grabbed a camera but was too late as it disappeared. The lake is freshwater so it is unlikely to be a sea animal. They said it did not swim like an otter so they knew that it wasn’t a misidentification.

The mysterious Isle of Lewis has many such legends and even the mysterious disappearance of 3 lighthouse keepers. The folklore of the island is well worth reading about if you get the chance.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For more information on the area and its monsters check out The Mystery Animals of the Western Isles by our very own Glen Vaudrey....

FRISWELL'S FREAKY FEATURES: Sea Serpents

Some months ago Alan Friswell, the bloke who made the CFZ Feegee Mermaid and also the guy responsible for some of the most elegantly macabre bloggo postings, wrote me an email. He had an idea for a new series for the bloggo. Quite simply he has an enormous collection of macabre, fortean, odd and disturbing magazine and newspaper articles, and he proposed to post them up on the bloggo.

SUPER SEA-SERPENT SECRETS SEEMINGLY SECURE SAY SYCOPHANTLY SMUG SCIENTISTS--SUPPOSEDLY

Of all the creatures, monsters, zoological abberations and general weirdness in the crypto-zoo pantheon, sea-serpents--for me anyway--appear to perhaps carry the greatest burden of possible fact.

The vastness of the world's oceans, waterways and rivers could surely contain large species that have previously--and probably fortunately--escaped the attention of our beloved human race. I have to admit to a pet theory that the what-ever-it-is in Loch Ness might be a creature from the sea that visits the loch on occasion but is not a permanant resident. My thinking is that if Adrian Shine's concept of a Baltic Sturgeon entering the loch to spawn, or whatever is valid, then why not something rather more exotic? I'm not necessarily talking plesiosaurs here, but having said that, why not? I certainly don't think that it's out of the question that some prehistoric survivors from the fossil record--or even something new that we have yet to discover-- might be lurking off the Mariana Trench or wherever; although if there's one swimming around anywhere off the coast of China, the poor sod had better keep his head down, or--if Corrina's grim blog is anything to go by--he'll end up on a plate being eaten alive....

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: LAKE AND SEA MONSTER ARCHIVES PART THREE

Hiya folks,

Today I present more archival information relating to sea and lake monsters, with some information from Ireland. I just picked out a small batch of photocopied information from my Lake and Sea Monsters file and immediately found an interesting link to another collection of material I had passed on to Jon just before his famous trip to County Kerry in Ireland earlier this year.

I do remember that this information mentioned 'roaring eels.' Less familiar was the mention of a 'black man' diving for a 'carbuncle' in a lake in Co. Kerry. Now, this carbuncle was not defintion 1.

'1. An extensive skin eruption, similar to a boil, with several openings
'2. A rounded gemstone, esp. a garnet cut without facets.' (1)

It was alleged to be a kind of lake monster with similarities to definition 2. above. I quote:

'There is another jewel in the Kerry crown, an animal unique, known only there, a resplendent creature called the Carrabuncle. It is true that it has never been seen by the cold critical eye of science, but Matthew Arnold reminds us through the mouth of Empedocles that "much may still exist that is not yet believed." The Carrabuncle is mentioned in Charles Smith`s Antient and Present State of the County of Kerry, published in 1756, as having been seen in the Killarney Lakes - but he erroneosly assumed that the name he heard belonged not to an animal but to the familiar precious stone. Henry Hart, when exploring the Kerry mountains in 1883, came on its track again, this time on Brandon. He learned that its home was in Lough Veagh (Loch betha, birch lake) where the people gather fresh-water mussels for the pearls which some of them contain [and which also exist in the Cladagh River in N. Ireland]. "These come off an enormous animal called The Carrabuncle,which is often seen glimmering like silver in the water at night. This animal has gold and jewels and precious stones hanging to it, and shells galore; the inside of the shells shines with gold." Five years later, Nathaniel Colgan happened on Hart`s informant, when climbing on Brandon, and obtained further particulars (2). The true home of the Carrabuncle, it appears, is Lough Geal (Loch geal, shining lake), not Loch Veagh. His informant had never seen it, but if you could only catch it you would get some things of great value that follow after it...it is seen, it would appear, only once in seven years, and then it lights up the whole lake...But a very interesting side issue to this legend, as yet unexplained, pointed out by Colgan, arises from the reference by Alfred Russel Wallace in his Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro, to the Carbunculo, a mythical animal of the Upper Amazon and Peru.Colgan was puzzled as to the connection (if any) between the Irish and the South American creature. The probable explanation of the presence of the name in these two widely separated areas lies in the fact that both regions were in intimate connection with Spain...It would seem that Carrabuncle corresponds similarly to the Spanish Carbunculo, meaning the precious stone we call carbuncle - though how the word came to be applied either in Ireland or on the Amazon to a water-monster is not clear.' (3)

So what have we here? A rare or cryptid oyster/mussel? Or did it get to Ireland via Spain or Brazil? Bear in mind the first Irish came to Eire via the Mediterranean or so I`ve heard. This book was first published in 1937 so records of it now should not be impossible to trace. Could the 'black man' have had some connection with the Amazon?

The next story is also from Kerry, but on the coast near Dingle.

'Strange legends hang around this wild and primitive coast connected with unknown monsters of the deep. "It is my belief," said a man one day, "and the belief of many,that there is no animal on land but what has its like in the sea"; and then he proceeds to tell of a strange creature which goes around the coast-line from Magharees to Brandon Head, and is called by the people the "Currane Duv," or "Black Sow." It has been seen in the memory of man - a large animal, 15 feet long, "with mane like a horse", a foot in length, which waves in the water as it swims. Sometimes it goes up river for a short distance, but its chief habitat is the sea, where it is a terror to the fisher folk! (4)

So there we are! Any opinions from Irish cryptozoologists? Ronan?

1. Collins Dictionary and Thesaurus.(2004)p.171
2. See Irish Naturalist.vol.23 p.59 1914.
3. R.L.Praeger. The Way That I Went.(1937,1939,1947,1969,etc)pp 364-366.
4. C.P.Crane. Kerry.(publication date unknown.)p.227.

As weather conditions here are still very poor, I conclude with The Storm by Big Country.

I came from the hills with a tear in my eye
The winter closed in and the crows filled the sky
The houses were burning with flames gold and red
The people were running with eyes filled with dread
Ah,my James
They didn`t have to do this
We chased them for miles I had hate in my eyes
Through forest and moors as the clouds filled the skies
The storm broke upon us with fury and flame
Both hunters and hunted washed out in the rain

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: LAKE MONSTER ARCHIVES PART TWO

Hi folks,

Here is the second and final part of lake monster archives, these items were illustrated in their original publications. Firstly, an item from The Illustrated London News titled `Another Sea Serpent`, which was actually in the form of a letter from several passengers aboard the Imogen, in the [English ?] Channel on April 15th 1856:

'Sir, We beg to hand you the enclosed sketch of a Sea-Serpent we had the good fortune to sight on the 30th March last. Imogen, from Algoa Bay, towards London. Sunday 30th March, 1856. Lat 29 deg. 11 min N. Long 34 deg.26 min. W. bar 30.50 calm and clear. Four vessels visible to southward and westward. About five minutes past eleven, am the helmsman drew our attention to something moving through the water, and causing a strong ripple about 400 yards distant from our starboard quarter. In a few moments it became more distinct…and showing an apparent length of about forty feet (above the surface of the sea), the undulations of the water extending on each side to a considerable distance in its wake. Mr Statham immediately ascended to the maintopsail-yard, Capt. Guy and Mr Harries watching the animal from the deck with the telescope. After passing the ship about half-a-mile, the serpent "rounded to" and raised its head, seemingly to look at us…then steered away to the northward...possibly to the neighbourhood of the Western Islands, frequently lifting its head…We traced its course until nearly on the horizon, from the topsail-yard, and lost sight of it from deck about 11h.45am. No doubt remained on our minds as to its being an immense snake, as the undulations of its body were clearly perceptible, although we were unable to distinguish its eyes. The weather being fine and the glassy surface of the sea only occasionally disturbed by slight flaws (catspaws) of wind we had a perfect opportunity of noticing its movements. In conformity to your regulations we inclose our references, and remain Sir, your obedient servants, James Guy, Commander, J. H. Statham, Julian B. Harries, D. J. Williamson, Passengers. (1)

By December 1933 the 'modern' phase of the Loch Ness Monster scare was well underway. By 'modern' I mean as opposed to famous pre-twentieth century sightings such as by St Columba in 565AD as recorded by his biographer, Adamnan. The Scottish Daily Express reported on June 9th 1933:

'Mystery fish in Scottish Loch - Monster reported at Fort Augustus. A monster fish which for years has been somewhat of a mystery in Loch Ness was reported to have been seen yesterday at Fort Augustus.' (2)

June 28th 1933:

'Two men and a woman who were boating on Loch Ness had an unpleasant and exciting experience today. The `monster` rose out of the water about 50 yards from where the boat was drifting. One of the women fainted.' (3)

August 12th 1933:

'An effort to photograph the Loch Ness Monster is to be made by Captain Ellisford, a well known amateur photographer. He arrived at Inverness today with a large box of modern photographic material. He will use a telephoto lens.' (4)

By December 9th 1933 The Times had the headlines 'The Loch Ness Monster – A Survey of The Evidence – Fifty-One Witnesses. By Lieut-Commander R. T. Gould.' Gould speculates as to what the creature in Loch Ness could be and how it got into the loch. He describes his survey of the loch and his methodology with regards to interviewing eye-witnesses. Gould also speculates on what the Loch Ness Monster could be with headlines in the article such as A “ Prehistoric” Neck and A Huge Marine Newt? (5)


1. J.Guy et al Illustrated London News. May 3rd 1856
2-4. N.Witchell. The Loch Ness Story.(1982) p.40
5. R.T.Gould. The Times December 9th 1933

RICHARD WILL BE BACK AGAIN NEXT WEEK....

DALE DRINNON: Distant Humps

Here are some reference photos from the group Frontiers-of-Zoology. The first clearly shows that the head and neck ascribed to Heuvelmans's 'Many-humped' sea serpent is a bad drawing of a good sighting of an orca's (killer whale's) head. The Katie sighting (with umlaut not on keyboard) goes one better and shows two 7-foot-tall killer-whale backfins with 150 feet of wake -'humps' - between the two of them.

The Leda/Loch Hourn (sea loch off Scotland) sighting of 1877 should have ended all questions on the spot. This is a very well investigated case and the humps fall into either of the categories 'Super-otter' or 'Many humped' at different times: the difference is simply the amplitude of the waves in the wake. And at speed the view clearly shows that the humps as sighted actually were waves in the wake.

The problem is that almost all water-monster sightings worldwide have always been 'String-of-buoy' sightings. And they don't mean a thing; people are just looking at a regular set of waves in the water. It could be that an unknown animal is making the string-of-buoys effect but that cannot be assumed: several of the sightings definitely show known animals or boat wakes as producing the effect. And among the identifiable animals causing the effect culprits range from fish (tuna) to whales. Several different types of Heuvelmans's sea serpents are said to produce the similar humped effect. It does not matter; it really is not definitive enough to be meaningful. The humps alone do not define the creature.

In some freshwater cases, the effect is at least useful in indicating that some larger-than-ordinary creature is moving around under the water. Unfortunately that does not give the slightest clue as to what specific sort of creature that could be.

(Sea-serpent engravings are from Heuvelmans's In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents: Rupert Gould investigated the Loch Hourn case in his book on the sea serpent but the witness's sketch comes from his book on the Loch Ness Monster. It is not so widely circulated.)

LINDSAY SELBY: Rare film of Nessie from 1936 being shown

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8326817.stm

A 1936 film that claimed to show the first evidence of the Loch Ness monster is among rarely-seen archive footage being shown in Scotland later.

The material can be seen at Glasgow Film Theatre and the National Library of Scotland (NLS) as part of Unesco's World Day for Audiovisual Heritage.

It includes the UK's earliest-known personal wedding in 1905 and US actress Vera Reynolds visiting Glasgow in 1926.

A number of films will also be available on the NLS website.

The library currently has about 67 films available to see online, with plans to increase this to 100 in the next few weeks.

I accessed the film here:

http://ssa.nls.uk/film.cfm?fid=0373&search_term=nessie&search_join_type=AND&search_fuzzy=yes

LINDSAY SELBY: Some more thoughts on lake monsters.

So far I have found about 70 lake monsters documented, and that doesn’t include sea serpents, on the internet alone. 70 lake monsters sounds a lot but there are many more out there. I never realised how many there were until I started blogging.

The similarities between them are also interesting. There are lots of long necks, serpentine-like and crocodile-like creatures spotted. However, they are unlikely to be plesiosaurs as scientists think they may not have been able to hold their heads out of water. See this article

Some may be big fish, some may be eels and some may even be crocodiles but some may be something new, a new species or perhaps a very old species adapted and evolved. I am not really talking dinosaurs here but something more recent from the last 10 or 12,000 years, not a billion years old. Something surviving from the ice age and evolving is more likely than a dinosaur. A lot of the lakes with reported creatures are similar in being cold, dark waters and fairly isolated until recent times and many were only formed since the ice age. There is not a great deal of information on sea creatures of the ice age, mainly I suspect because remains have not been discovered. There is a lot on woolly mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers but not a lot on sea creatures or lake creatures of the age. The theory is that most would be similar to today’s creatures. It could be then that an undiscovered species is waiting to be found. I think a giant eel is a likely candidate but there may be big fish, prehistoric in appearance out there, like the sturgeon but a new species.

It could be a serpentine creature, a giant water-dwelling worm; the possibilities are endless. I hope when something is found we are not disappointed that it is not the prehistoric monster some hope for, nor some other strange beast. It may turn out to be something mundane but because it has been hidden for so long that it is still exciting. I know my recent forages into the past, that of other monster hunters and my own experiences for a book, have turned up some stuff I had forgotten, like stories of large eels between 10 and 16 feet long being caught in the Loch. Some locals said their fathers had seen them or their grandfather caught one. Could be tall tales but interesting nevertheless.

I am fascinated by lake and sea monster stories as you can probably tell and have spent many hours watching lochs and lakes . I am always struck by the similarities between the areas and the lakes more than anything. Is it the similarities that matter or the differences? Well, I tie myself in knots on that one. I think the similarities are important because if it turns out that these sightings are an optical illusion, then the similarities will be important. If it turns out a creature does dwell in a lake, then the similarities between lakes will also be important in assessing whether another creature could survive in another lake.

I hope one day soon to have the time to compare all the sightings I can find and the areas they take place in, to show the similarities and hope it will show some correlation to either types of species or types of place, both of which may turn out to be important in the future. Whatever the outcome of investigating the lake monsters sightings, whether misperception or creature, I want to know the answers. Curiosity is a wonderful thing and I am very curious about lake creatures!

"NORMANDY NESSIE" (don't you just hate the people who write headlines?)

[This newspaper reader's sighting apparently happened in the deep water canal along Normandy Road in Madeira Beach, FL, and appears here thanks to the vigilance of Chad Arment over on StrangeArk]:

-----

Strange sighting of Normandy Nessie

Oct. 7, 2009

Editor:
At the risk of having everyone think I have lost it, gone bonkers or whatever, I must share this visual sighting with everyone since it has happened two times now.

The last time was a week ago and it came out of the water further than previously and I could estimate the girth that came out of the water at 12 to 15 inches in diameter.

It continued its roll seemingly for a long time and it had to be 12 to 15 feet in length judging by the roll time. It was brown on top with mottled brown and yellow lower side. It finally flipped its tail before disappearing and it was a flat, lamprey like vertical caudal fin an estimated 9 to 10 inches maximum flare tapering to a point. I never saw the head and there was no dorsal fin nor pectoral fins visible.

I have seen many porpoise almost daily here that swim up and down the canal usually in pairs and this was NOT a porpoise, no way!

After the first sighting I thought it might be a huge snake (python like in the Glades) that someone turned loose, escaped or whatever because it did not roll as high out of the water so the size (girth) was not real evident although it was the same color on back and sides from what I could see. It did not flip its tail that time so the weird shaped caudal fin was not visible.

I am sure glad that I told Bet about the sightings so the little guys in the white jackets don’t come for me. She believes me though it sounds a bit far out! LOL!

I see people in their wee kayaks paddling up and down the canal and think about how they could be a snack for the Normandy Nessie! LOL!

I am dead serious and this is not a spoof, joke or ruse. From the size of this thing it could pose a real danger to people and small animals.

Russell Sittloh
Madeira Beach

---------

http://www.tbnweekly.com/editorial/readers_poll/content_articles/100709_pol-06.txt

GLEN VAUDREY: Dragons and sea serpents

Glen is one of the newer additions to the bloggo family. He wrote to me out of the blue last year to ask whether we wanted a Western Isles volume in our Mystery Animals of Britain series.

We agreed that we did indeed want one, and commissioned him. What we were not expecting was such a bloody good writer and all-round nice guy, who - by the way - is writing several other volumes for us, and he is even going to be speaking at the 2010 Weird Weekend.

Wayhay!!

Once again I have been looking at the Iron Age coinage and have found reference to yet another cryptid character: the dragon. This beastie turns up on the silver coinage of the Cantiaci, a British tribe that occupied the Kent area around 50BC. Once again we are faced with the dilemma of judging the creature shown as real or imaginary. Going from the creature on this coin it would be hard to be sure which end of the spectrum this animal turns up in. But if we are to take it at face value what kind of size are we looking at? Is the animal just another version of the horned snake or does it offer a glimpse of something bigger?

There is of course no way to judge the size of the animal, and that again makes identification difficult. You’re looking for a creature the size of a bus and it turns out to be no bigger that a flea. But if we go to the bus-end of the scale we are given two suspects: the dragon or the great sea serpent. If it is a dragon it lacks the wings so often associated with the creature but it does appear to have a pair of horns atop its head. I personally consider it to be more likely to be the image of a sea creature. Maybe it is only a sea horse, but who is to say it wasn’t much bigger? And who knows: it could be the UK’s first image of the great sea serpent a mere 1900 years before Oudemans.

AT LAST - THE FULL KILLARNEY LAKES VIDEO

THE LAKE DISTRICT MONSTERS RESURFACE

This is just getting silly. The amount of crypto news that has come through this week is beggaring belief. However, much of it is below par, and I hate to say it without being able to show you the evidence, but the 'wakes' in this video are nowt compared to those on our video from Co. Kerry last week.

I am reasonably sure that there are indeed lake monsters (almost certainly eels) in the Lake District. Indeed, I made a film about them three years ago (see below) but I am cautious as to whether this new sighting adds much to the canon of evidence.


Here is our 2006 movie Eel or No Eel, which features Jon Ronson being a wuss, and a whole slew of eyewitness sightings....

CORINNA DOWNES: Where do we go from here/is it down to the lake I fear?

Late afternoon, Thursday 17th September 2009. We (Jon Downes, Max Blake, Tony Shiels and I) stopped at the scenic view at Ladies View in Killarney National Park on the Ring of Kerry. It overlooks the three lakes – Lough Leane, Muckross Lake (also known as Middle Lake) and Upper Lake. It was a calm afternoon with not much breeze to speak of, and was slightly cloudy.

Tony Shiels told us that we should watch the Upper Lake. In the southeast corner of the lake there is an island – not too far off the shore – and I saw a trail left by something as it made its way from the island to the shore to the east of it, as can be clearly seen in the photos (Bottom Left). I have no idea whether this was a bird on the surface of the water or whether it was something from underneath.

As can be seen clearly in the photos (above) there is a rock in the lake to the west of this island and we used this as a marker. Suddenly there was movement near the rock and as far as I could tell by looking through my telephoto lens, there was nothing sitting on the rock that could have jumped in. However, there was a great deal of movement as can be seen in the photos.

A long straight movement was followed by circular movements before whatever had made them seemed to dive down again. In one of the photos you can clearly see a kind of torpedo trail as whatever it was submerged and made its way to the right of the original disturbance.

I am not sure what it was but am fairly convinced that it could not have been a bird. The fact that it clearly broke surface and then submerged leaving that torpedo trail – to me – ruled out that it could have been a bird. If it was a fish, it must have been a pretty big one because of the size of the disturbance and the distance involved from where we were standing.

I have no idea what it was that we saw but if I was to be pressed for an answer I would probably suggest a large eel.

We will be releasing the video in the next few days, but want to do a little bit more work first. The video is far more impressive than the photographs.

KILLARNEY LAKES ON THURSDAY - the plot thickens

Yesterday I wrote:

"On Thursday (late afternoon) we were at a place called `Ladies View` looking down onto the three lakes of Killarney. On the upper lake we did see some anomalous objects, which appear to be animate. And furthermore, we did film and photograph them. Before anyone gets excited, we have not got crystal clear footage of humps and a long neck looming out of the water. Why? Because that's not what we saw.

But we do have footage taken from halfway up the mountain of a number of "things", as Ivan T. would doubtlessly have called them, moving through the water, leaving significant wakes."

I spoke to Tony Shiels yesterday, and he told me that "nobody would believe me", but I have gone public anyway. Yesterday Dan Holdsworth, who is a good mate, and someone whom I hold in the highest regard wrote :

"I am reliably informed that at a time when a certain Wizard knew Jon was coming and would be on a certain mountain at a certain time with a camcorder almost as short-sighted as Jon is, a lake monster put in an appearance in the lake below him" and concluded, that I have "had his [my] leg ever so slightly pulled?"

Now, some years ago I gave a lecture to BUFORA in London about my adventures in Puerto Rico, and I mentioned in passing that "something" had crashed into a forested hillside on the island in 1957. I stressed that whatever it was, I was convinced that it was not any sort of alien spacecraft, because - in my opinion - such things were nonsense, and that it was probably a meteorite.

However the audience pricked their ears up at this and insisted on asking me inane questions like "Did the occupants of the craft come in peace?" and "what sort of propulsion systems did it use?" until I gave up and stomped off to the bar in a bad temper.

I am beginning to feel like this now.

A ROUND-UP OF CO.KERRY LAKE MONSTER MATERIAL COURTESY OPF THE NEWSAGENT FROM NOWHERE

Richard Muirhead has done a sterling job hunting out lake monster material from Co. Kerry, some of which features Tony Shiels and other old friends; some of which doesn't:

http://blather.net/blather/2004/01/mucky_the_lake_monster_in_muck.html

January 9, 2004

Mucky the Lake Monster in Muckross Lake, Killarney, Co. Kerry

Posted by daev

The Irish Charr Conservation group reckon that they've found a strange creature in a Co. Kerry lake....

MAX BLAKE: Eyewitness account of the events at the Lakes of Killarney, Co Kerry, last thursday

On Thursday the 17^th of September, 2009 Tony ‘Doc’ Shiels took Jonathan Downes, Corinna Downes and myself around a peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. After travelling around the ring we reached a viewpoint called Lady’s View, a raised viewpoint from which you could see the three lakes of Killarney, North Lake, Muckross Lake and Lough Leane. I stood with the JVC Everio video camera, Corinna was using a Canon 350d with a 70-300mm telephoto lens, and Jon had a small point and click 3x zoom Fujifilm Z10. Once we were alone, after we had all talked about sightings of lake monsters on the lakes, particularly Muckross, Tony told us to keep watching the Northen lake. The lake was generally calm and still, there was a very very gentle breeze in the air, and the centre of the lake had a gentle amount of rippling on it, whilst the rest was very still. There was a floating log or rock in the lake about 50yrds out from the edge, near our side. There was also a large island over to the right hand side. This was around 50-60yrds long, and 30yrds wide (please see rough sketch).

After a couple of minutes a couple of large white ripples started to break on the surface. What made these ripples I do not know; I saw nothing break the water. I was already filming, but as the battery was running very low, I expected it to stop filming and die at any minute. A couple more ripples broke, and Jon said that he could see something large and white moving in the north end of the lake. It dived down before I could see it/film it. The rough area that this occurred in has been called 'anomalous 1' in the sketch. A little later there was a large wake forming in front of the log/rock. This moved at a rapid pace toward the shoreline. I zoomed in to about 12x, and the object broke the surface before diving. This created a large ripple, which can be seen on the film. Both the ripple and the wake spread out and took a while to vanish. This has been called 'anomalous 2' on the sketch. After this occurred a bird on the water took off to the right of 'anomalous 2' and flew off in a curve, coming at first straight toward us, then over to the left. It left behind a wake as it peddled along the water to get airbourne, before taking off and being visible to me as a small black bird. It was probably a tufted duck.

A couple more ripples later, and another object was seen moving on the right side of the Island, moving right. It was moving slower than 'anomalous 2 and as such the sighting lasted longer. There seemed to be something pertruding from the water making the wake, but this could have been a trick of the eye. The track of this has been called 'anomalous 3' in the sketch.

What I saw, I do not know. I saw no features of an animal making the wake. All I know is that something large made the marks. A large salmon moving across the top of the water would not have made a mark anywhere near the size of this. If I had to make a guess, I would say that it was most likely to have been a giant eel.

LINDSAY SELBY: The Norfolk sea serpent?

A sea serpent reported to be up to 60ft in length and very fast moving has been sighted at least four times off the coast of Norfolk. The descriptions evoke classic sea-serpent characteristics of small head, long slim body and diamond-shaped frill along the back.

The earliest written report appeared in The Gentleman's Magazine in their December 1750 issue:

"The creature was about five feet long from what could be viewed of it above the water, with a head like a dog and a beard like a lion. The skin was spotted like that of a leopard. It passed in a leisurely fashion, finally disappearing beneath the waves to the great amazement of all those watching from the shore..."

In the mid-1800s there were more accounts of "a creature with a head such as a serpent might have with humps behind."

There is a well documented account about the reported sighting by the daughter of Sir Henry Rider Haggard, the author, who owned Kessingland Grange in Norfolk. Rider Haggard was working on a novel at his home in Ditchingham, when he received the following letter from his daughter Lilias, dated 20th July 1912:

"We had a great excitement here this evening, and we are convinced we saw a sea serpent! I happened to look up when I was sitting on the lawn, and saw what looked like a thin, dark line with a blob at one end, shooting through the water at such a terrific speed it hardly seemed likely that anything alive could go at such a pace. It was some way out over the sandbank, and travelling parallel with the shore. I tore into the morning room and got the glasses and though it had at that moment nearly vanished in the distance we could make out it had a sort of head at one end and then a series of about 30 pointed blobs which dwindled in size as they neared the tail. As it went along it seemed to get more and more submerged and then vanished. You can't imagine the pace it was going. I suppose it was about 60 feet long."

Rider Haggard went to Kessingland Grange and his daughter’s story was confirmed by the cook and the gardener. Rider Haggard decided to write to the Eastern Daily Press to tell the story and seek further information. On Wednesday 24th July 1912 the paper duly printed the original letter from Lilias to her famous father, together with this note from Rider Haggard himself asking for some clarification or further information. However, none was forthcoming.

In August 1923 a survey ship, H. M. S. Kellett, was taking observations off the Norfolk coast when Captain F. E. B. Haselfoot and the navigator Lt Commander R. M. Southern observed something strange. Captain Haselfoot wrote:

"The time was about 9am. It was a summer day and the weather was calm and clear. I am not sure whether the sun was actually shining. I then observed rising out of the water about 200 yards from the ship, a long, serpentine neck, projecting from six or seven feet above the water. I observed this neck rising out of the water twice, and it remained up, in each case, for four or five seconds. Viewing with the naked eye only, I could not make out precisely what the head was like."

In July 1978 a holidaymaker walking on Kessingland beach was moved to write (although he asked to remain anonymous) to the East Anglian Magazine:

"The sea was quite calm when my attention was suddenly drawn to what I can only say looked like the head of a seal on a long neck sticking up out of the water. There seemed to be some humps behind the head, but the creature only remained visible for a matter of a few seconds before diving beneath the surface. I would be inclined to think that I had imagined everything if I had not read the story of the Kessingland Sea Serpent."

There appear to be no other recent sightings. However, in the 1978 sighting by the anonymous man, he does state he knew about the story, which means it could have influenced what he saw. The men on the ship, however, if they were seasoned sailors, would surely have recognised any known sea creature, yet did not recognise this one. It does sound like a ribbon fish, except ribbon fish do not swim like that and do not hold their heads out of the water. Another interesting story to ponder over.

DALE DRINNON: Meurger on Canadian Lake Monsters

Dale started at IUPUI hoping for a degree in Biology before changing to Anthropology and as a result, has a very diverse background in Geology, Zoology, Paleontology, Anatomy, Archaeology, Psychology, Sociology, Literature, Latin, Popular Culture, Film criticism, Mythology and Folklore, and various individual human cultures especially mentioning those of the Pacific and the Americas. He has a working knowledge of every human fossil find up until his graduation and every important Cryptozoological sighting up to that point. He has been an amateur along on archaeological excavations in Indiana as well as doing some local tracking of Bigfoot there. Now he is on the CFZ bloggo....

Following on from Richard's posting the other day Michel Meurger is quite wrong to say that the different sorts of lake monster reports in Canada indicates that there are no such things. That is an absurd statement. Michel Meurger is quite correct to say that the reports are contradictory but he overlooks the quite obvious conclusion that people are talking about more than one kind of lake monster in Canada.

The problem is this fixation on there being only one kind of water monster; that somehow the term "water monster" has some specific connotation. It does not; it is a generic term.

Obviously, some of the reports are fish, and reports of fish as different from one another as pikes and sturgeons. Some of the reports are obviously eels of unusual size and are stated as such specifically. SOME reports are said to be giant lizards or "Alligators" but are more likely giant salamanders. Others may be stray pinnepeds down from the frozen Arctic and the basic model is still fundamentally based on mistaken reports of mooses in the water. MOST reports are actually indeterminate; people cannot make out what they are seeing. And to top it all off, it does indeed look as if unknown outsized otters and beavers are definitely involved. Both of these have specific candidate fossil forerunners.

There are NO simple solutions.

Richard is also quite right to say that multiple-channelled rivers are personified as multiple-headed dragons. The Meikong is one such river.