Strangeness at Lake Okanagan

Strange Find in Lake Okanagan

Lake Okanagan in Canada is said to be the home of a water monster called Ogopogo The lake is approximately 120 kilometres long; 3.5 kilometres wide and is 235 metres at its deepest point. Indigenous people have legends about a monster in the lake. To the syilx, it’s n ̓x̌ax̌aitkʷ which means “the sacred spirit of the lake. To members of the Westbank First Nation, n ̓x̌ax̌aitkʷ and Ogopogo are two separate things.One is a spirit and one is an animal.

There used to be all one connecting lake, Okanagan and Skaha, and there are stories  of caverns that connect the two where a creature could live.

Sightings are reported of a creature 20 to 50 feet long, with a horse shaped head and an undulating serpent like body.The first recorded sighting was by John Allison in 1872.

In 2000 marathon swimmer, Daryl Ellis, reported being accompanied for a short distance during his swim by two large creatures as he passed Rattlesnake Island. He described them as one being 6 - 9 metres (20 - 30 feet) long and the second being smaller. They followed him for quite awhile and then disappeared. When he swam near Okanagan Lake floating bridge in Kelowna, a creature with a large eye the size of a grapefruit came within 9 metres to get a close look at him.

A south Okanagan man is convinced he’s captured the most conclusive piece of evidence yet of the legendary and elusive lake monster in the Okanagan known as the Ogopogo in june 2011.Jim La Rocque was enjoying his mother-in-law’s lakefront property with his two children in Kaleden, B.C. on June 1 when he says he noticed an inexplicable wake on Skaha Lake.The longtime Okanagan resident said he couldn’t believe his eyes.La Rocque believes he witnessed a giant, serpentine creature swimming across the lake with at least seven fins paddling in sync.He estimates it was at least 36 metres (120 feet) long.“I’d describe it as like a dragon boat race, like with oars, so if you flipped the dragon boat upside down, you would see all those oars coming out of the water,” he said.

This recent article caught my eye:

Having been scuba diving more than 2,000 times in Okanagan Lake, professional diver Kevin Aschhoff was rather surprised to discover something he'd never seen before.Crawling along the edge of a boat wreck 30-feet below the surface of the water was an Okanagan crayfish four times the usual size for this species, measuring roughly a foot in length.Native Okanagan signal crayfish generally grow to about three inches in length, so Aschhoff's discovery during a night dive last September has surprised experts who did not know the crayfish could grow to such sizes."(The crayfish) is the size of a lobster and way, way larger than any known crayfish in the Okanagan," Institute for Underwater Research founder Raphael Nowak told iNFOnews.ca. "It's a very interesting phenomenon."

Source:https://infotel.ca/newsitem/in-video-never-seen-before-lobster-size-crayfish-discovered-in-okanagan-lake/it73023

Which poses an interesting question. Could Ogopogo be a known  creature that had grown to four times its normal size? If some form of gigantism occurs to creatures in the lake what could Ogopogo be? An eel,a fish, a snake ? Maybe if you have some ideas you can leave a comment.

Sørvágsvatn Lake Water Horse

The Water Horse of the Faroe Islands

Sørvágsvatn or Leitisvatn is a cliff  lake located 32 m above the level of the sea  in the Faroe Islands. It is found  on the island of Vágar. It has a surface area of 3.56 km² and a maximum depth of 59 m.It empties into the Atlantic Ocean through a 30 m high waterfall.

There are many myths and legends surround the lake .One concerns a creature called Nykur or Nix a shape shifting spirit that often takes the form of a horse. Nykur entices people close appearing tame and docile, then its drags them to the bottom of the lake before they can escape. However if you say its name it loses its power and returns to the bottom of the lake alone.

Several stories abound about the Nix. One day, two young brothers were playing by the lake when the Nykur approached the younger one. The young boy excited by seeing the beautiful horse shouted to his brother Niklas, to come see the horse. He said Nika or Nix ,his pet name for his brother and the Nykur thought he was calling its name and went back into the lake alone

Another story is about a a clergyman who was on his way from Miðvágur to Sørvágur. He saw a beautiful woman who was sitting on a rock, combing her hair. The clergyman suspected it was the Nix, and picked up  a pebble and threw it at the woman on the rock. The pebble grew in size and  turned into a big rock. The Clergyman  then starting praying at the Nix, and told it to go into the rock. The Nykur had to obey. It is said  that the rock can still be seen close to the village of Vatnsoyrar.Some say if you put your ear to it,you can hear the Nix inside trying to get out.

These stories of water spirits ,especially those who change into water horses and drag people to their deaths,are common around the world. Could there have once been  water creatures that lived in deep lakes and dragged people underwater? Perhaps they had horse like heads ,hence the water horse stories.There are often truths in old tales and legends and the common theme in water horse stories does make you think, could some sort of creature once have existed?

Lake Leelanau Creature

Another Lake Creature in Michigan

Lake Leelanau consists of two conjoining lakes north and south and runs through the Leelanau Peninsula in Michigan. The south lake has a maximum depth of 62 feet (19 m) and the north lake has a maximum depth of 121 feet (37 m).It is the reported home of a strange creature described as having a long neck and tail and two large eyes.

The creature first appeared after the Lake Leelanau Dam was built in the late 1800’s.When the dam was finished the Lake lake’s water levels rose 10 to 12 feet ( 3-4 metres) , flooding parts of the land and creating a marsh like environment around the lake. It also shut off the lake’s outlet and some say sealed the creature in.

In the summer of 1910 , a teenage boy, William Gautier, was fishing on the lake. He rowed out to a new fishing spot near the town of Lake Leelanau looking for perch and paddled up close to a tree that he estimated to stand about five feet tall above the water, with a six-inch trunk. He cast a line, and began tying the boat to the tree. The young William suddenly noticed the tree had eyes. They were staring him dead in the face at about four feet above water level. The two starred at each other for a few moments before the animal dove into the water and went under the boat. Gauthier said later that the creature's head passed one end of the boat while the tail was still at the other end, though it was undulating very quickly through the water. Gauthier admitted to having been frightened by his encounter, and that he stayed off that lake for many years. His great grandchild stated in an interview years later that his great-grandfather came from a prominent family in the area and was very well-educated, so not easily fooled. William had also told his family that he knew of others who would admit privately but not publicly that they, too, had seen the creature.

Several other encounters with the creature where apparently reported around the turn of the century, but were not formally recorded for fear of being ridiculed.

I could not find any modern day reports and the theory is that whatever was trapped by the dam was alone and has since died.

Any News of Lake Coleridge Monster?

I am re-posting this to see if anyone has any knowledge of recent sightings or further information.

Monday, 2 November 2009

Lakey of Lake Coleridge - a lake monster?

Lake Coleridge is near Canterbury on the South Island of New Zealand. It has a surface area of 47 km² and is 3 km wide by 17 km long. In the 1970’s sightings started to be reported of a monster in the lake. It was blamed for dragging away fisherman’s rods. The locals named it Lakey.

Then in 1972 the creature was cited as the culprit in the disappearance of a fisherman when the old man’s upturned boat was discovered but no body surfaced. There was blood in on the sides and the inside of the boat, indicating a struggle. Police decided no foul play had been involved and that the old man had slipped, hurt himself badly, then fallen into the water. The absence of a body was noted as "strange, but not implausible"
In1975 two women reported seeing a creature’s head rise up from the lake. It was described as wolf like in appearance but without any visible fur. Horrified they screamed, and the monster slunk back into the water. Also in 1975 a teacher and his wife were boating and observing the birdlife on the lake surface when they witnessed a creature. It grabbed and ate a large water bird from a flock resting on the surface.
In 1976 a farmer on the west side of the lake began losing sheep to some predator when they went to drink by the waters edge. While watching the flock he noticed a dark shadow just below the surface of the water when a lamb moved to take a drink. He shouted, and the huge shape disappeared .
In 1977 several witnesses saw a creature said to be 16 feet long, rolling around on the surface, snapping its jaws. It was described as grey with four flippers and quite "fish-like".
A hunter from Otago decided to try and kill the creature . He had a boat rigged with radar, harpoons. After no luck on the surface he decided to go into the water to look and dived into the lake in a wetsuit. He found the wreck of a yacht, which was lying on the bottom of the lake. As he turned back up to surface, he was struck in the ribs by something powerful. He left and did not return
In 1979 some fisherman on the lake saw the creature. It seemed to stare at them with its head partially above water. For some time it swam in slow circles, not taking its eyes off the men, then sunk below the water.. The next morning a trail was found in the mud.

Robyn Gossets discusses the creature in her book New Zealand Mysteries. Gosset writes that the fisherman around the area tell stories about 'Lakey' the enormous, but seldom seen, sea animal that lives in the lake, capable of tearing a mans rod off him and creating huge ripples on the Lake surface.

There seem to have been no recent sightings and theories from Lakey being a leopard seal to a sturgeon abound. Leopard seals are quiet aggressive but whether they would venture this far inland and stay there is debatable. Plus they don’t normally have four flippers that are evident. You would normally only see two front flippers. They are solitary animals said to come onto the ice to mate and then return to the sea. It has been known for them to pull a human being under the ice and at least one young researcher was killed this way. If it was a leopard seal it must have either died or returned to the sea. An interesting story and one which may simply be an out of place animal rather than a cryptid.

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Water Creatures in Scottish Folklore

Creatures of Scottish Folklore

Ceirean –cròin  was a large sea creature  in Scottish Gaelic folklore. It was so large it could eat seven whales.However it could also disguise itself as a silver fish to catch out unsuspecting fishermen. It would then return to its colossal size and devour them.If it existed  it must have been as large as the Jurassic creatures  that roamed the seas millions of years ago.It was considered truly terrifying in aspect and still talked about.

Forbes wrote that  the creature was either a large sea serpent ,(Forbes, Alexander. Gaelic names of Beasts, Birds, Fishes, Insects, Reptiles, etc. 1905),or one of the gigantic dinosaurs that roamed the land and ate fish from the seas.He named the Atlantosaurus which was 100 feet long and 30 feet high.

(N.B. Atlantosaurus (meaning "Atlas lizard") is a dubious genus of sauropod dinosaur. It contains a single species, Atlantosaurus montanus, from the upper Morrison Formation of Colorado, United States. Atlantosaurus was the first sauropod to be described during the infamous 19th century Bone Wars,between Marsh and Cope  and others during which scientific methodology suffered in favour of pursuit of academic acclaim.)

Most folklore has some basis and it could be that once some terrifying creature did roam the seas,or   the fossils or bones of one were discovered.Needless to say there are no modern day sightings.

A highland Freshwater mermaid Fideal inhabited Loch Na Fideil near Gairloch Scotland . The creature was said to drag women and children under the water and devour them. . Katherine Briggs in her ‘A Dictionary Of Fairies’ (1976) mentions the Fideal and refers to ‘Scottish Folk-lore and Folk Life’ (1935) by Donald Alexander Mackenzie, who suggested that she was a personification of the entangling bog grasses and water weeds in Loch na Fideil. Some versions of the story say Fideal was killed by a man called Ewen, who lost his life during the fight.

Loch Na Fideil drains into the much larger Loch Maree which is positioned beside it and where sacrifices to water dragons took place until the 18th Century.

Loch Maree is about 13 miles long and up to 3 miles wide in parts and 125 feet deep. It is in a very remote location at Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland and so is a largely unspoilt area with little industry or commerce. The loch is known for trout fishing. The waters of the lake are supposed to have curative powers and it was believed that being submerged in the lake can cure mental illness. It was designated a Wetlands Conservation Area in 1994. There are about 30 islands on the Loch, many of historical significance.

The loch is said to have a monster known as muc-sheilch .A Mr Banks of Letterewe tried at great expense to drain the Loch, in the 1850s, but failed. He also tried to poison it with quicklime .(Though it is not recorded why he did this.)

Over the years, there have been unsubstantiated reports of something large in the water being seen by local fishermen, but no photographs or film seem to have come to light.Most think it is nothing more than a large eel.

Could the mermaid and the monster have been a large eel that passed overland between the lochs? It is always a possibility.

Giant Snake Seen in the Congo?

Giant Congo Snake?

Colonel Remy Van Lierde born 14 August 1915, died 8 June 1990 was a Belgian pilot who served during World War II in the Belgian and British Air Forces and achieving the RAF rank of Squadron Leader. He was made Deputy Chief of Staff to the Ministry of Defence in 1954. In 1958 he became one of the first Belgians to break the sound barrier while test flying a Hawker Hunter at Dunsfold Aerodrome in England. He returned to the Belgian Air Force after the war and went on to hold several important commands before retiring in 1968. . In 1959, as full Colonel, he commanded the air base at Kamina in the Belgian Congo.

Not a person who would ruin their reputation with  a hoax then.

He was returning from a mission in the Katanga region of the Belgian  Congo in 1959 and  was flying over the jungle in a helicopter when he spotted a giant snake, “very dark green with his belly white,” which he estimated to be  15 meters (50 ft) in length.He  related that  the serpent reared up as though it was about  to attack the helicopter. The head was 3-feet( 1 meter) wide and 2 feet wide, and that the jaws were of a triangular shape.His companion   managed to get a photograph of the beast, but the picture is  blurry and doesn’t indicate the scale, so it has been dismissed by sceptics.Van Lierde insisted that the monster was a true giant and “could easily have eaten up a man” if it had wanted to.

It seems logical  Van Lierde did come across  large snake, perhaps even a new species, but  could have overestimated its size. Its difficult when one is caught off guard by something unusual to think clearly. Snakes do grow to over 20 feet ,some even 30 feet and it may have been one of these he flew over.Plus if the snake was in water,water distorts size and shape from some angles. I doubt he would risk his reputation on a hoax and genuinely he believed he saw a giant snake.

Here is a Congo snake that grows to ten feet but the angle of the photograph makes it appear much larger:

https://searchlight.vc/searchlight/breaking-news/2018/12/15/snake-found-at-belair-is-harmless-and-protected-by-law/