VERMONT LAKE MONSTER
DETECTED ON SONAR
"Champ, the famed 'monster' of Lake Champlain, might
be real after all."
"Researchers working in the Button Bay area of the
lake last month (June 2003) say highly sensitive sonar
equipment on their boat captured underwater sounds similar
to those emitted by a beluga whale or dolphin."
"'What we got was a biological creature creating
bionsonar at a level that only a few underwater species
can do,' said Elizabeth Von Muggenthaler, president of
Fauna Communications Research, a Hillsborough, North
Carolina firm that studies how animals communicate."
"Von Muggenthaler said her team was on the lake at
the behest of the Discovery Channel, which was doing a
television show about Champ. She said the TV crew
departed a day prior to the first biosonar reading
detected by her team."
"Von Muggenthaler declined to speculate on the size,
nature or physical characteristics of the creature her
equipment monitored. She acknowledged that there is no
evidence the lake is home to a freshwater whale or
dolphin."
"The biosonar noises picked up by the equipment sound like a rapid series of ticks and are emitted by underwater
creatures in their search for food."
"What is unusual about the sonar heard in this case
was the volume: ten times louder than any known fish
species in the lake. She said the irregular sequence of
ticks also ruled out the chance the noises were produced
by a mechanical device or 'fish finder.'"
"Von Muggenthaler said the readings were recorded on
multiple instruments on June 3, 4 and 10 (2003). Some of
the readings lasted as long as 10 minutes, and she
suspects the creature came within 30 feet (9 meters) of
her boat during one of the episodes."
"While the readings provide no clue about the
creature's physical makeup, she said she should be able to
say how fast it was moving once analysis of her data by
National Instruments Inc. of Austin, Texas is completed"
in August.
"'I don't know what else to tell you,' she said,
'That's what I got. That's what it is.'"
"Von Muggenthaler said she hoped her discovery would
not cause a spate of ill-advised Champ hunting on the
lake," which lies on the border of the USA's states of New
York and Vermont.
"'It is important to remember that, if there is
indeed a creature out there, it is protected by New York
and Vermont (environmental protection) law,' she said,
'The best thing people could do for the creature, if it
exists, is leave it alone.'"
"The readings by Von Muggenthaler represent the
biggest development in the debate about the existence of
Champ since the publication of Sandra Masi's (color)
photograph of a serpent-like object taken during a family
outing in 1977."
(Editor's Note: Sightings of Champ date back to the
Seventeenth Century. The local indigenous people, the
Ganegahaga-ono--also known as the Mohawk Indians--called
the lake Caniaderi-Guarunte, meaning Lake of the Spirits.
One of its spirit guardians was the monstrous serpent that
slumbered on the lake bottom. This serpent was called
Oniahrikowa by the Indians.)
"Over the years, hundreds of Champ sightings have
been reported by fishermen, boaters and other lake users.
Skeptics have claimed Champ is an extravagant piece of
folklore perpetrated by witnesses making more out of what
they saw than was actually there."
(Editor's Note: Attention, tourists! Your editor has
heard that the best place to see Champ is the bluff just
east of Route 22 in Essex, N.Y.)
"Von Muggenthaler, a native of Charlotte, was
skeptical of Champ's existence while growing up in
Vermont."
"'I was sort of a scientist at an early age,' she
said, 'To me, you had to see it to believe it.'"
"Steve Smith, director of facilities at ECHO at the
Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, said he was uncertain
what to make of Von Muggenthaler's discovery."
"'I just don't know,' he said, 'Who is to say that it is beyond the realm of possibility' that she had found
Champ? He said he is familiar with her work in
bioacoustics from a time when she was able to record
communications between giraffes at a North Carolina zoo
where he was employed."
"'Her work is well-respected in the zoo community,'
he said." (See the Burlington, Vt. Free Press for July
28, 2003, "Lake's first 'Champ-hearing' recorded." Many
thanks to Glenn O. Boyde for forwarding this article.)
(Editor's Comment: And welcome to Lake Monsters Week here
at UFO Roundup. Last week saw a sudden upsurge in what
cryptozoologist Loren Coleman calls "seagoing cryptids.")
LAKEBED EVIDENCE HINTS
AT PRESENCE OF THE
LOCH NESS MONSTER
"An accidental discovery in the depths of Loch Ness
could finally force the scientific community to
acknowledge there could be a monster out there."
"An expert has claimed that two years of work by
British and U.S. scientists proves the sea reached the
now-landlocked stretch of water after the European Ice Age
125,000 years ago--and again about 12,800 years ago. The
presence of sea urchin spines, clamshells and other seabed
material--some of it about 13,000 years old--proves the
ocean encroached as far as the legendary loch, almost
certainly bringing sea creatures, large and small, with
it."
"New evidence revealed in Inverness last night
(Thursday, July 31, 2003) by Bob Rines, of the Academy of
Applied Science, challenges traditional thinking of the
loch always being a freshwater lake."
"While pulling up anchor on their research boat in
August 2001, a scientific team stumbled across the
discovery that could change thinking on a large portion of
Scotland's history."
"Retired Inverness geography teacher Frank Dougherty
noted the clay on the anchor was different from other
deposits found in the Urquhart Bay area of the loch where
they were working."
"Carbon dating and amino acid testing of the clay
indicated that marine life within the loch dated from
12,800 years ago--suggesting a warm-water break in the
glacial conditions at about that time. Items dating from
about 125,000 years ago were also revealed in the
testing."
"Mr. Rines said, 'This discovery could rewrite the
history books on how Scotland was formed. It had always
been assumed that the ocean was never in the Great Glen.
That's just not true.'"
"The findings will certainly reopen a debate traced
back to" the 1970s "when an eminent scientist of the time
claimed there was evidence of seawater having been in Loch
Ness--but this was disputed by many of his peers."
"Mr. Rines added that the discovery--corroborated by
institutions on both sides of the Atlantic--could shed
light on some of the theories as to how a Loch Ness
Monster could have got into a landlocked stretch of water
in the first place."
"He added, 'Much of the scientific community thought
Nessie believers were bonkers because they knew the sea
was never in here. How could big animals get in? I
believe this evidence answers that question.'"
"Loch Ness project leader Adrian Shine accepts that,
on current evidence, any creature in the loch would have
had to survive a millenium of icy conditions and a great
flood."
"'In the 1960s, the monster-hunters had the idea that animals could have come into this fresh water and become
trapped in some way,' he said, 'This business about big,
big animals becoming trapped in the loch is a bit of a red
herring. We were fully glacial again 11,000 years ago--
the loch was freezing in winter--and I don't know how such
creatures would have been breathing. After that, there
was an almighty flood--a catastrophic event. The (Loch
Ness) project is not speculating about large animals, but
we will continue to analyse the material. This discovery
has provided a very interesting surprise.'" (See the
North Scotland News and Journal for August 1, 2003, "Loch
find rocks Nessie skeptics." Many thanks to Loren Coleman
and Scott Corrales for forwarding this newspaper article.)
STRANGE WINGED HUMANOID
SPOTTED IN CALAMA, CHILE
A bizarre winged humanoid was spotted by three youths in San Pedro de Atacama, a village near Calama in northern
Chile.
"Diego, who is in his first year of middle school,"
went to his grandfather's shack in San Pedro de Atacama,
"accompanied by his friends and neighbors, Jonathan and
Carlos."
On Tuesday, July 23, 2003, at 8:30 p.m., after
feeding the livestock, "the three youths decided to return
to the grandfather's house and spend the night. Diego lit
the stove to boil water and serve tea with some loaves of
bread they had brought from Calama. His grandfather was
out of the house. The only source of light came from a
candle, since the (rural) area lacks electricity."
"At around 9:05 p.m., moments after the boys were
serving up their supper, they could hear the dogs on the
property issue strange noises and howls."
"At around 9:15 p.m., strange knocking sounds rattled the door of the house, swiftly increasing in violence and
accompanied by scratches, which left the boys speechless
and instinctively made them get up from their seats."
The trio climbed into bed and covered themselves with the blankets. "After three to five minutes, the sound
ceased completely. Diego got out from under the blankets,
looked out the window and did not see anyone. He opened
the door but didn't see anything, either."
"'It's all right, boys. It's gone,'" he said.
As they left the shack, the boys saw "standing amid
the pear trees" 15 meters (50 feet) away "a horrifying
creature a meter-and-a-half (5 feet) tall, sprouting wings
measuring 3.5 meters (11 feet). It was covered by glossy
black skin, very clean and hairless. It appeared as
though it had recently emerged from the water but without
being wet. It had a large head and a small beak,
presenting a sort of crest (like a rooster--J.T.) which
was apparently missing a piece from a fight. Its eyes
were immense and completely black, but sparkled
brilliantly."
"They thought it was a prehistoric being, since its
wings had a strong resemblance to those of pterodactyls or
bats, featuring bone-like protuberances that form the
skeletal frame of its wings. Its legs were sturdy and had
powerful claws like those of a carrion bird, but much
stronger."
"Suddenly, the being fluttered its wings, shaking up
the (pear) tree in front of it, and rising into the air
with extraordinary ease, losing itself in the dark of
night."
"Fearing its return, which fortunately did not occur, the three boys slept in a single bed that night."
The city of Calama is now in the third year of an
ongoing flap and has had numerous sightings of UFOs and
aliens since February 2001. (Muchas gracias a Scott
Corrales, Dr. Virgilio Sanchez Ocejo y Jaime Ferrer del
Centro OVNI de Calama para esas noticias.)
LARGE NIGHT SAUCER SEEN
OVER SALVADOR IN BRAZIL
On Sat, July 26, 2003, at approximately 9:30
p.m., Antonio Lauro Filho was outdoors in the bairro
Itaigara (neighborhood) of Salvador, capital of Bahia
state in northern Brazil. He reported, "My father saw a
disc-shaped object of immense proportions descending
vertically into our neighborhood. Unfortunately, I myself
did not see this object, but my father said it was not a
satellite or a meteor. Later I spoke to many people in
Itaigara, who had also seen the saucer."
Salvador is a port city on the South Atlantic,
located about 700 kilometers (420 miles) north-northeast
of Rio de Janeiro. (Muito obrigado a Alexandre de
Carvalho Borges por eso caso.)
TEN UFOs PUT ON A DISPLAY
IN WESTERN TEXAS
On Sat, July 19, 2003, around 11 p.m.,
eyewitness Sherry L. reported, "My husband and I were
camping on a desert property located about 60 miles (100
kilometers) east from El Paso, Texas on Highway 62/180,
which is the highway going to Carlsbad, New Mexico."
(Editor's Note: The campground was about 10 miles or 16
kilometers east of Cornudas, Texas.)
Sherry's husband "saw these things, too, but wants to think we saw a satellite in the sky and some sort of
military maneuvers, or drug runners, or the Border Patrol
doing something. I'm not so sure."
"My husband went to bed, but I stayed up with the
binoculars to look at the sky. All lights were off at the
campsite so nothing would distort my view. The sky was
crystal clear and spectacular. The Milky Way was
beautiful."
"I noticed a bright white object that seemed to move, but this isn't unusual because the atmosphere will make
stars look like they are moving. I even thought it was
Mars because it is so close to the Earth right now. But
when I looked at it through the binoculars, I clearly saw
two distinct objects."
Both were bright white. One "was rod-shaped and
slightly slanted toward" the other, which Sherry called
objects A and B. The cylinder-shaped UFO "seemed to be
moving around B. (Object) A did not twinkle, but B seemed
to twinkle and pulsate."
"The moon had not yet come up above the horizon. It
would be another 20 minutes or so before moon-rise. Thus,
it was still a very dark night, and the stars were
brilliant."
"At this time I also noticed additional lights on the north side of the ridge, looking towards Highway 62/180."
In this area, "one cannot see vehicle lights from the
highway due to the rise" in the desert terrain. "This one
is about one-and-a-half miles (2 kilometers) from our
campsite and about one-and-a-half miles northeast of the
highway."
"There were three groups of lights. From left to
right, the colors were blue, gold and yellow. Maybe the
different colored lights were a little over 200 feet (60
meters) apart."
"Each group was made up of two distinct objects. I
labeled them on the drawing. Blue lights were labeled C
and D; gold lights E and F; and yellow lights G and H."
"Lights C, E and G from each group were static in
their color. Their shapes were each the same, not exactly
triangular but very near that shape."
"Lights D, F and H twinkled/pulsated to the point of
looking as if sparks were flying from them. Much like a
sparkler but with a dark center."
"I awoke my husband so he could see them. He looked
at them, watched with me for a short while but went back
to bed."
"I continued to watch these strange lights after my
husband went back to bed for another 45 minutes or so. It
really started to get strange after my husband went back
to bed."
"Through the binoculars, I could see some sort of
movement around the gold and yellow lights. Both blue
lights were starting to get dim. I could not make out the
distinctive shapes of the objects that were moving around
lights E and G. They looked like moving globs of dark
shadow."
"At one point, lights F (gold) and H (yellow) moved
toward each other, and, when they met, light F moved over
and beyond light H for a few moments, and then they moved
back to their original positions. They did not twinkle or
sparkle during this maneuver."
"The gold lights then dimmed out completely for a few moments and suddenly reappeared."
"At this point, three long, narrow, rod-shaped
lights, each a very dim red color, moved from light E
(gold) to light D (blue). Blue did not get any brighter
after this."
"The first two lights in the sky (A and B--J.T.) had
moved to the west and were now nearly directly over the
group of ground lights. But when I looked at them through
the binoculars, I could only make out one large bright
light. At this point, I noticed movement above the
horizon in the sky, below A and B slightly to the west."
"It was another set of lights, just like A and B when I first looked at them" an hour earlier, "the only
difference was that this set of lights, labeled I and J in
the drawing, were much dimmer and closer to the horizon."
"I went to bed after nothing happened for a while.
Have to admit I did take a sleeping pill, but they have
never made me hallucinate before. And my husband did see
the same lights." (Many thanks to Jim Hickman for this
report.)
DAYLIGHT DISC SIGHTED IN
PASCO, WASHINGTON
On Sun, July 27, 2003, at 10:55 a.m., Steve K. was watching an air show at the Tri-Cities Airport in Pasco,
Washington state (population 32,066). He reported that it
was a "perfectly clear day, no clouds, very dry climate,
temperature near 100 degrees Fahrenheit."
"The object was located by accident while observing
the departure of two demonstration 'training jets,' that
had just completed an exhibition for the local hydroplane
races," Steve explained, "When first observed, I was
looking to the west-southwest at an azimuth of
approximately 240 degrees, elevation was approximately 20
to 25 degrees" above the horizon.
"While the object moved ever so slowly to the east,
it was not motionless."
"As mentioned, I was watching the departure of the
'air show' jets. I watched them through my 8-millimeter
Pentax binoculars, thinking they might come back for one
more pass for the crowd. As I tracked the jets on their
southerly course, a black object 'flashed' through my
(field of) view."
"At first I thought it was a bird. Since I am always interested in large hawks and predatory birds, I dropped
the jets and moved back to the black object. In the one
or two seconds it took me to relocate the object, it had
turned silver in appearance. It was obviously a very
interesting object."
"So I watched this, this, this...flying machine...for several minutes. It moved in the pattern of a soaring
hawk scanning a field for prey. If you can imagine a
smooth valley, or 'bowl,' in the air, the object seemed to
glide up the sides of the bowl to a certain point, then
turn and glide up the other side. It looked as though the
pilot was having fun exercising his machine."
"Finally, I decided to observe without binoculars.
And since I knew exactly where to look, I could see the
appearance of the black side followed by the silver side.
The other witness saw both 'colors' as well and remarked
that the object was 'really up there.' That remark was an
indicator that the other witness thought the object was
very far away--an impression I shared."
"When the (UFO's) 'bottom' was turned towards me, the object was perfectly round and black. There were no
discernible features other than their white or silver ring
around the black at the edge of the disk. When the object
turned so that the 'top' was showing, I could see a
smoothly contoured 'canopy.' It was not, however,
symmetrical. It appeared to have a 'teardrop' shape--sort
of pointed on one side and rounded on what I call the
'back' side of the disk. The upper surface of the disk
was also uniformly silver and very bright."
"When the disk did catch the rays of the sun just
right, the disk shone very, very brightly. With the naked
eye, I could see the black 'bottom' and the bright flash
of the silver top as it maneuvered."
"I eventually became so tired of holding my
binoculars that I tried to find a more comfortable
observing position. When I returned to locate the object,
I could not find it again and could not discern where it
went or in what direction." (Email Form Report)
UFO FLOTILLA APPEARS IN
DUNMORE, ALBERTA
A flotilla of UFOs appeared last week in Dunmore,
Alberta province, Canada.
The sighting took place on Tues, July 29, 2003 at
11 p.m. The male witness reported "bright lights in the
sky that looked like stars but moved fast and in many
different directions, along with standing still and then
moving again. We saw six different ones. One prominent
one was hovering over a distant field, then it moved up"
to an altitude of "500 meters (1,650 feet). We watched
this until 11:45 p.m."
Interviewed by Canadian ufologist Brian Vike, the
witness added that "two (UFOs) went south at different
times; three went east at different times, and the one
that hovered was in a northwesterly direction."
"I have 7.35-millimeter binoculars, and I could not
distinguish an actual shape. They were very bright and
only one light per object. The sky was very clear. They
were a light yellow color with a little blue tinge. No
sound. The big UFO hovered over the field for about 25
minutes, then just disappeared. The others were overhead-
-west to east." (Many thanks to Brian Vike and John Hayes
for this report.)
That's it for this week. Join us next time for more
UFO, Fortean and paranormal news from around the world,
brought to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup."
See you in seven days.
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 2003 by Masinaigan Productions, all
rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO
Roundup on their websites or in news groups provided that
they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list
the date of issue in which the item first appeared.
E-Mail Reports to: Joseph Trainor Masinaigan@aol.com
or use the Sighting Report Form at:
http://www.ufoinfo.com/forms/form_sighting.htm
