Category // 23 files

Aquatic

A deep lake, a calm surface, an unexplained wake: water monsters are the archive's most prolific species. Nearly every great lake on Earth has one, from Scottish loch to Norwegian fjord. Explanations abound — waves, eels, sturgeon, floating logs — yet the sightings keep coming.

• Case file Nº010 1955

  Loveland Frogman

  Aquatic / 39.27°N 84.26°W

  Ohio's bipedal "frog", seen by two police officers in 1972 — the second later explained he had shot an escaped pet iguana.

  Class 4

• Case file Nº026 1933

  Loch Ness Monster

  Aquatic / 57.30°N 4.44°W

  The world's most famous lake monster: founding photo confessed a hoax in 1994, the loch DNA-surveyed in 2019 — no unknown animal found.

  Class 4

• Case file Nº027 1872

  Ogopogo

  Aquatic / 49.77°N 119.72°W

  The serpent of Okanagan Lake: a sacred Syilx water spirit turned tourist emblem — often filmed, never identified.

  Class 3

• Case file Nº028 1819

  Champ

  Aquatic / 44.05°N 73.46°W

  America's Nessie, anchored by the 1977 Mansi photograph — genuine, striking, and entirely compatible with a waterlogged log.

  Class 3

• Case file Nº029 XXe siècle

  Manipogo

  Aquatic / 51.00°N 98.80°W

  The serpent of Manitoba's lakes, named in 1957 after Ogopogo — decades of reports, one blurry photo, nothing more.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº030 1816

  Memphre

  Aquatic / 45.05°N 72.27°W

  The serpent of Lake Memphremagog, curated by a diver-archivist who logged two centuries of sightings — and never once met his creature.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº031 1933

  Cadborosaurus

  Aquatic / 48.46°N 123.29°W

  British Columbia's sea serpent: centuries of coastal accounts, one carcass photographed in 1937, still no specimen.

  Class 3

• Case file Nº032 Années 1920

  Altamaha-ha

  Aquatic / 31.35°N 81.44°W

  Georgia's river monster: a century of sightings on the Altamaha, with a giant sturgeon as the leading suspect.

  Class 4

• Case file Nº033 1868

  Bear Lake Monster

  Aquatic / 41.95°N 111.33°W

  A lake serpent invented in an 1868 newspaper piece; author Joseph C. Rich later confessed the hoax. A solved case turned tourist folklore.

  Class 5

• Case file Nº034 1750

  Selma

  Aquatic / 59.47°N 8.72°E

  The serpent of Norway's Lake Seljord: sightings since 1750, sonar hunts that found nothing, and a place on the town's coat of arms.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº035 1635

  Storsjöodjuret

  Aquatic / 63.12°N 14.37°E

  Sweden's Great Lake monster: recorded in 1635, hunted in 1894, legally protected 1986-2005 — and never shown to exist.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº036 1975

  Morgawr

  Aquatic / 50.13°N 5.03°W

  Falmouth Bay's sea serpent, famous for the 1976 'Mary F' photographs — a case entangled with the hoaxes of Doc Shiels.

  Class 3

• Case file Nº037 1345

  Lagarfljót Worm

  Aquatic / 65.20°N 14.41°W

  Iceland's glacial-lake serpent, first recorded in the annals in 1345; the viral 2012 video was shown to be a stationary object.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº038 Folklore ancien

  Lusca

  Aquatic / 24.70°N 77.90°W

  The blue-hole monster of Bahamian folklore, part octopus, part shark; tidal currents account for most of the file.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº039 1638

  Gloucester sea serpent

  Aquatic / 42.61°N 70.66°W

  In August 1817 dozens of Gloucester residents swore to a sea serpent in the harbor; the learned inquiry ended in a zoological fiasco.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº041 XIIIe siècle

  Kraken

  Aquatic / 66.00°N 5.00°E

  The Norse sea monster whose real core is identified: the giant squid Architeuthis, described in 1857 and filmed alive in 2004.

  Class 4

• Case file Nº042 1910

  Nahuelito

  Aquatic / 41.05°S 71.50°W

  A 'plesiosaur' reported in Lake Nahuel Huapi since 1910, hunted by a zoo expedition in 1922, never verifiably photographed.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº043 1936

  Chessie

  Aquatic / 38.97°N 76.33°W

  A sea serpent reported in Chesapeake Bay since 1936; the 1982 videotape remains 'animate but unidentifiable'.

  Class 3

• Case file Nº044 1978

  Issie

  Aquatic / 31.23°N 130.55°E

  Dark humps seen on Japan's Lake Ikeda since 1978; ambiguous photos, very real giant eels, and no confirmation.

  Class 3

• Case file Nº045 1995

  Lake Van Monster

  Aquatic / 38.63°N 42.90°E

  A monster reported in Turkey's Lake Van since 1995; the much-disputed 1997 video has never convinced scientists.

  Class 3

• Case file Nº064 XIXe siècle

  Mahamba

  Aquatic / 2.00°S 18.28°E

  An outsized crocodile of Congo's waters; the stories double the length of the largest crocodiles ever measured.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº074 Folklore ancien

  Dobhar-chú

  Aquatic / 54.37°N 8.37°W

  Ireland's « water hound » — a giant, aggressive otter of lake folklore, its one famous attack recorded on a 1722 gravestone.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº099 1983

  Gambo

  Aquatic / 13.44°N 16.71°W

  A carcass measured on a Gambian beach in 1983 by a single witness, then buried and lost — most likely a decomposed beaked whale.

  Class 4