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Ogopogo (Lake Monster; Okanagan Lake; British Columbia)

I thought I read a story about a group of divers that were diving at night. There were lights shining into the water from the boats. And the boat radioed down that there was something big on the sonar in their vicinity. When they looked up, they saw something big pass between them and the boat.

Anyone else heard this? Any other diver/swimmer encounters that anyone knows?
 
The sightings archive at:

http://www.ogopogoquest.com

... doesn't seem to include any diver sightings. There's a report on two expeditions that included divers, but there's no mention of an 'in-water' encounter.

However, there's one case listed (marathon swimmer Daryl Ellis) that has the witness encountering something while swimming.
 
EnolaGaia said:
... And there's a tangential reference to a diver having something brush against him while looking for Ogopogo:

http://www.chilliwacktimes.com/issues02 ... 02nn1.html
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Wow. As a longtime lurker here, I never thought I'd see a link to my hometown newspaper.

(Although I'm skeptical of the story, as both Cultus and Harrison Lakes are fairly small lakes with a good amount of recreation traffic on and around them. They'd have to be very discreet giant salamanders. )
 
Ogopogo, the Lake Okanagan monster is caught on satellite photos. Here he is in "Google Earth."
 
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/canada-loch-ness-monster-caught-tape-012241654.html

Canada's Loch Ness Monster Caught on Tape?
By Lauren Sher | ABC News Blogs – 18 hours ago

A possible sighting of Canada’s version of the Loch Ness monster at a lake in British Columbia has stirred up the legend of the sea creature long-rumored to reside there.

A man visiting British Colombia’s Lake Okanagan claims he filmed video of what could only be the elusive monster, known to locals as Ogopogo. The 30-second video shows two long ripples in the water in a seemingly deserted area of the lake.

“It was not going with the waves,” Richard Huls, who captured the scene on camera during a visit to a local winery, told the Vancouver Sun. “It was not a wave, obviously, just a darker color. The size and the fact that they were not parallel with the waves made me think it had to be something else.”

Ogopogo is the Canadian version of Scotland’s famous Loch Ness monster. The first recorded sighting of the alleged creature in Loch Ness was nearly 1,500 years ago when a giant beast is said to have leaped out of a lake near Inverness, Scotland, to eat a local farmer. Since then, the legend has taken on a life of its own through first-person accounts of those who claim to have seen it and in public imagination.



As with Loch Ness, the Ogopogo phenomenon dates back hundreds of years and is believed to have its origins in native Canadian Indian folklore with a creature called N’ha-a-itk. The locals would not cross the area of the lake where they thought the monster resided without an offering to feed the monster if attacked.

Ogopogo is most commonly described as a 40- to 50-foot-long sea serpent. There have reportedly been thousands of sightings of the monster through the years, including a marathon swimmer in 2000 who claimed he saw two large creatures in Ogopogo’s likeness swimming with him at times. The lake has been searched and no concrete evidence of the monster has turned up. Still, the legend of the lake monster lives on.

So, is the latest video just a ripple in the water or something more? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
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The minister of the Environment, Bruce Strachan, enacted legislation to protect Ogopogo, September 6, 1989. It is illegal to harm, kill, capture or disturb the creature and is one of the most enlightened pieces of legislation ever written in the defence and protection of endangered animals.

In a conversation with my uncle Bill Bennett, the former premier of BC, I said I had found Ogopogo and had approached the species at risk of the BC government to protect the creature. He agreed Ogopogo should be protected, but he did not know if the government would protect the creature.

Hmmm. Really?
 
I went bowling in Vancouver a few years ago and met a guy who claimed he had talked to Ogopogo. Apparently his friend and he were drinking beers on the lakeside when an old man walked by and said hello. He walked right into the water and dove in. When he surfaced for air, all they saw was a hump.

Can't say I believed the tale, but the teller was fairly drunk when he was telling the tale so I didn't argue or push for more details.
 
We used to have a poster here on the FTMB called Ogopogo.
Maybe it was him.
 
FWIW, I live beside Lake Okanagan... I've never seen the beastie myself though (nor has anyone else I've ever met here). :)
 
Nice wee round of lake monsters in that one :)
 
There is an alleged photograph of the Ogopogo that was published in the Illustrated London News 06 November 1937.

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See attachment for the news clipping.
 

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Nice! they are looking very calm about it ;)
 
So not only were they in the right place at just the right time to take the photo of Ogopogo
but were lucky enough for someone else to be there with a camera to take a pic of them doing it,
and in 1937 ish, though I would love it to be true it just seems to good to be.
That's if the guy is taking a photo looks like it with his stance.
 
I thought look-from-the-top boxy type :) We had hasselblads at uni. Lovely bits of kit.
 
We had hasselblads at uni. Lovely bits of kit.
They sure were..
 
Of all of the lake monsters, Ogopogo certainly has put forward some interesting images and video over the years. I for one, certainly hopes it exists and would love to see it in person. Wishful thinking? Maybe, though methinks there is just that little more credence to it's reports.
 
Hummm, I am going to have to come out from under my rock more. I have never heard of this thing.
 
Cryptid Matter said:
Hummm, I am going to have to come out from under my rock more. I have never heard of this thing.
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Can I ask a question? Your user name has "cryptid" in it. So how much do you know about the topic and where do you get your information?
I'm asking because Ogopogo is like one of the top 10 zoologically-discussed cryptids. It's very odd you never heard of it. But, maybe you are not... of my generation (who were around in the late 1970s.)
 
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