Analysis of Nessie film?

What happened to this film of Nessie?  

Scientist claims he saw the Loch Ness Monster Evening Times reporter

29 May 2007 

LOCH Ness Monster experts today pledged to examine new video footage taken by an amateur scientist who claims to have found Nessie. LOCH Ness Monster experts today pledged to examine new video footage taken by an amateur scientist who claims to have found Nessie. The two-minute video clip, recorded on Saturday, shows what appears to be a long, black creature swimming just below the surface of Loch Ness. The creature's head breaks the surface as it propels itself through the water. Images from the tape also clearly show how the creature creates a wake on the surface of the water as it swims in the direction of Inverness. The film was taken by amateur scientist Gordon Holmes, from Shipley, Yorkshire, who estimates the "creature" was moving at around 6mph. Mr Holmes, who works as a technician at Bradford University, was in the area using hydrophones to detect underwater noises from the loch. He said he saw the monster at 9.50pm while he was filming the loch from a layby on the A82. Mr Holmes, 55, said: "I was minutes from going home but I saw something moving and dashed out of the car and switched the camcorder on.  "About 200 yards away from me I could see something in the water. It was definitely a creature propelling itself through the water. It was fairly bubbling along the water. It was streaking along." Adrian Shine, project leader for Loch Ness 2000 based at Drumnadrochit, has spent more than 30 years investigating the loch and said the video seemed genuine. He added: "At first glance it does certainly seem to show an animal swimming through the water." Nessie investigator Dick Raynor, of the Loch Ness Exhibition Centre, said: "Both he and the film seem genuine and there's no evidence of faking or tampering. I would definitely be willing to study it further."Mr Holmes will now transfer his video to DVD when he returns to Yorkshire and make it available for analysis by experts.

Source:http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/scientist-claims-he-saw-the-loch-ness-monster-1.949473

 

Does anyone know if any analysis of the film was undertaken by photography experts or academic scientists and what was the result? The only people I seem to be able to find who looked at the film are Adrian Shine and Dick Raynor. It should have been sent to a zoology or marine biology department  of a university and a photographic expert, but who , where, when? If anyone has any clues please post a comment.

 

New Nessie sighting?

Found this new Loch Ness sighting . The site has the photos. As it is a site for advertising holiday lets though I think we view this with caution. Still worth a look.

ORIGINAL Press RELEASE

“Nessie…Myth or Monster…New Evidence Comes to Light”

Foyers, South Loch Ness Side – Definitely not a boat and too big for a seal was the verdict of renowned, local monster hunter Steve Feltman when shown a photograph taken of a strange sighting last Tuesday night from the balcony of one of the lodges at Lodges on Loch Ness, one of Scotland’s newest holiday resorts. He suggested that further investigation be carried out immediately.

John Russell and Nigel Bell were relaxing and enjoying the views over the Loch when they noticed a long, dark object moving across the glass-like water creating a wake behind. Mr Russell immediately took a photograph with his digital camera just before the monster-like creature dived out of sight.

It later developed that a similar sighting was made the following morning by a retired RSM who lives in the village of Foyers just below.

And strangely like a sighting made five years ago by a group of people in virtually the same location. Dave and Kate Munro, owner/managers of the Lodges on Loch Ness site and formerly owners of the Craigdarroch House Hotel just next door, said at the time:

“One June night my wife Kate and our daughter-in-law Belinda were walking with the dogs. As they rounded the corner to the hotel car-park they noticed a disturbance on the loch and immediately told everybody about it in the hotel. We all went outside to see for ourselves what was causing the disturbance in the water. It was a flat calm day, no wind and no wave on the loch. We watched an incredible display of something weaving about in the water, travelling fast then slow, disappearing altogether and coming up somewhere else, and creating a wake as big as you would get from a small speed boat. All the family members, five members of staff and 16 hotel guests watched this for about 10 minutes. What was it? I honestly don’t know, but I will swear that what we saw that day was a living creature of some sort.”

As the controversy surrounding the Loch Ness Monster continues to rage on over the centuries, perhaps there is finally some proof thanks to the technology of our digital age…or does it simply add to the mystery?

For photos and more info:http://www.lodgesonlochness.com/location/lochness.htm

 

Barmouth, home to a sea monster?

There has been a history of sea monsters in some areas of Wales, in particular the Menai Straits Barmouth area and further up the coast in North Wales.

In 1805 in the Menai Straits, A ship reported it had been attacked by a sea serpent, which wrapped itself around the ships mast until the crew attacked it and it fell into the sea. They claimed it  followed the vessel for two more days before giving up.

In 1882 another sighting according to this letter from Nature Magazine:

About three P.M. on Sunday, September 3, 1882, a party of gentlemen and ladies were standing at the northern extremity of Llandudno pier, looking towards the open sea, when an unusual object was observed in the water near to the Little Orme's Head, travelling rapidly westwards towards the Great Orme. It appeared to be just outside the mouth of the bay, and would therefore be about a mile distant from the observers. It was watched for about two minutes, and in that interval it traversed about half the width of the bay, and then suddenly disappeared. The bay is two miles wide, and therefore the object, whatever it was, must have travelled at the rate of thirty miles an hour. It is estimated to have been fully as long as a large steamer, say two hundred feet; the rapidity of its motion was particularly remarked as being greater than that of any ordinary vessel. The colour appeared to be black, and the motion either corkscrew-like or snake-like, with vertical undulations. Three of the observers have since made sketches from memory, quite independently, of the impression left on their minds, and on comparing these sketches, which slightly varied, they have agreed to sanction the accompanying outline as representing as nearly as possible the object which they saw. The party consisted of W. Barfoot, J.P., of Leicester, F. J. Marlow, solicitor, of Manchester, Mrs. Marlow, and several others. They discard the theories of birds or porpoises as not accounting for this particular phenomenon.

F. T. MOTT.

Birstall Hill, Leicester, January 16th, 1883. 

The Mawddach Estuary at Barmouth has been the place of a few sightings in the last 100 years. In “Mysterious Wales” by Chris Barber (Blorenge Books June 1999) a local woman claimed to have found four large footprints in the sand, described as being ‘as big as an elephant’s’. In 1937 a crocodile like animal was witnessed by a Harlech man as it walked along the river bank

Then in  March 1975 six schoolgirls described a creature they encountered on Barmouth beach. ‘It had a long neck and a square face and a long tail with a flipper at the back and its skin was black and patchy’.. `It was like a dinosaur,'' said one of the girls. `The monster was about 10 feet long, with a long tail, long neck and huge green eyes. It walked towards the sea and entered the water.'' Its green eyes peered at them before sinking beneath the waves. The girls fled in terror.

( N.B. Sounds like the classic long necked pinniped description to me, but could just have been an ordinary large member of the seal family. They can appear to have long necks if they stretch it out).

It is not the only strangeness in that area though: 

 In September  1922  John Morris and William James saw an object fall into the ocean off Barmouth shore , so slowly that it was thought to be a plane. A boat was sent out, but nothing was found. (Magonia #45, Fort 639) 

It is odd how places that report one phenomenon, such as sea serpents, also seem to have others occurring. Does the area attract strange things or does it just attract the sort of people who see strange things….one to ponder over.

Police Believe in Nessie!

Police believed Loch Ness Monster's existence 'beyond doubt'

Uncovered letter by head of Highland police in 1930s reveals extent of debate and investigation into concerns over Nessie. The Loch Ness Monster’s existence was “beyond doubt” according to the head of Highland police in a letter he wrote 70 years ago. The typed note by William Fraser – then the chief constable of Inverness-shire Constabulary – is one of a number of files recently uncovered by the National Archives of Scotland. In the letter, addressed to the Under Secretary of State at the Scottish Office, Mr Fraser said: "That there is some strange creature in Loch Ness seems now beyond doubt, but that the police have any power to protect it is very doubtful." Mr Fraser went on to tell the minister that a London couple Peter Kent and Marion Stirling were determined to catch the monster “dead or alive” and had even fashioned a special weapon to do so.He wrote: "Mr Peter Kent visited Fort Augustus on Friday, August 12, and was seen there by my officer stationed at Fort Augustus, to whom he stated that he was having a special harpoon gun made and that he was to return with some 20 experienced men on August 22 for the purpose of hunting the monster down.” He added: "I have, however, caused Mr Peter Kent to be warned of the desirability of having the creature left alone, but whether my warning will have the desired effect or not remains to be seen." Fiver years earlier In 1933, The Scottish Officer were asked to confirm the existence of a ‘monster’ or ‘sea serpent’ in Loch Ness following a number of alleged sightings and the publication of articles and grainy photographs by newspapers. A parliamentary question was tabled in the House of Commons asking whether, in the interests of science, an investigation would be made into the existence of the monster. The question was ridiculed by the press at the time. Whilst sceptical, ministers and civil servants proposed that reliable observers could be stationed around the loch equipped to take photographs. If the monster’s existence was then proved, it was proposed the next step would be to trap it without injury – a difficult task given the size and depth of Loch Ness. A spokesman for the National Archives of Scotland stated: “In the end it was felt that as the monster provided public interest and amusement, it would be better to let it continue to do so than to kill it, or the tales told about it. “However, this did not stop monster hunters from frequenting the shores of Loch Ness in the hope of seeing the monster, capturing or killing it.” This action prompted the Chief Constable’s letter to the minister, warning that the police were in no position to protect the creature. The government file on the Loch Ness Monster, including the chief constable's letter, features in the Open Secret exhibition at the archives in Edinburgh.

Source: 26 April 2010 http://news.stv.tv/scotland/highlands-islands/172901-loch-ness-monsters-existence-beyond-doubt/

People were a lot less sceptical in the old days...I blame television myself!

Winged Omen of Disaster?

Mothman was said to have been seen when disaster threatened. It is not the only winged creature to be seen before a disaster. The “Black Bird of Chernobyl” was said to herald the explosion at a nuclear plant in the Ukraine. On April 26, 1986, a massive explosion rocked the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Thirty people died immediately ,followed by other deaths from radiation poisoning. For nine days the reactor continued to burn, resulting in tremendous environmental damage. The local population has suffered with the consequences ever since. The Chernobyl Disaster, as it was called , is considered the worst accident in the history of nuclear power.

In the days before the tragic occurrence , several Chernobyl employees had reported seeing a large, dark/ black shape like a headless man with gigantic wings and red , fire like, eyes. As with the appearances of Mothman , people who had seen the phenomena had been having nightmares and some received strange phone calls. Some of the employees reported the strange things to their supervisors at the plant. Whether any sort of action was taken is unknown. After the explosion Helicopters were brought in to drop extinguishing agents on the flames. Some of the pilots and the surviving workers said they saw a giant black bird flying away from the smoking reactor. Described by many as “a large black, bird like creature, with a 20 foot wingspan, gliding through the swirling plumes of smoke “.The bird has not been seen again.

The theory out forward was that the bird was a rare Black Stork. However the stork has a clear visible head and it’s wingspan is only about 6 feet(1.9 metres) and it stands about 3 feet(1 Metre) tall. It also would not explain the strange dreams and phone calls. So was this winged creature a portent of the disaster? There are other tales such as,( but not the only story ) ,like Mothman about winged creatures being seen before disaster. We can only wait and see if more tales surface, though I rather hope they don’t if it portents something bad happening.

Australian bigfoot captured on film?

There has apparently been a Yowie (Australian bigfoot) sighting complete with video. You can see the video on both these sites. 

http://forteanzoology.blogspot.com/2010/04/yowie-sighting.html

CFZ  could not make anything out clearly on the video. 

Over at paranormal news there are statements with the video :

http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2010/04/video-yowie-encounter-blue-mountains.html

Extract Statement with video: I went into the Bush to do some research around 5.00pm 3rd of April 2010, I didn't expect it to go dark so quickly. I was heading out when all hell broke loose. At least two creatures were around me they made themselves very clear I wasn't welcomed.........No.1 Rule - do not do anything like this by yourself....

 

I think going out into the bush in the dark alone would be scary enough. Look at videos see what you make of it. I couldn’t see anything clearly but will try again later on the laptop which has better resolution .Post a comment if you can see anything please.

Giant Jelly fish filmed

Remarkable footage of a rarely seen giant deep sea jellyfish has been recorded by scientists. Using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), they captured a video of the huge Stygiomedusa gigantea. The jellyfish has a disc-shaped bell than can be a metre wide, and has four arms that extend up to six metres in length.  The jellyfish has only been seen 114 times in the 110 years it has been known to science, say researchers. Professor Mark Benfield from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, US, came across the creature as part of the Serpent project, a collaboration between marine scientists and energy companies, including BP, Shell, Chevron and Petrobras, working in the Gulf of Mexico. Using ROVs provided by the oil and gas companies, scientists are able to explore the deep ocean in more detail, including the so-called mesopelagic and bathypelagic layers of the sea. In a similar study, researchers recently captured footage of one of the ocean's largest fish, the serpent-like oarfish.

Full story and video here :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8638000/8638527.stm

 

Monster or not in Lake County?

Florida Lake monsters have been in the news:

“In the United States alone, researchers list 222 lakes and rivers as alleged cryptid habitats,” Michael Newton wrote in “Florida’s Unexpected Wildlife.”

“It was green and black and a yellowish mingled colors, and they watched it crawl to the sea,” Emily Bell wrote of an encounter in Jupiter in “My Pioneer Days in Florida, 1876-1898.” “It raised its head and looked all around till it turned their way. Then they said it looked like a human face. It stood up about three or four feet. They measured to where its tail was and to where the head was and it was about 30 feet long and looked the size of a small nail keg.” “In 1885, a ship moored in the New River inlet found that its anchor had snagged on something. When the crew finally brought the heavy anchor up, they saw that it had hooked a dead serpent-like carcass,” Charlie Carlson wrote in “Weird Florida.” “The creature was described as being over 40 feet long and six feet wide, with two front flippers and a long skinny neck. It was in a bad state of decomposition and was never scientifically studied, but it would sure smell like a dead plesiosaur to a cryptozoologist.”

Some of Florida’s monsters have even earned names. “Pinky,” for instance, is said to haunt the St. John’s River near Jacksonville, while the “Astor Monster” in Lake County has been the subject of reports for more than a century. “In the late 1960s fishing guide Buck Dillard and two of his clients encountered a beast ‘the size of an elephant’ while trolling on the St. Johns River near Lake Dexter,” Newton wrote of the Astor Monster. “Dillard says the creature walked along the river bottom, thus presumably eliminating possible confusion with a manatee.”

Extracts from Source:http://www.theledger.com/article/20081026/COLUMNISTS/810260310

Interestingly enough there is something in Lake County:

Teenager Talks About Battle With Alligator POSTED: 8:21 am EDT July 25, 2006

DELAND, Fla. -- A Central Florida boy was released from a hospital Monday after being attacked by an alligator. Officials said they believe the alligator was about 11 feet long, and the teenager was able to fight off the attack, WESH 2 News reported. Corey Workman, 16, said he learned what to do to escape by watching television. He suffered puncture wounds on his leg and nerve damage. "At first it was just a reaction. I just kept punching, and I pulled myself together. I kept on thinking, 'I'm not going to die this way,'" Workman said. Workman and some friends were on the water's edge near Astor in Lake County Saturday night when he felt something grab his left ankle. He said he instinctively started throwing punches, and then when he realized it was an alligator, he remembered what he had seen many times on the Discovery Channel. "I grabbed its jaw, and I put all my weight back so it would roll over, and I could get closer to it. I put my right thumb in its eye, and as I did that, it let go," Workman said. A trapper sent out Sunday to look for the reptile caught an 11-foot alligator. It will now be up to a forensic tooth expert to compare the bite marks on Workman's leg with the teeth of the alligator. If they can confirm it is the alligator that bit Workman, the teenager said he would love to have it. "I'll probably use it as a trophy. I'll stuff its head or something and keep it," Workman said. Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials said even though it's the fourth alligator attack this summer, they are very rare. They said the best way to protect yourself is to avoid hanging out in vegetated areas of water, especially this time of year. Source:http://www.wesh.com/news/9569904/detail.html

So it appears the tales may have some truth in them but in this case it may be a known creature rather than an unknown one. That isn’t to say there aren’t any unknown creatures out there .

Bigfoot in Florida

Florida has much strangeness and lake creatures are not the only unknown that has been spotted.

Published Saturday, November 13, 2004

Woman's Sighting of Ape-Like Green Swamp Creature Among the Theories Studied by Cryptozoologists  By GARY WHITE The Ledger 

When Jennifer Ward drives through the Green Swamp these days, she makes sure she has a camera in her car. She hopes she'll get the chance to capture for others an image is already seared into her memory, and she knows only a picture will persuade others that she really did see something bizarre one evening a few months ago. "I've heard about Big Foot and stuff," Ward says. "I didn't really think it existed, but I'm convinced now." Ward, 30, was driving on Moore Road in northern Polk County a few days after Hurricane Charley's passage through the area when she glanced to her left and saw something she says has haunted her ever since. She describes it as a creature with a human form that was covered in dark hair or fur and had whitish rings around its eyes. Ward says the mysterious animal stood erect in a drainage ditch along the road, and she estimates its height at 8 feet. Based on her description, it might have been foraging in the ditch when she surprised it. "It looked like it was doing something; it was focused on something," Ward says. "Whenever it saw me, it probably took on the facial expression I had on because I was dumbfounded. It just watched me as I drove by." Asked if it might have been a bear, she replied, "No chance at all.". Ward says she didn't stop because her two daughters were sleeping in the back seat and she feared the animal might attack her Toyota 4Runner if given the chance. She went back to the scene later to search for hair or footprints, but she didn't find any conclusive evidence. Since the fleeting observation, Ward has obsessively tried to convey to others what she saw. She has filled a drawing pad with sketches of the animal, though she says she lacks the skill to depict it precisely."I can't seem to get it off my mind," Ward says. "I hope to see it again some time. "Ward doesn't seem surprised that others, including family members and friends, have received her story dubiously. She says her daughters make jokes about the sighting even as they tell her they believe her. Ward's husband, Richard Furnari, an amateur archaeologist who has accumulated bones of prehistoric animals, would like more evidence to support his wife's claim."She swears to it," Furnari says. "I was skeptical at first, but . . . I'm certain she saw something. I don't know what." Ward found an enthusiastic ally in Scott Marlowe, an archaeologist and instructor with the Pangea Institute, an educational entity based in Winter Haven. Marlowe already knew Furnari, who donated a collection of fossils to Pangea Institute earlier this year. Marlowe has long had an interest in cryptozoology, the study of legendary or unconfirmed species. Upon hearing of Ward's experience, he told her about a long-rumored creature known variously as the Florida swamp ape or Florida skunk ape.Reported sightings of swamp apes have been arising for years, and in 2000 someone anonymously mailed photos to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Department purportedly of the creature taken in the Myakka River area. But Ward says those pictures and other sketches Marlowe showed her didn't match the animal she saw. Marlowe, for his part, suspects some claimed swamp ape sightings actually involved escaped or released orangutans. Marlowe will teach a class in cryptozoology for Florida Keys Community College next year. He says he would welcome any confirmation of Ward's claim. "At this point there's been a single sighting," Marlowe says. "I would be really interested to hear from anybody (else) who had a sighting of that. One of the things I will be doing with my class next summer is taking them out on a field study where we actually try to go after a cryptid (unrecognized) animal." A few animals have made the transition from fabled to confirmed status -- perhaps most notably the coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct for 60 million years before one was found alive in 1938. Marlowe says it's conceivable a mystery animal could live deep in the Green Swamp and might have been driven from its normal range by a hurricane. "We haven't seen anything conclusive to substantiate this sighting, although I do believe the individual (Ward)," Marlowe says. "These things have to be approached very, very carefully."

Source: http://www.floridaskunkape.com/2010/04/05/our-own-loch-ness-monster/

 

For those interested in Florida’s unknown creatures , just to let you know cryptoflorida site has moved to here: http://cryptoflorida.wackwall.com/ 

Will update my blog list later . The old site will still be there for a while.

 

Did the Lake Clinch Serpent kill a man?

Does Lake Clinch in Polk County have a lake serpent? The lake contains quite a large fish stock of Largemouth Bass, Bluegill and Black Crappie. There is a food source to sustain some thing in the lake. However there is some controversy over whether there is a tradition of a creature in the lake.

“There is a tradition that a sea serpent, or lake serpent, used to haunt Lake Clinch,” M.F. Hetherington wrote in his 1928 “A History of Polk County.” “The Indians many years ago insisted there was an immense serpent in this lake. In 1907 residents of Frostproof declared they had seen the monster, and that it must be 30 feet long - this, too, before post-prohibition liquor was known.”

And the opposite opinion:

“My own inquiries to local libraries and newspapers failed to produce any leads or archival reports,” Newton wrote. “It is entirely possible that Lake Clinch has produced some cryptid sightings in the past, or that it may figure in aboriginal mythology, but as of press time for the work in hand, no further information was available.”

However I found this, an interesting story from 1926 about a man thought to have been killed by a large serpent in the lake:

“but talk about a lake creature persisted. Settlers spoke of something in the lake and early pioneers, including citizens, claimed to have seen a 30 foot [9.1 m] long “sea serpent” while boating or from the shore. On the night of August 30,1926, 49-year-old Charles M.Mallet stepped out of his simple Florida Cracker style home wearing a bathing suit and carrying a tackle box and bait. Mallett was a businessman, founder of the town’s first bank, and a partner in a prosperous fertilizer and supply company that served the local growers .He was a practical man and tales about a giant serpent inhabiting the lake adjacent to his home did not worry him as he prepared to venture onto the legendary monster’s domain. Before going fishing, Mallett had told several associates that he would be leaving for Sarasota the next day and absent from his usual haunts in the coming week. He stopped long enough to wave to a neighbor then made his way down to the dock. Like other men in Frostproof, he kept a small boat at the pier and frequently fished for the Largemouth Bass that were, and are, abundant in the lake. It was Florida’s “monsoon season” and there had been heavy rain that afternoon, but now it was clear skies as Mallett boarded his boat and headed out onto smooth dark water.

Three days later, on Thursday morning, G. D. Moree cast a fishing line into Lake Clinch from the eastern shore. While reeling it in, he snagged something big - a human body. The features were so mangled, that given the condition, it might have remained unidentified but for a ring on the corpse’s finger; the name faintly engraved on the inside of the band was “Charles M.Mallet”. To confirm the identity, a person was dis-patched to see if Mallet had returned from his trip. One of Mallett’s employees, C.C. Matthews, dis-covered the door to the Cracker house unlocked and Mallett’s personal effects and suitcase awaiting his return from the lake. There was no doubt that the body was that of

Charles Mercer Mallett, but what happened out on Lake Clinch?It is likely that a physician or district coroner examined Mallett’s body (Polk County did not have a medical examiner until the 1970s). A record of the death has been found

in the state’s official Death Index “

Source: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache%3AcYrFR-bA5iUJ%3Amysteriesmagazine.com%2Fpreviews%2F24%2F24_lake_clinch.pdf+lake+clinch+monster&hl=en&gl=uk&sig=AHIEtbRvNfjkI4mIBiZVR-PeG6stqpF8Bw

So did Mallet meet the serpent of the lake? Local stories would have it that he did. I have been unable to find any recent sightings of anything in the lake so am inclined to dismiss this as folklore, but if anyone has any new information, please post a comment.

San Francisco Bay Sea Serpent

There have been sightings of a strange creature in San Francisco Bay for many years.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY FURNISHES A SEA SERPENT AND A MONSTER.From the San Francisco Chronicle, March 28.:

The existence of the giant sea serpent is no longer in doubt. It has been seen in the waters of San Francisco Bay. According to the statement of J.P. Allen, of the Bank of California, he and several other residents of Alameda were standing on the deck of the ferryboat Garden City yesterday morning, at about 8:00 o’clock, about midway between Alameda and Goat Island, when a huge black monster suddenly raised its head and neck from the water to a height of about 10 feet, opened its jaws, displaying a mouth two feet wide filled with rows of sharply pointed teeth, and after taking a curious glance at the passing steamer plunged again into the water, at the same time elevating a sixty-foot tail, with which it thrashed the water for some time, after which it made off in the direction of the Alameda baths, near which some fishing boats were anchored. Some incredulous persons to whom the story was told say that the ferryboat struck a floating spar, forcing one end downward in the water and elevating the other as the steamer passed over the submerged end, and that after the steamer had passed the elevated end fell back into the water with a splash. We may expect soon to hear of the destruction of the Alameda fishing fleet, or more probably the establishment of a hotel for Summer boarders in the vicinity of the Alameda wharf.

(The article goes on further , you will find at the site at the end of the blog post.)

More recently:

In November 1983, a construction crew working on Route 1 just north of the Golden Gate Bridge saw a creature, underwater, approaching the land. They estimated the it to be 100 feet long ( 33 metres) and about 5 feet(1.6 metres) around the body. They described it as black in colour. With binoculars they observed it throwing it's head about and whipping it's body around in what appeared to be coils.

Then in 1985 two brothers Robert and William Clark were sitting in a car near the sea wall. This is their story of their experiences and there is a link to their site at the end of the blog post where you can see stills of the film they took etc :

We have had 8 sightings of a sea serpent in San Francisco Bay during the period 1985-87. The first and closest sighting was only 20 yards away. We were parked in our car at 7:45 a.m. looking north at San Francisco Bay just east of the Golden Gate Bridge and west of Alcatraz Island. The water was dead calm and we saw some sea lions playing about 150 yards from us. We saw what we thought was another sea lion swimming towards them from the west. When it was a few yards away the head and neck raised out of the water at least 10 feet straight up. It then lunged forward and attacked the sea lions. The sea lions fled towards where we were parked with the creature following right behind them. We could see the creature create several vertical undulations in its neck as it swam through the water. Then it went underwater. The sea lions swam right in front of us leaping in and out of the water in an attempt to escape the creature. We didn't know it until the next day when we examined the area at low tide but the sea lions swam over a ledge with rocks on it that protruded 20 yards into the bay. The water went from 40 feet deep to only 3 feet deep above the ledge. Suddenly, 20 yards in front of us we saw what looked like half a truck tire break the surface with a long neck and head just under the surface of the water in front of it. A second arch broke the surface of the water behind the first and then we watched what we thought was a huge black snake swim by but when we expected it to end it got wider. Then there was a splash and a crashing sound as it stopped dead in the water. Immediately, we saw it lift its neck quickly out of the water and it pulled itself backwards to get off the rocks. It splashed back into the water and disappeared. instantaneously, the rest of the neck came out of the water in a corkscrewing manner as it tried to pull itself off the rocks and into the deeper water. As it corkscrewed it exposed the midsection and the underbelly above the water and we got an excellent view. the midsection had hexagonal scales that did not overlap but were connected to each with a common side. They varied in size from the size of a dime to the size of a silver dollar.. We had 7 more sightings in the next 2 years and were able to get 6 photos.

In view of the scepticism they received , they issued the following challenge:

We (Bill and Bob Clark) have had several sightings of sea serpents in San Francisco Bay since 1985. On February 5, 1985 we saw a sea serpent beach itself only 20 yards from where we were parked in our car and we saw the entire animal expect the tail. On January 26, 2004 we took a 3 1/2 minute video which we claim contains images of several sea serpents swimming in SF Bay. We had 2 independent analyses of the video done. One was done by BSM Associates (expert image analyst Clifford Paiva and physicist Dr. Harold Slusher) and the second was done by marine biologist Bruce Champagne. Both analyses concluded that our video contains images of several large unknown serpentine marine animals swimming in SF Bay. We invite all skeptics to provide us with the expert of their choice who is willing to do an in-depth analysis of our video and we will send them a free copy. We only request that they agree not to post any portion of the video on the internet or anywhere else without our permission and if the conclusion of their analysis disagrees with the Paiva/Slusher analysis and the Champagne analysis that they provide us with their supporting documentation. We can be reached at our email address sfseaserpent9@hotmail.com.

For more details go to this site, includes info about new sightings:

http://home.access4less.net/~sfseaserpent/

They had their film analysed and an academic paper was produced by Bruce Champagne which can be found on the web. (I did have a copy but sent it to CFZ for their archives).I suggest you go and browse their site and have a look for yourselves, before deciding what you think. There is a history of sightings in the area so this is not the first. It is certainly an interesting one . As I always say keep an open mind but not so open things fall out, in other words try and view everything as a sceptic but be prepared to believe if the evidence is incontestable. If anyone has any thoughts after viewing the site , please post comments here , I would love to hear them.

Gaasyendietha, a dragon in lake Ontario?

Gaasyendietha, according to Seneca mythology, is a dragon that dwells in the deep areas Lake Ontario. Lake Ontario empties into the St. Lawrence river which runs out into the Atlantic Ocean. The average depth of Lake Ontario is 280 feet( 72 metres) and in the deeper areas the depth is about 800 feet( 266 metres). Like Loch Ness the lake rarely freezes in the winter.

Jacques Cartier, the French explorer who mapped much of the St. Lawrence river, kept a journal and in it he recorded that he and members of his crew saw what they described as "a giant finned snake" that moved like a caterpillar, using its side fins to propel itself forward in the water. Cartier's crew tried to capture the beast, but it moved too quickly and dove beneath the waters. When Cartier consulted with the indigenous peoples of the region, they called the creature "Gaasyendietha.”

The reports of something in the lake continued:

In 1817 the crew of a ship witnessed the appearance of a blackish snake-like monster “a foot in diameter(30cm) and 30 – 40 feet in length( 10- 15 metres)” approx three miles offshore.

In 1829 Two children stated that they saw a “20 – 30 feet.”( 7-10metres) snake-like creature near Grantham. Their experience was recounted in a local paper, which went on to state that “this wasn’t the first sighting in Lake Ontario and, doubtless, that such serpents lived in the lake.”

This newspaper report appeared on www.cryptomundo.com:

1867 September 5 – Another report of the appearance of the great snake or water monster in Lake Ontario has reached us. We have it from reliable citizens who reside on the Lake shore in Parma [New York], ten miles or so west of the mouth of the Genesee, that on Thursday last [possibly August 29] , just as sunset, this monster was seen in the water close to shore. A drove of cattle went to drink, whereupon the huge monster raised his head above the water and approached the shore, intending no doubt to take an evening meal of fresh beef. The noise made by the animal as he came into shallow water frightened the cattle and they ran back from the beach in great fright. Half an hour later the same drove of cattle sought to drink at a place fifty rods west of the spot where they first went and were again driven away by the monster. The occurrence drew to the beach several persons residing not far distant and caused a sensation. It won’t answer for anybody to go into that neighborhood and say that there is not a monster in the lake. Too many have seen the animal to doubt its existence. – Rochester [N.Y.] Union.“The Ontario Sea Monster Again,

Galveston, Texas, Galveston Daily News, September 5, 1867.

In 1968 a Scarborough resident saw an eel-like creature 20feet ( 7 metres ) long with a “mane of some sort” in the waters off Toronto.

These sightings are from the Eastern end of the Lake.

September 1881. Passengers and crew of the steamship ‘Gypsy’ saw a creature approx. 25 – 40 feet( 6-14 metres) in length with small legs and a large tail in the water.

In 1888. in the channel between Wolfe and Simcoe islands two sailors reported seeing a serpent creature

In 1892 a couple was reportedly “attacked by a huge serpent with eyes like balls of fire” near Brackey’s Bay. The husband fended off the monster with his fishing pole.

In 1931 Two physicians reported a 30feet long ( 10 metres) creature described as having “one eye in the middle of his head as well two antler-like horns” as they sailed from Alexandria Bay to Kingston’s yacht club in August

In 1970’s an employee of the Ministry of Natural Resources twice witnessed “a large creature dive into the lake from the shores of Prince Edward County. (However whether this is on official record I don’t know).

So does a dragon live in Lake Ontario or some sort of water snake or eel? If anyone knows of any recent sightings please post.

The Kouris Dam Crocodile or unknown creature?

Most people will remember seeing this in 2008.

Rumours are again rife that some kind of reptile or large sea creature is lurking below the water in the Kouris Dam. By Alethea Reynolds 28.OCT.08

Talk of the dam being occupied by a “strange creature” started to circulate three years ago, when a report was made that a crocodile had been dumped in the deep waters. Since then, there have been countless sightings of the “creature from the depths”, with some local newspapers calling the mystery the “Cyprus Loch Ness". One citizen was so adamant he had spotted the creature that he told a newspaper “I watched this serpent with my own two eyes, this was no mistake.” Despite the speculation, no proof has yet been found and even the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Affairs have drawn a blank on the Kouris mystery. An official from the ministry confirmed that they were actively searching for the creature, adding fuel to the rumours that the lake was home to some kind of serpent. Reports suggest that officials will try and coax the beast from the murky depths by using bait such as live hens and raw meat. In recent days rain has hampered the search effort, which is expected to resume tomorrow. A local community leader, Savvas Sava, told a daily newspaper yesterday that if the creature is caught then it will become a tourist attraction and facilities to house it must be constructed. Source:http://www.famagusta-gazette.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=69&twindow=Default&mad=No&sdetail=6085&wpage=&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=2350&hn=famagusta-gazette&he=.

The Kouris Dam was put into operation in 1988 to provide water to the area. The dam has fish stocks of roach, pike-perch, carp and mosquito fish. The water has a high pH level and is hard and the water temperature of the reservoirs is between 8°C and 27°C.Since 2005, a number of witnesses have come forward reporting to the authorities that they have observed an animal moving like a snake in the waters of the dam. There was a report that someone had released a crocodile into the dam in 2005 as it became too big for them to care for.

Fears imported croc is on the loose in Cyprus

October 27, 2008 - 1:58PM

Wildlife experts in Cyprus are trying to verify reports a crocodile smuggled to the island is on the loose in a nature reserve popular with visitors. In recent years reports of crocodile sightings have been common on the island, where they do not breed and the closest thing that remotely resembles it is the innocuous and much smaller chameleon. "The fisheries department has been conducting inquiries since mid September to verify information on the presence of a crocodile at Kouris reservoir," Cyprus's department of fisheries said, adding the information could not be verified. Rumours have been swirling for some years of crocodiles in the vicinity of Kouris, a reservoir just north of the southern coastal town of Limassol. Authorities searched the area in 2005 after reports baby crocodiles smuggled from Egypt were released when they became too big for the owner to handle. Nothing was found. New inquiries and a sweep of the area eight times in the past month have not found any trace of it, the fisheries department said. Kouris is Cyprus's largest reservoir, though reserves are now virtually depleted by a four-year drought. It is a popular haunt for anglers, where the normal catch in a good year would be carp or a largemouth bass. They have now been told to be on the lookout for the oversized reptile, which feed on fish, reptiles and mammals. Depending on species, crocodiles can grow anything between 1.5 metres and 5 metres in length. The latest report suggested the reptile was a metre long. Home to pygmy hippos until about 11,000 years ago, Cyprus's wildlife is now relatively limited, with nothing bigger than the timid moufflon goat in its mountains.

Source: Reuters

There appears to have been no more news on the creature in the dam. Whether it was a crocodile or an unknown creature, remains unsolved. If it was a croc it could be quite a size by now. Lets hope anglers take care when fishing, just incase.

Controversy over the Irvine film of the Loch Ness creature

Malcolm Irvine of Scottish Film Productions deployed a small team of cameramen around Loch Ness in 1933 for 2 weeks in December. On Dec 12^th 1933 he shot a short film from the hillside opposite Urquhart Castle, of something in the water. Stanley Clinton and Scott Hay were also witnesses. The creature they filmed was estimated to be 16 feet (5 metres) long, moving at about 20 m.p.h. and was grey with a darker tail. The film apparently showed evidence of a tail or fluke movement when examined. Irvine also filmed a log in the water to compare and The Times reported on Jan 4^th 1934 that the difference between the inanimate object and the animate one was obvious.

In 1936 on 22cnd September he filmed further footage of something in the water opposite Foyers. This second film was suspected by Constance Whyte of being a fake and she said she thought some “mechanical means” had been used to obtain it. She did however put stills from the film in her book as have others since. She got the stills from Fr J A Carruth at Fort Augustus who had a copy of the film in 1955.

There was then some mystery over the second film and Peter Costello (“In Search of Lake Monsters” 1974) said it had disappeared but it was in the Scottish Film Archive all along. You can view it here:|

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

Details about the film:Title: THINGS THAT HAPPEN NO. 1 ,Reference number: 0373 ,Date: 1936

Director: [d. Malcolm M Irvine] Production company: Scottish Film Productions (1928) Ltd. Sound: sound, Colour: bw Fiction: Non-Fiction Running time: 12.02 mins Genre: cine mag

Description: First in a series of monthly film reviews of Scotland. Film reconstructs a bank robbery, looks at the Borzoi dog, shoe manufacture at Saxone in Kilmarnock, latest hairdressing styles and the "first sighting" of the Loch Ness Monster!

See Add. Info. file 11/1/327 for research notes on nessie item and photocopy of interview with Malcolm M. Irvine in the Scottish newspaper The Sunday Post, November 1, 1936 entitled First Real Picture of "nessie". This newspaper article dates the first issue of this cine mag as November 1936. The film features Malcolm M. Irvine and his camera assistant Martin Wilson "filming" the Loch Ness Monster. The Loch Ness Monster - proof at last. Map of Loch Ness illustrating the positions of the most frequent "monster" sightings. Shots of models and skeletons of dinosaurs (9.45) Shots of cameramen filming on the shores of Loch Ness [Malcolm Irvine wears the beret, the other is Martin Wilson] (9.57) Film of the "monster" in the loch and shots of cameramen filming it. Duncan McMillan, a local resident, is interviewed by the eminent zoologist Eric Foxon, concerning his sighting of "nessie". Mr Foxon declines to give his opinion on the identity of the monster, declaring that "it must remain a mystery for at least a little longer"

So have a look, see what you think……is it an animate object or something man made? Bear in mind this was 1936 so technology would have been limited compared to today. It is disappointing the Zoologist fails to say what he thinks it is, on the film clip. That would have been interesting.

The Lake Worth Goat Man story

A very comprehensive article on the Lake Worth Goat Man

Lake Worth Monster Revealed? 

Forty years later, developments shed new light

on the legend of the “Goat Man.” 

by E.R. Bills

 

see here: http://fwtx.com/content.php?page=cms&id=44

 

a loch ness timeline

I found this yesterday. A sort of timeline of sightings on Loch Ness. Worth a look :

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=loch+ness+monster+sightings&hl=en&sa=X&tbs=tl:1&tbo=u&ei=rn_JS-7xGpe80gTY5-zHBA&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=17&ved=0CD8Q5wIwEA

Giant Shark or Monster?

A MONSTER hammerhead shark caught off the NSW north coast could soon become a Queensland tourism attraction. Famed Hervey Bay shark hunter Vic Hislop has bought the 1200kg, 5m monster and this week transported the amazing catch to Queensland. The huge shark made headlines in northern NSW last month when it was caught by a fishing boat four nautical miles off the coast of Evans Head. It had eaten a smaller shark hooked by the fishing boat and then became trapped itself. At 5m long, the shark is longer than a family car and could probably comfortably fit a few family members inside its massive belly. Researchers estimate the shark was at least 40 years old. Speaking to The Courier-Mail , Mr Hislop said he had not decided whether to house the spectacular specimen at his Hervey Bay shark show. "It's a magnificent specimen that's for sure," he said. "I haven't decided what I am going to do with it yet though. "If I keep it there (at the shark museum) I will freeze it first." Some species of hammerheads are on the global endangered list, but they are rarely implicated in attacks on humans. Although that would be of little comfort to someone faced with a shark bigger than most Great Whites, the most feared of all sharks. And Mr Hislop had even more chilling news. "That's not the biggest one I've seen either," he said. "I've caught bigger."

Source plus photo:

 http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/monster-hammerhead-shark-heads-to-queensland/story-e6freoof-1225853776227

Read the comments below the article . The term monster I agree is not helpful. I am not sure it should be applied to a known creature , or any creature for that matter, but the media leads us that way.The first time the Loch Ness creature was called "monster" was by the press In saying that I would not want to meet a creature 5 metres( 15 feet) long in the water!. 

  An article  apparently about our 10 favourite monsters:

http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/top-10-monsters-1.html

 

Interesting bigfoot story

Could there be interbreeding between bigfoot and humans?

This story has appeared over at Phantoms and Monsters(A good site btw)

http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2010/04/villagers-remember-descendants-of.html

It leads to a link to this story of supposed bigfoot descendants. Read it and see what you think:

http://www.hominology.narod.ru/zanai.htm

Wild woman, supposed relict hominoid, captured somewhere in a forest and having given birth from a local man in Abkhazia in the eve of 19th sentury

By Igor Burtsev, translated by Dmitri Bayanov

A P.S. I did wonder looking at the photos of the sons if they were suffering from acromegaly,a disease which causes gigantism or abnormal growth including distorted facial features. It is genetic. It would explain how they looked and also why they were not hairy like bigfoot. It may have been the villagers way of explaining the deformities and they were not children of a bigfoot at all. Just a thought.  

Loch Treig monsters frighten divers.

Loch Treig is a freshwater loch east of Fort William, in Lochaber, Scotland. There are no roads that run alongside the loch but there is  the West Highland Railway Line which runs along the  eastern bank. Loch Treig is accessible only by a single track road which ends before the dam at the north end. There is a tidal nature to Loch Treig ,the causes of  this tidal effect are the wind acting on the surface of the east west orientated Loch and thermal stratification. Surface oscillations(Seiches), are seen on the loch. The building of the Laggan dam by Balfour Beatty which is 700feet (213metres) long and 180feet (55metres) high, is part of the hydro electric scheme in the area. 1933 Mr B. N. Peach an engineer in charge of the hydro electric  scheme claimed some of the divers working on the project had said there were monsters inn the depths and had left or asked to be moved to other jobs.

There is a long history of kelpies or water horses in the Loch:

The Rev. Dr. Stewart gives the following particulars about water-horses and water-bulls in his "Twixt Ben Nevis and Glencoe." They are thought of "as, upon the whole, of the same shape and form as the more kindly quadrupeds after whom they have been named, but larger, fiercer, and with an amount of `devilment' and cunning about them, of which the latter, fortunately, manifest no trace. They are always fat and sleek, and so full of strength and spirit and life that the neighing of the one and the bellowing of the other frequently awake the mountain echoes to their inmost recesses for miles and miles around. . . Calves and foals are the result of occasional intercourse between these animals and their more civilised domestic congeners, such calves bearing unmistakable proofs of their mixed descent in the unusual size and pendulousness of their ears and the wide aquatic spread of their jet black hoofs; the foals, in their clean limbs, large flashing eyes, red distended nostrils, and fiery spirit. The initiated still pretend to point out cattle with more or less of this questionable blood in them, in almost every drove of pure Highland cows and heifers you like to bring under their notice." The lochs of Llundavra, and Achtriachtan, in Glencoe, were at one time famous for their water-bulls; and Loch Treig for its water-horses, believed to be the fiercest specimens of that breed in the world. If anyone suggested to a Lochaber or Rannoch Highlander that the cleverest horse-tamer could "clap a saddle on one of the demon-steeds of Loch Treig, as he issues in the grey dawn, snorting, from his crystal-paved sub-lacustral stalls, he would answer, with a look of mingled horror and awe, 'Impossible!' The water-horse would tear him into a thousand pieces with his teeth and trample and pound him into pulp with his jet-black, iron-hard, though unshod hoofs!"

source: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/water/chapter11.htm 

The loch being so isolated and the stories around it may have preyed on the men’s  minds. (In 1933 the divers would have all been male.), but if they were not local they were unlikely to have heard the stories. The loch being so isolated and it appears to have little habitation around it , means something could live undisturbed in the water. An intriguing one ,if anyone has any information please post a comment.

The story of the divers is similar to the one about Wastwater in Cumbria  here:

http://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/search?q=wastwater

Dragon Tales

I have often come across this on certain sites on the internet as proof of living dinosaurs:

1572 May 13--A famous naturalist, Ulysses Aldrovandus, recorded the details of a peasant killing a small dragon along a farm road in northern Italy on this day. He obtained the dragon carcass, thoroughly documented the encounter, and had it mounted and placed in a museum.

Ulysses Aldrovandus was a naturalist in the sixteenth century, and his work on natural history, in thirteen volumes, contains a large proportion of fables and folklore. So I think that says a lot about why no carcass was ever found. Some say the origin of the phrase “Cock and Bull story “comes from a description of his work. Whether that is true no one really knows.

There are of course other dragon stories from around that time:

1593 London UK : A "flying dragon" surrounded by flames was seen over the city. Some say this was an early UFO sighting.

1649 Sightings of "flying dragons" reported . The woods around Penllin Castle, Glamorgan, had the reputation of being frequented by winged serpents, and these were the terror of old and young alike. The winged serpents were described as very beautiful. They were coiled when in repose, and "looked as if they were covered with jewels of all sorts. Some of them had crests sparkling with all the colours of the rainbow". When disturbed they glided swiftly, "sparkling all over," to their hiding places. When angry, they "flew over people's heads, with outspread wings, bright, and sometimes with eyes too, like the feathers in a peacock's tail". Locals had killed some of them, for they were as bad as foxes for poultry, and the extinction of the winged serpents was due to the fact that they were "terrors in the farmyards and coverts."

And for the modern sighting in Wales see here:

http://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2010/02/dragon-sighting-in-2001.html

Loch Quoich water horse?

Loch Quoich(Gaelic Loch Cuaich) is about 24 miles northwest of Fort Williams in Scotland. With Loch Garry it forms part of the Glen Garry hydroelectric project from the 1950s which was completed in 1962.The dam built on Loch Quoich is the largest rock fill dam in Scotland at 960 feet( 310 metres) long and 114 feet ( 35 metres) high. The dam flooded some of the old settlements in the area, including Glen Quoich Lodge. A single-track road goes along the loch shore to Kinloch. The fishing there is by boat only and it is mainly for brown trout and Char.

The loch is said to be home for a water monster described as a large serpent like creature with a horse like head. It is typical description for a Kelpie or water horse.

The Duke of Portland related that after becoming tenant of the salmon angling in Loch Quoich was told by the forester, hotel keeper and fishing ghillies of a beast . I think this was in the late 1800s, but have been unable to find and exact date.

In Peter Costello,s book “In Search of Lake Monsters” (1975 ed Granada Publishing ltd page 153) , is the following story. I have paraphrased it.

A certain lord, not named, ( n.b.I wonder if this was also the Duke of Portland?) used to fish in Loch Quoich and one day whilst fishing there, he saw a monster lying on the shore close to the water. He swore the two ghillies with him to secrecy in case people thought they were drunk. A fishing party is said to have seen the monster swimming under the water the same time period (no date given).

In the Northern Chronicle newspaper in 1933 there were reported some stories about the Loch Quoich creature but there were not substantiated , so could have simply been rumours after the reports in 1933 of the Loch Ness creature.

The Loch is quite isolated and it could be that any reports of anything seen in the loch were hushed up by the local dignitaries. It could just be the usual folktales of the Kelpie. There doesn’t seem to be any historical record of tales about a kelpie though. If anyone knows any more about this isolated Loch please post.