The Gazette has reported that a team of monster hunters will return to Cameron Lake on Vancouver Island next month to search for a creature that locals have swapped chilling stories about for years.
The B.C. Scientific Cryptozoology Club first visited the area last September to probe for evidence of the Cameron Lake monster. They weren’t able to shed much light on the mystery, but two large strikes on a fish finder prompted the team to return to the lake
Cammie made a big splash last autumn when the BCSCC (British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club) — led by club president, co-founder and noted cryptozoologist John Kirk — launched an expedition to Cameron Lake to investigate what some say is a huge eel-like creature, not unlike Newfoundland’s CRESSIE. The team was delighted when they made sonar contact with a large, apparently animate object at the bottom of the lake:
“Something just went ‘ping’ on the alarm on the fish finder and we saw this absolutely massive object in the midst of various fish… we were quite stunned that there was something that big in the lake and it was in about 60 feet of water, less than 30 yards from shore, it was quite amazing… maybe it’s a sturgeon, maybe it’s a giant sterile eel, it could be a massive type of salamander… or it could be something that we’re completely unaware of at this point.”
Last year, poor weather and equipment troubles bogged down the expedition, but Kirk feels that the sonar reading alone warrants another crack at this mystery:
“What we did not establish is: What were those big readings that we obtained on the sonar? We’ve got to find out what that is… as long as it remains a mystery, it’s incumbent upon us to come back.”
The Cameron Lake monster, better known as “CAMMIE,” made headlines in the winter of 2010, when it was sighted by Kim MacDonald and her eight-year-old son Tristan, who managed to photograph the beast as they were heading towards Port Alberni on January 5th, 2010.
MacDonald was able to capture approximately one and a half seconds of video before she switched the camera to picture mode and snapped one shot of the LAKE MONSTER before it dove out of view:
“It was big… my son said, Oh my God, what’s that mum? The head, if that’s what it was, was huge, bigger than a beaver. I grabbed my camera and hopped on top of my truck… after I took that picture it was gone. I drive past there all the time and I’ve never seen anything like that before. It was round and big. My heart was pounding for a long time… when I came back later I kept looking for it, really looking, but it was gone… it’s definitely not a fish or a beaver.”
Whatever breed of mystery beast that may or may not dwell in the depths of Cameron Lake, Kirk is not optimistic that a large OGOPOGO-like creature lurks at the bottom of Cameron Lake –given the relatively small size of the popular recreational lake:
“If you had an apex predator that was seriously big, that food source could diminish pretty quickly.”
