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Top 5 most famous sea and lake monsters

The top 5 most famous sea and lake monsters reported from folk tales, sightings and legends.

Aquatic monster are probably the most believable crypto monsters out there. For starters they had a great hiding spot in the ocean when the asteroid, alien invasion, super aids, Kardashians or whatever wiped out the dinosaurs. They have legitimate reasons for leaving no clues and surviving this long without capture. It’s hard to believe that Bigfoot’s (bigfeets?) and related beast could go this long on land without leaving plausible evidence. Someone would’ve gotten a good video of them by now on their iPhone, unless they are just really that good at hiding.

All we have is the famous Patterson Bigfoot video and that’s grainier than the JFK assassination footage. But, sea monsters have a good reason for being so elusive to video capture because they live underwater. Until the iPhone comes out with a waterproof 10 pixel scuba cam, there’s a limited group of people that can snap a good sea monster shot. For now we’ll have to settle for a few ripples on the water surface which later turns out to be a log or moose. Either way it will end up getting 4 million views on YouTube.

So here’s the top 5, some are good, some are bad but the one thing they all have in common is adorable nicknames.

5. Cadborosaurus

Location: The waters of Vancouver Island, South of Alaska.

First Sighting: 1734

Nickname: Caddy

Description: 40 – 50 foot long dark green and brown Huge snake-like body with large round eyes. Head that looks like a horse type mammal with elongated features and two sets of flippers close to the body.

From the Victorian Colonist , July 1997

A snorting, 20-foot-long “sea monster” was spotted by two university students off the shores of a Pacific coastal beach in Victoria, British Columbia, the pair said Friday. Ryan Green, 18, a Simon Fraser University business student, described the rocky-faced creature as a twin-humped, round-bodied monster that swam across Telegraph Bay near suburban Saanich. It was about 49 feet from the rock Green and his friend, Damian Grant, were sitting on. Green said he and the 19-year-old general arts student at the University of Victoria saw the heavy-breathing creature surface twice before it disappeared into the calm waters. “All of a sudden, this head comes up, like a whale with no spray. And then this hump, the size of an inner tube in diameter. And then another hump. It’s nothing I’ve ever seen before,” said Green. He stressed that the puzzled pair was sober at the time of the sighting. Ed Bousfield, a biology research associate with the Royal British Columbia Museum, said the reptile-like creature is probably a cadborosaurus, one of the last living dinosaurs. I phoned these two chaps and let them do the talking, and their observations absolutely tally with the classical profile of the cadborosaurus,” Bousfield said. Bousfield, who is writing a book on the deep-sea, predatory cadborosaurus with scientist Paul LeBlond, said about 160 recorded sightings of the swift-swimming monster have been reported. Due to “incredibly bad luck”, there are no such animals in captivity or museums, and a 1937 photograph is the only visible recording of the beast. “We get half a dozen records of sightings up and down the (Pacific) coast every year. All these people say the same thing about the animals, so there’s got to be something there.” He said the cadborosaurus was named in the 1930s after sightings in nearby Cadboro Bay.

4.Ogopogo

Location: Okanagan Lake, in British Columbia, Canada

First Sighting:1926

Nickname: Ogo

Description: 15-20 foot humped, snakelike dark green body with a round, football shaped head.

The Ogopogo monster has a history of strong sightings. Roy W. Brown, editor of the Vancouver Sun, wrote, ” Too many reputable people have seen [the monster] to ignore the seriousness of actual facts.” The monster has a checkered reputation with some reports of it being peaceful and some dangerous.

Ogopogo lake monsterThe Indians of the Okanagan Valley reserve  believe the Rattlesnake Island is the home of the  Lake Monster. They call Ogopogo N’ha-a-tik, which means snake in the lake. Other natives to the Okanagan Lake Monster include the Chinook wicked one and “great-beast-on-the-lake”. They claimed the beaches of Monster Island’s were often covered with the parts of animals that had been attacked by the creature. The Indians feared the beast and would often toss an animal over the side of the boat as a sacrifice when crossing during storms. Early European settlers continued the custom of offering animals to Ogopogo as a sacrifice. They even had armed settlers patrol the shoreline in case the monster attacked.Ogopogo head

Come on, look at that sweet face… Is that the look of something that would eat you?

3. Champ

Location: Lake Champlain, NY Canada Border

First Sighting: 1609

Nickname: Champie or Champy

Description: Long snakelike neck on a large round body with flippers. Large eyes sit on a long oval-shaped head.

Champ day in Lake champlainChamp is Americas answer to the Loch Ness Monster. Some claim it’s just a publicity stunt used to stimulate the local economies, but Champie sightings have been happening for decades. Also I doubt Samuel Champlain, one of the first to spot the monster, did so thinking “aha! I just thought of a great way to sell some t-shirts”. Champ was first discovered by the  Native American tribes; the Iroquois and the Abenaki, who called the creature “Tatoskok”. The most famous sighting was by Samuel Champlain a french explorer, who discovered Quebec and apparently named a huge lake after himself. Champlain spotted the creature while he was fighting the Iroquois, but Champ did not interfere in the battle. For one he’s a pacifist and second he probably doesn’t care for the French.

Champ became so popular that P. T. Barnum, in the late 19th century, put a reward of $50,000 up for a carcass of Champ. Barnum wanted the carcass of Champ so that he could include it in his epic World’s Fair Show. Fortunately, the lovable beast escaped the hit put on him by the apparent monster murderer Barnum, and Champ sightings are still going strong today.

2. Kraken

Location: The Seven Seas,  and your nightmares

First Sightings: Unknown

Nicknames: Leviathan, Crab-fish, Satan’s pet goldfish, the colossal calamari, Steve

Description: A giant octopus or squid-like monster with a dozen tentacles.

Colossal_octopus_by_Pierre_Denys_de_MontfortOk so three of those above nicknames are made up. While Kraken may not be number one on our list of most famous sea monsters, it is by far the most horrific, terrifying thing to come out of the ocean. Unless you count the movie Open Water which was just… terrible. The Kraken myths date back to Old Icelandic sagas which tells tales of a  sea-monster of the Greenland Sea named Lyngbakr that fed on whales, ships and men. It would wrap it’s tentacles around the ship, crack it like a twig and drag it to Davey Jones Locker. At least that’s how it happened in Pirates of the Caribbean. We’re not sure what happened in the saga’s since we don’t speak Icelandic.

Swede Jacob Wallenberg also described the Kraken:

… Kraken, also called the Crab-fish, which [according to the pilots of Norway] is not that huge, for headsSea Monster Colossal Kraken and tails counted, he is no larger than our Öland is wide…Kraken ascends to the surface, and when he is at ten to twelve fathoms, the boats had better move out of his vicinity, as he will shortly thereafter burst up, like a floating island, spurting water from his dreadful nostrils and making ring waves around him, which can reach many miles. Could one doubt that this is the Leviathan of Job?

1. The Loch Ness Monster (who else)

Location: Loch Ness, Scotland

First Sighting: 7th century

Nicknames: Nessie

Description: Many different description types: typically described as a long snake like creature sometimes with one hump, sometimes with many humps. Small horse-shaped head.

Who else could have claimed the number one spot other than the most captivating crypto beast in the world (sorry Bigfoot). Loch Ness Monster is known to everyone and has had more sightings than any other unexplained creature. The most frequent speculation is that the creature represents a line of long-surviving Plesiosaurs  similar to other supposed lake monsters in Scotland. Apparently Scotland has more than one lake monster and Ireland has leprechaun’s. Strange little corner of the world, must have something to do with Stonehenge.

Nessie gained mainstream attention in 1934 with the release the famous ” Surgeons Photo” released by  Dr. Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London Surgeons Photogynaecologist. The photo was so famous because at the time no one believed a respected doctor would lie and create such an elaborate hoax. Come on he was a gynaecologist in the 1930’s, we didn’t even know they had those back then? Not to mention the photo looks like a duck or someone swimming, apparently the imagination was easier to captivate in the 30’s. The photo was later revealed, during a deathbed confession, to be a hoax. The Dr. was put up to it by Marmaduke Wetherell who used the Drs to provide credibility to the staged claim. If you dig even further, you’ll see that the whole thing was a revenge prank by Marmaduke to get back at a newspaper company, the Daily Mail, for insulting him (probably made fun of his name). Given what happen this may be one of the most successful pranks of all time.

Like all these monsters no real proof of Nessie has been seen but sightings still remain high. Nessie is a superstar referenced in movies, commercials, books, cartoons, TV shows and more. For all you South Park fans “I need about tree fity”.  Sad thing is some day we’ll discover that all these monsters are just a near extinct line of plesiosaurs and then the mystery will be gone.

As soon as we discover they are real one of two bad things will happen:

One: we’ll try to save the species, against natures will, and they’ll eventually grow in numbers, take over the seas and eventually kill all humans. Don’t take our word for it, go rent Jurassic Park. Still I can see Bono holding a save the  plesiosaurs musical festivals. Thanks Bono, you just doomed the human race.

Two: Interest in the newly discovered creature will be so high that we’ll end up hunting the remaining few to put on display. Want to see the mysterious and elusive Loch Ness Monster? All you’ll have to do is shell out $35 to check him out at Sea World. Sorry Nessie and Champ. But hey at least that murderous PT Barnum’s not around to put a bounty on your head? And besides you won’t have to be neighbors with Shamu to long… Bono will save you.

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