Ogopogo – The Canadian Lake Monster

June 27, 2009 by Captain Ahab · Leave a Comment

History of Sightings


Sightings of Ogopogo, probably the most popular Canadian lake monster, could be traced back in 1872, long before it had been reported by Roy W. Brown of the Vancouver Sun in 1926. Residents and sightings primarily describe the creature as to having a head that resembles a horse or a goat and with a body that is comparable to a log.

Primitive Whale

Roy P. Mackal, a known cryptozoologist that specializes in searching for animals that is considered by the mainstream biology to be nonexistent, primarily believes that the creature could be in the same likeness that of the Basilosaurus cetoides, a known primitive whale specie. Further analysis of the available data suggest that the specie that is said to be found in Lake Ocanagan is different from that of Nessie, a lake monster that is said to reside in Loch Ness in Scotland.

Chinook: The Great Beast on the Lake

The native Indians residing in the Okanagan Valley primarily believes that the Rattlesnake Island hosts the Ogopogo. Stories referring to the Lake Monster include a number of pictographs primarily depicting the lake monster’s presence in the Powers Creek. The natives refer to the Okanagan Lake Monster as Chinook, which means the wicked one or the great beast on the lake, and N’ha-a-tik, referring to the snake of the lake.

ogopogo-pictureStories of the Ogopogo depict the creature to be malevolent and wicked. Native Indians refuse to fish within the perimeters of Squally Point or are even depicted to have offered offerings to the monster when they cross the lake during bad weather. Inhabitants of the area said to have seen remnants of animals that Ogopogo had ravaged on most nights covering parts of the rocky beach. In spite of the existence of manifestations and other proofs that could prove the fact that Ogopogo is said to reside in the area, early Europeans settlers that had been warned of the monster had been forced to continue the offerings to appease the lake monster.

Footprints and Possible Evidence of the Ogopogo

Footprints were said to be found in the Lake Okanagan. Reports on the records of the footprints left by the Lake Okanagan monster were described to be irregularly shaped, having three to eight toes, and a pad foot. In spite of the beliefs of the residents, the accuracy of the said foot prints are contested by most members of the scientific and academic community. Dr. Roy Mackal, in his investigation on the Ogopogo, primarily believe that there are no substantial evidence or a strong link that could associate the said footprints with the said lake monster.

Evidence on the Lake Okanagan monster were said to be found in 1914 when the Westbank and Nicola Valley Indians had seen a decomposing specimen of a creature found in the Rattlesnake Island. The creature measured five to six feet tall and was estimated to have weighed at least 400 pounds. Reports primarily detailed that the decomposing body has included that of a tail and flippers that could be considerably same that is of a manatee. Should the creature be said to be a dead manatee, no one knew how it could possibly reach the Rattlesnake Island. Peter Costello, a known lake monster expert, strongly believes that the creature found in the area is, indeed, a Lake Okanagan monster. The specimen that had been found exactly match the descriptions of the residents and native Indians that were said to had experienced sightings of the Ogopogo.

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Colossal Squid

June 27, 2009 by Captain Ahab · Leave a Comment

FACTS ABOUT THE COLOSSAL SQUID AND WHY THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY FINDS THEM FASCINATING

The Giant squid are often featured in maritime legends and novels such as Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

colossal-squidThe most famous part of the novel, the battle against the school of giant squid, begins when a crewman opens the hatch of the boat and gets caught by one of the monsters. As he is being pulled away by the tentacle that has grabbed him, he yells “Help!” in French.

Colossal Squid, also known as the Giant Cranch or Antartic Squid, was first brought to the scientific community in 1925 as a specimen composed of two tentacles found in the stomach of a sperm whale. In spite of its discovery, it was only in 2003 that the public had been made aware of its existence. Though little is known about the specie, biologists believe that Colossal Squid compose 77% of the sperm whale’s diet. In spite of their size, this specie is believed to be a prey of other Antartic creatures such as that of the pilot whale, Patagonian toothfish, beaked whales, and Pacific sleeper shark.

Colossal and Giant Squid

The largest discovered specimen weighed only 495 kg, three hundred kilograms heavier than that was discovered back in 2003. What made Colossal Squid to be unique, than that of the giant squid, is its relatively shorter arms that are composed of composed of swiveling, and to some a three-pointed, sharp hooks and suckers with small teeth. Other characteristics of the Colossal Squid include,

* A beak that exceeds that of the giant in terms of size and robustness

* Eyes that are believed to be the biggest in the Kingdom Animalia

In spite of the continuous analysis conducted to know the biological composition of the squid, the behavior, location, diet, and life pattern of this specie is relatively unknown.

In aggregating the data that had been compiled since 1925, biologists and researchers could only infer from the geographic distribution of its predators that the specie could be found in abundant in the Antartic area. However, sperm whales and albatross are known to migrate for a thousand kilometers making the exact location of the Colossal Squid still unclear at present.

Size of the Colossal Squid

In spite of the popularity of the specie in terms of its size, the scientific community primarily believes that there is nothing really fascinating about it. ‘There has been considerable debate at an academic level as to whether the Colossal Squid is actually the largest squid, because the Giant Squid attains a greater total length,’ says Dr. O’Shea and Kat Bolstad of the Octopus News Magazine Online.

The Defrosting and Dissection in 2008

The result of the thawing and dissection of the Colossal Squid found in 2007 primarily suggest that the specie could actually grow bigger than 495 kilograms as the specimen found in the stomach in the sperm whale in 2005 is much larger. Results of the procedures includes revealed the presence of ovaries.

Other Information

Feeding Habits: The Colossal Squid primarily feeds through its narrow esophagus. In spite of the specimen that was studied in 2008, the scientific community defers to make generalizations on its specific diet as no intact stomach had been found. Behavior, including on how the specimen was caught in 2007 in Ross Sea, suggests that their diet may have been composed mostly of toothfish and, in some cases, that of other Colossal Squid.

Reproduction:   Though scientists hardly have a clue on the specie’s reproductive cycle, both the academic and scientific community primarily believes that the male Colossal Squid could have directly implanted sperm into the female using penis.

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Loch Ness Monster

June 8, 2009 by Captain Ahab · 1 Comment

I thought, “Wow, what a great way to explore Loch Ness than by boat” lucky for me I was able to rent one at the lochs on Caledonian. I felt that the harbor master charged me way too much seeing how I was a tourist and all. He reeked of beer and I was just wanting to pay and get going. After a few pulls he was able to get the motor started, I was a little hesitant about taking it out on the lake. However, he assured me by pointing at the 2 oars and the life jacket and besides the weather was great. I put on my life jacket and jumped in. I steered the boat towards Lock Ness and guided the vessel to the center of the lake, at least what I perceived was the center for the section I was in. I started fiddling with the motor I must of hit a switch or something I wasn’t suppose to as the motor shut off. No one was around, I could see a boat way off, the water was calm so I thought I’d just hang out for awhile. Not long after something hit the boat and tossed it spinning. I looked around and didn’t see anything. I stood up and peered into the water and what I saw sends shivers down my neck and causes the tears to swell up in my eyes. I was looking at what appeared to be a giant shadow directly under the boat. I looked to the sky to see what was casting the shadow but there were no clouds in sky? I bent closer to the water to get a better look and it moved…

Loch Ness and it’s surroundings are spectacular. Loch Ness is a temperamental lake, capable of immediate change. One minute it’s calm, the following it’s suddenly overrun by gusts and waves. Mountains broke up by mysterious deep glens ascending from the shore on a great deal of the loch. A thread of the A82, curves along the northwesterly shoring, heading north, clearing Urquhart Castle after detouring at Drumnadrochit.

Loch Ness rests in the Great Glen, a fault thought to have been forged by a rift some 300 to 400 million years ago. The fault traverses northern Scotland from the northeasterly to the south-west . Approximately 25,000 years ago, glaciers formed the three land-locked lakes Ness, Oich, and Lochy which stretch across the highlands inside the Great Glen.

Loch Ness, Scotland is perhaps known for it’s evasive Scottish sub aquatic monster “Nessie”. Reports of a mystifying creature in Loch Ness date back to around the 6th century, but the legend of the Loch Ness Monster, nicknamed “Nessie,” got acknowledgment in the early 1930s with numerous reported sightings and supposed photographic evidence in 1934.

loch-ness-monsterAn English surgeon named R. Kenneth Wilson shot what is possibly the most famed photograph (occasionally named the “Surgeon’s Photo”), purportedly displaying a head and neck above the water and suggesting a really big creature. Since then there have been thousands of reported sightings and infinite efforts to find and snap the “monster,” despite repeated assurances by scientists that no such creature lives. Loch Ness is deep, dark and turbid, about 24 miles long and 700 feet deep in areas, which has aided in keeping the legend active. In the 1970s Robert Rines, a lawyer from the United States, produced an underwater photograph that was later disregarded by the British Museum which said “the photo showed gas bubbles, not a long, finned critter”. Some have indicated the creature is a leftover of the Ice Age, some have hinted it’s some form of mammal. Still the best photographs and underwater cameras have failed to figure out the secret. And a high-tech sonar sweep of the entire lake in 2003, sponsored by the BBC, detected nothing.

A persistently reported sea monster or colony of sea monsters in the immense region of Loch Ness in northerly Scotland. The loch is some 24 miles long and approximately a mile wide, with a depth from 433 to 754 feet. A monster was accounted in ancient Gaelic legends in addition to a biography of St. Columba circa 565 C.E. The modern history dates from 1933, when the monster started to gain a substantial quantity of media. Research attempts to acquire absolute evidence of the sea monster’s existence were pioneered by different researchers in the 1970s.

In October, 1987 when 20 cruisers methodically swept the Loch with sonar equipment bouncing sound waves from the surface down to the bottom and electronically recording any contacts. Many salmon were found, but no monster. To date, the actual existence of a monster in Loch Ness has not been proven. Even though most scientists believe the likelihood of a monster is small, they keep an open mind as scientists should and wait for concrete proof in the form of skeletal evidence or the actual capture of such a creature.

A recent attempt to find the monster occurred in 2003 B.B.C. experiments, when 600 separate sonar beams were bounced off the loch from one end to the other. Perhaps, they found something but failed to disclose it to the public.

Still today, the Museum of Natural History often has requests for information regarding the Loch Ness Monster.

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