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China's Kanasi Lake Monster

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Search for 'lake monsters'
From correspondents in Beijing, China
21aug04

CHINESE scientists will launch an expedition next month to search for fabled "lake monsters" in north-west China's Xinjiang region, state media said today.

For hundreds of years there have been rumours in Xinjiang's Altay Prefecture that mysterious monsters live in the prefecture's Kanasi Lake, devouring livestock, the Xinhua news agency said.

As horses, cattle or sheep went missing near the lake every year, the legend grew.

In 1985, teachers and students from the Xinjiang University Department of Biology discovered that dozens of huge red fish, each 10 to 15 metres long and weighing more than four tonnes, lived in the lake.

A large-scale scientific exploration of the "lake monsters" of Kanasi, the deepest alpine lake in China, was made in 1987.

As a result of the two-year exploration, scientists discovered a school of some 30 to 40 big fish, each three to four metres long.

They concluded that the fish, a species of Taimen - a mighty salmonid that grows to monstrous proportions - were the "monsters" making mischief in the lake, Xinhua said.

But researchers still do not know how many Taimen are living in the lake or how long they have been there, how big the largest one is and whether the livestock that have gone missing for hundreds of years were really devoured by the fish.

The exploration, scheduled to last 10 days, will be made jointly by a Chinese scientific exploration team, the underwater photography team of the Chinese Underwater Association and the environmental and tourism administrative bureau of Kanasi.

Some media, including the state-run China Central Television Station, will also participate in the exploration.

Kanasi Lake is located at the centre of the Kanasi nature reserve, the only Chinese reserve located at the bordering region of China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Russia.

The lake monster legends have helped the Kanasi area attract increasing numbers of visitors, Xinhua said.

By August 1, Kanasi had seen some 183,000 visitors both from home and abroad - 63 per cent more than the same period last year. The area has earned 140 million yuan (.38 million) from tourism, according to Xinhua.
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VERY COOL!!

I remember this coming up long ago and of course no follow up , but now maybe....
 
And it seems like it is still going ahead but the schedule has just slipped (I do wonder if it will keep slipping but we'll see):

Lake Monster Investigation Delayed

An investigation into the enigmatic Kanas Lake Monsters, originally scheduled for this autumn, has been put off until next July. The news came from the Kanas Administrative Bureau of Environment and Tourism.

It had been planned as a joint scientific expedition involving several units, including a Chinese Scientific Expedition and the underwater photographic team with the Chinese Underwater Association.

"We were preparing to carry out a 10-day long investigation into long-running reports of monsters in Kanas Lake in Xinjiang from September 5 to 15 this year," said project leader, Li Wei of the Kanas Administrative Bureau of Environment and Tourism. "However, the original plan, estimated at 1.5 million yuan, has had to be postponed. The experts cannot yet guarantee the safety of the underwater operations. It is considered dangerous to go down given the low visibility and extremely low water temperatures at the bottom of Kanas Lake."

The underwater team is equipped with advanced American equipment for their monster hunt. It is capable of operating in depths greater than they will encounter in Kanas Lake. However, in a trial dive in July, they ran into danger only 20 meters below the surface.

"The waters of the lake are mostly made up of melted ice and snow and it is difficult for the human body to withstand the low temperatures involved. The best time of year to carry out underwater exploration here is in July when the lake is warmer," said Li. "Besides, the turbidity of the lake changes with the weather and the seasons. In April, May and August every year, the lake water becomes more turbid under the influence of the White Lake."

In 1985, a news report in Xinjiang Daily said teachers and students of biology from Xinjiang University had found several scores of huge red fish in Kanas Lake. They had heads over a meter wide and were from 10 to 15 meters in length.

Since then many people have reported seeing these monsters in the lake.

Back in 1987, a joint scientific expedition began the first rigorous investigation into the lake monsters. After their two-year-long investigation they concluded that the monsters were in fact huge examples of the species hucho taimens.

However, there are still many doubts remaining. So far, no specimen of hucho taimens caught in the lake has actually exceeded 4 meters in length. There is also some doubt as to whether or not Kanas Lake could provide a suitable living environment for really large fish. So, further investigation is needed to find out whether the lake monsters are indeed hucho taimens and if not, then just what are these monsters?

Apart from investigating the lake's monsters, next year's expedition will focus on the underwater forest in Kanas Lake. They will also carry out a scientific investigation of the land forms, geomorphology, deep currents and fish at the bottom of the lake. In addition they will look at the naturally occurring causeway of dead timber at the head of the lake.

---------------------
(China.org.cn by Yuan Fang, September 4, 2004)
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http://www.china.org.cn/english/2004/Sep/106036.htm

For some reason I thought it said Kansas Lake Monster :(
 
So is it 10 to 15 feet (as the first article says) or 10 to 15 metres?

The second article says that no taimen has been found over 4 metres, but that (4m = 13ft) would make 10-15ft realistic. On the other hand 10-15m would be 33-50ft, which is as big as a basking shark... :eek:
 
No, the first report says meters as well. Which as you mention is frigging large. Amazing if creatures that big can go relatively unnoticed for so long. If you were to go fishing, you´d probably need to use a boa constrictor for bait :D
 
Hmm, I was just looking at google for this. All I seem to be able to find is about this new expedition, not really anything about those 10-15 meter fish they were supposed to have found earlier. And if you look at the articles, they are the same word for word. Nobody´s even bothered to check back with the sources I guess. So if one source said 10 meters by mistake it probably just got repeated elsewhere. It might just have been 1-1,5 meter they meant, who knows.
 
Maybe I'm just being a chicken...

But, would any of you dive in a lake where there have been complaints of livestock missing? Where there are 15m fish lurking below with bibs tied around their necks, sharpening their steak knives? Where the water is too cold deeper than 20m?

Two words for this team: SEND EQUIPMENT.

For God's sake, I see a bad 1980s Sandy Kenyon movie just waiting to play itself out.
 
Though considerably smaller than the monsters described above (still talking BIG fishies here) , a pretty cool story about Taimen preservation efforts and the fish in general. Plus an expedition in search of the largest freshwater fish.

From Madison to Mongolia: The crusade for a giant fish
(Posted: 3/29/2005)

Paroma Basu

Biologist David Gilroy rides horseback on the frozen Uur River, a pristine body of water in the remote reaches of northern Mongolia. In the wild silence that blankets him, Gilroy listens for faint radio signals from below the river's surface.

A graduate student, Gilroy hopes this month to begin detecting signals from a legendary fish species, one that has captured the hearts of scores of anglers. The scientist is on the trail of the majestic taimen, the largest trout species in the world.

Alongside fellow UW-Madison biologists and other American and Mongolian researchers, Gilroy is part of a five-year, $2.3 million initiative - largely backed by the Global Environment Facility - that aims to protect the endangered taimen by encouraging sustainable fishing practices. To that end, the researchers want to learn everything about the giant fish, from its migration pathways to spawning locations and population levels.

Amidst a booming ecotourism industry in Mongolia - with wealthy anglers paying up to $7,000 a week to catch taimen - the scientists launched the research project last year, in partnership with local nonprofit organizations, private fly-fishing outfitters and the nomadic peoples of the Eg-Uur watershed. Spearheaded by the Taimen Conservation Fund (TCF), a Mongolian faith-based nonprofit group, the goal is to empower local people and simultaneously promote awareness about the threatened fish and taimen-preserving fishing practices.

"The biology of taimen makes it sensitive to poaching," says Jake Vander Zanden, a UW-Madison limnology professor and co-leader of the taimen research effort in Mongolia. "The fish is vulnerable because it grows slowly, reproduces at a late age and is a top predator."

"Taking the taimen out of the river is like taking the wolf out of the forest," agrees Gilroy.

In fly-fishing circles worldwide, the taimen is shrouded in mystique. Known to locals as the "river god's daughter," taimen can reach up to six feet and weigh up to 200 pounds. The fish can literally "explode" out of the water, snapping up small mammals in its wake, says Gilroy. Once prevalent throughout Mongolia and Siberia, over-fishing and habitat destruction have hacked taimen populations. Now, Northern Mongolia's Eg-Uur River basin remains one of the last strongholds of healthy taimen populations.

Following detailed biological observations of the fish, Vander Zanden and Gilroy want to create a scientific framework that supports the creation of a catch-and-release fishing reserve. In catch-and-release fishing, sport anglers who catch taimen are obligated to return the fish to their native waters.

"A taimen is too valuable to catch just once," says Vander Zanden. "Why not return it to the river so that it remains a sustainable resource that will provide jobs to the local people and help tourism businesses earn profits [in the long term]?"

Vander Zanden says the approach is starting to pay off as people realize that TCF's blend of cultural preservation, natural resource management and species protection can be a win-win scenario for all interest groups.

As it stands, eco-tourism travel companies pay local resource management councils for permission to fish in protected areas. The councils, in turn, work with local government agencies, advocating for anti-poaching practices and catch-and-release fishing.

To boost protection efforts, TCF also works to revive religious and cultural values that stress the importance of respecting nature. By recently helping to reconstruct a once-prominent monastery, for instance, conservationists hope that revitalized Buddhist practices can bolster taimen populations.

During the project's first year, the science team set up a research station and radio-tagged 50 fish. This year, the researchers will track the tagged taimen to start gathering clues about the fish and discern where populations may be most vulnerable, says Vander Zanden. "Ultimately, it's biology that will determine where the protection reserves should be," he says.
Research quest for giant fish goes global

If you're flying all the way to Mongolia to help save one giant freshwater fish, why not go on a global quest in search of all the others?

Zeb Hogan, a UW-Madison postdoctoral researcher and a member of the taimen research team, in April will kick off an epic journey that touches on six continents and reaches ten of the largest river systems, from Southeast Asia's Mekong River to the Amazon River in South America.

The goal is to find the world's largest freshwater fish and investigate for the first time population declines worldwide. "Giant" fish include species that weigh more than 200 pounds and stretch longer than six feet. Certain species of stingray, catfish, sturgeon and salmon, for instance, all make the list. Hogan plans to track up to 30 species in all.

"The very largest [freshwater] fish seem to be in decline around the world. That is worrying because the biggest fish usually serve as environmental indicators," says Hogan. "Similar surveys have been carried out with marine species, but nobody has attempted this with the world's largest freshwater fish before."

Hogan wants to compare past population levels to modern levels to quantify declines and pinpoint threats to freshwater biodiversity. Historical population data is sparse, however, so the researcher says he will mine both published and anecdotal literature, consulting old fishing logbooks, conversing with local fishermen and networking with regional conservation agencies.

"The exploration of freshwater ecosystems, rivers and lakes is every bit as important as deep sea habitats and coral reefs," says Hogan. "Certain areas of Africa, Asia and South America are virtually unknown and very few rivers in remote areas have ever been surveyed, filmed or photographed."

Mongolia is Hogan's first stop. After helping with the taimen work, Hogan will push on to China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Australia, before visiting African and South American rivers this fall.
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http://www.news.wisc.edu/10878.html [/quote]
 
Kanas Lake monster

BEIJING, June 12 -- A diving team is being sent to Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous region to find "monsters" living in the Kanas Lake.

Kanas Lake is locating on Xinjiang's Altai Mountain. It is famous as a beauty spot and for its legendary monsters.

Early this week, a group of Beijing tourists boating on the lake, saw and filmed two unidentified creatures about 10 meters long.

The team will be dispatched in July at a cost of 1.5million yuan, or 180,000 US dollars.

But some are skeptical that they will uncover a monster's lair.

The director of Xinjiang Ecology Institute Yuan Guoying says after 20 years of study he believes the so-called "Lake Monster" is a type of large fish called a Hucho taimen.

He says the lake's cold water could have made it grow very large.

As early as 1987, teams of experts have come to explore the riddle of the "lake monster". They discovered a large school of fish including 30 to 40 huge red fish which were three to four meters long
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Source with pics
 
Anyone know if the video of 'monster' is available online for viewing???
 
I've always found this particular region of the world very fascinating- though I've never travelled there, it just intrigues me for some reason. Perhaps due to the Far East meeting the Middle East meeting Siberia aspect of northwest China...
 
In China, Hunt on for Loch Ness Monster

In China, Hunt on for Loch Ness Monster
By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 5, 5:12 PM ET



The moon is barely a crescent in the sky as dusk darkens the milky green surface of Lake Kanasi.

Four people huddle on the edge of a floating wooden dock, eyes scanning this mountain lake near China's remote northwestern frontier with Central Asia. Small waves lap at their shoes.

In a soft voice, Yuan Guoying recounts his two sightings of the creatures. The first over there, from a cliff, Yuan says. Then again, 19 years later.

From the group comes a squeal as tiny, silver fish dart at hunks of bread they have dropped in.

"Look! There are so many of them!" says one girl. "But where's the lake monster?"

Another 40 minutes pass. A chill breeze kicks up.

Yuan is unfazed.

"We can wait all night," he says. "Let's see if this is our fate."

___

They have come by the tens of thousands over the years — skeptical scientists, curious tourists — answering the lure of the mysterious "Kanasi Huguai," China's very own version of the Loch Ness monster.

On this particular trip, part class reunion, part tour package, there are a handful of Yuan's university buddies and their wives (mostly retired professors from Beijing with graying hair and quiet humor), three teachers, a nurse, a local reporter, a university student, a lab technician and her mother. They have flown thousands of miles to Xinjiang Province and been driven 15 hours to get to the lake and commemorate the 20th anniversary of Yuan's first sighting of the monsters.

The outing shows how far 40 years of economic reform have taken China and how much more time and money people have to explore interests that were squelched as superstition, an offense to communist dogma.

In today's society, myth-making and chasing are a big business, and the supernatural and the paranormal are no longer taboo.

Reports of a Chinese "Bigfoot" have been picked up by the official Xinhua News Agency, while tourists have searched for the "Xiao Yeren," small wild men. UFO sightings are treated with great seriousness. A conference on the topic was held in September, and UFO buffs claim support from eminent scientists and liaisons with the country's secretive military.

Yuan, a researcher at the Xinjiang Institute of Environmental Protection, hands out Monster T-shirts, and on the bus the passengers watch state television's elaborate, three-part documentary on the myth of the beasts that supposedly have dragged sheep and cows from the shore and devoured them.

It opens with a dramatized scene of a man stopping his horse-drawn cart by the lake on a foggy night. With a loud splash, something emerges from the water and the camera darkens ...

Yuan's photos of the creatures flash across the screen. One, taken from a distance, features several blurry forms clustered close to shore, some looking as long as nearby fir trees. Grainy footage filmed in June by a tourist from Beijing shows frenzied bubbling in the water.

Yuan, a cheerful 66-year-old with an unlined face and penetrating voice, is featured in several interviews, along with other scientists and people who have witnessed the creatures. Some describe enormous shapes and shadows as big as trees and boats, sometimes tinged with red or white. In 2003, when an earthquake struck the area, witnesses in a boat reported seeing a silhouette as long as 70 feet leap out of the water.

"I said it was rubbish at first," says Yuan. "The next day, I saw them."

"It's fish. Giant fish, some about 15 meters (50 feet) long."

___

In 1980, Yuan was part of a team of 150 experts who launched the first scientific study of the lake's environment and its flora and fauna.

It was then that he met Chinese Mongolians living in the area known as the Tuwa people and heard the ancient legend of the monsters in Kanasi. Few details were available; most of the villagers fell silent when pressed.

Five years later, still intrigued, Yuan headed another team to study environmental protection for the lake — and to search for the creatures of the Tuwa myth.

Within a day, he had his first sighting.

"They looked like tadpoles coming up for breath," Yuan recalls. "Their eyes were huge. Their mouths were gaping."

After weeks of study, Yuan and his team discovered dozens of huge red fish, each 30-50 feet long and weighing more than four tons, living in the lake.

In 1989, scientists concluded that the fish — a type of giant, freshwater salmon that thrives in frigid, deep, waters — were in all likelihood the monsters.

Despite that conviction, there remains a niggling doubt.

Yuan says the largest Taimen salmon scientists have captured is just 12 feet long and weighs 220 pounds. The biggest caught in Kanasi is 4 feet, 9 inches long, according to the documentary — a flat-headed specimen with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.

So are the lake monsters really the giant salmon? Or something completely different?

"There is no doubt the so-called lake monster is a kind of fish, the Taimen salmon," says Jiang Zuofa, a professor at the Heilongjiang Aquatic Research Institute in northeastern China. He says he has seen up to 50 of them — some more than 12 feet long — from the top of a mountain.

"The species is big and ferocious and lives in cold, fresh water," he says in a telephone interview. "We believe it is possible for them to eat chickens, geese and sheep, but it is impossible for them to eat cattle."

The People's Daily, the sober mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party, weighed in recently.

"Scientists say with certainty that there simply can't be so-called 'lake monsters' in the world," its Web site said.

___

Lake Kanasi is 200,000 years old, roughly 15 miles by a mile, and more than 4,000 feet up in the Kanasi nature reserve in Xinjiang's northernmost tip, where China, Mongolia, Russia and Kazakhstan converge in snowcapped mountains. It is 603 feet deep at its lowest.

Throughout summer, up to 4,000 tourists a day flock here. All day long, boats chug along the lake, packed with "huguai" spotters.

"Everyone in the country has heard of it," a visitor surnamed Zhou says. "It may be a rich fairy tale but the scenery is so beautiful — plus there's this mysterious creature. How can we not come?"

Surprisingly, there is scant monster publicity at the site. A souvenir shop had but one book about the lake which mentioned the huguai. On the back of a bus ticket a challenge is delicately posed: "The elusive lake monsters await your pursuit."

"We believe there are unidentified creatures in the lake, but we can't say for sure what they are," says Zhao Yuxia, a spokeswoman for the reserve. "We've never seen them with our own eyes."

Even so, there are measures in place to protect the area's wildlife — whatever they may be. Fishing and swimming are banned. Boats are under a strict speed limit.

As Yuan and his group stroll along the shores, he relives his second sighting, just last year.

"It seemed like they were trying to get some sun. Their whole bodies came up to the surface. Their shadows were like one huge roll of plastic — long and black. They shimmered. I couldn't tell at all that they were fish."

___

No monsters present themselves to Yuan's group during their nighttime visit to the lake.

But still, Qu Yuan, a 26-year-old nurse, is thrilled.

"I kept my eyes on the water," she says, beaming. "The waves were lapping at our feet. It was almost like we were one with the lake."

She adds: "I couldn't see anything but I could feel there was life out there. It was a wonderful feeling."

But Yuan wants more.

He has written two books and numerous essays on the mystery. He says he is asked to speak on it regularly by different schools and organizations, and gets calls, letters and photos from people who think they may have seen the huguai.

What's the next step then in his quest to find the truth?

To catch a fish and study it, Yuan says. But it's not easy on a lake this big.

On the last day of their visit, Yuan's group treks up to the "Fish Viewing Pavilion," perched high on a mountain overlooking the lake. Thousands of tourists are snapping photos.

Breathless and hopeful, Yuan stands on a nearby bluff, hands shielding his eyes from the sun as he looks down onto the water, hoping for a glimpse of the monsters to honor the 20th anniversary of his first sighting.

"It's hard, it's hard," he mutters to himself as he starts a video camera rolling. "They can be anywhere."

After an hour or so of moving from point to point, a downcast Yuan gives up.

As he begins his descent, he takes one last look at the vista.

"All right," he says. "We're done here."

Monster
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"Monsters" Emerge Again In Kanas Lake

17:01, July 13, 2007

"Monsters" emerge again in Kanas Lake

Elusive mystical creatures emerged again in Kanas Lake of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. According to the administration of the Kanas scenic spot, on July 5th at 8:20pm, huge ripples were seen on the surface of the lake by a few tourists carrying their portable video cameras.

The 8-minute video recording captured the entire event. From the video there can been seen a group of unidentified creatures, about 15 in number. They gather together and separate, looking like a fleet, and create a magnificent scene. The parts of creatures seen above the surface of the water are several times larger than the biggest sightseeing boat in the area.

Statistics showed that Kanas Lake runs 25 kilometers north to south, is about 2.5 kilometers wide, and is 188 meters deep in its deepest area. Legends from thousands of years ago spoke about "monsters" that often stealthily dragged cattle into the water.

The most recent siting in June 2006, recorded by three tourists from Beijing, triggered more discussion and speculation. Experts say the "monsters" are probably unidentified aquatic animals. The reported siting in July is the longest and the first fully recorded one.

By People's Daily Online

Copyright by People's Daily Online, All Rights Reserved
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Legendary lake 'monster' is captured on camera

Jane Macartney

China’s Loch Ness monster has been sighted. Or so Chinese state-run television says. Not just one, but more than a dozen huge creatures can be seen churning across Lake Kanasi in remote western China, leaving a foamy wake more like an enormous motorboat than a big fish.

A rare video filmed by a tourist at the lake in the Heavenly Mountains of the wild Xinjiang region, has reignited debate over the existence of an underwater creature that can compete with the Loch Ness monster in both mass and mystery.

The grainy film shows about 15 objects moving at high speed just beneath the surface of the lake and whipping the smooth blue water into a bubbling white frenzy. Chinese Central Television broadcast the video on its news channel, describing the footage shot by a passing tourist on July 5 as the clearest ever seen of a legendary beast that has been rumoured for centuries to live in the depths of Lake Kanasi.

Local myth among the Chinese Mongolians living in the scenic mountains near the Russian and Mongolian borders has it that the animals have been known to drag sheep, cows and even horses from the shore and into the deep to devour them.

Yuan Guoying, of the Xinjiang Institute of Environmental Protection, told The Times that the video provided important proof in his more than two decades of research at the lake. “Only fish could make waves in this formation. I think the video is real.”

The television commentator described the sighting as the first since June 7, 2005 when two black creatures measuring more than 10 metres in length appeared on the surface swimming at speed from the shore to the centre of the lake. The newsreader described the latest appearance: “They sometimes gathered in a flock, sometimes spread about or moved shoulder to shoulder. The scene is grand and they looked like a fleet.”

State television made no attempt to identify the animals, saying only: ‘This time a large number of unidentified creatures emerged, bringing more mystery to Lake Kanasi.”

Professor Yuan has been on their trail since 1980 and has been gripped by the mystery since his first sighting in 1985 when he says he saw as many as 50 of what he called fish. “They looked like reddish-brown tadpoles because I could only see their heads on the surface. They opened their mouths to breathe and their length was about 10 to 15 metres.”

He spotted the animals again on May 28, 2004 when he was standing looking down at the lake from a nearby hill. “I thought there was a huge piece of black plastic in the lake and that someone had been polluting it. But then I released that it must be the back of a giant fish. I was shocked because they were just too big. Looking at them was like looking at submarines.”

When Mr Yuan got back to his office he tried to calculate the size of the animals by setting their proportions against those of the surrounding landmarks such as trees or the shape of the shoreline. “I didn’t dare say they were bigger than 20 metres because no one would believe me.”

Chinese researchers in the 1980s said the ‘monster’ was likely to be a huge member of the salmon family – one of eight species of fish living in the lake. Mr Yuan gave their name as Hucho Taimen, a freshwater salmon tht thrives in deep frigid waters. He says the biggest Hucho Taimen salmon ever captured was 2.1 metres long and was found in Russia.

The animals that roam Lake Kanasi live in an area about 24 kilometres by two kilometers and with an average depth of 122 metres and as deep as 188 metres at one point.

Mr Yuan believes that a lot more research is needed although China lacks the scientific equipment to make further studies. And it would be impossible to catch a fish of this size. “This fish will have tremendous strength.”

Other Chinese scientists have cast doubt on his findings, but Mr Yuan is adamant. “People will just say ‘You’ve got to be kidding’. But I saw them with my own eyes. I am a scientist. I have no choice but to believe what I saw.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 093255.ece
 
Lake Kanasi definitely sounds like a job for Jeremy Wade and the River Monsters team although I seem to recall they have brought the series to an end with the 9th or 10th season. I'll see if Jeremy has a twitter feed or summat and ask him if he is aware of this chinese Nessie !
 
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