Loren is Youtubed

Posted by: Loren Coleman on June 2nd, 2007

I discussed YouTube a few days ago, coining the word “Tubesquatch.” Before the week was over, I’d been Youtubed myself. I guess the lesson is, be careful about what you write. Ha.

The following is the clip from CNN’s “Paula Zahn Now,” for June 1, 2007, on Nessie, which was run in the final moments of her program. It was originally scheduled to be five minutes long.

What happened is typical for the fate of a combined human interest-animal-mystery teaser held to the end of such a program. Especially it seems in live news talkshows, such segments are squeezed for time.

Joe Nickell and I hardly had two minutes to unfold any kind of a good exchange, and my audio seems to have been cut out for my final response to Nickell’s global view of lake monsters. Oh well. It definitely expanded the viewers and discussion of the Nessie footage to a wider mainstream audience.

Too bad the beautiful night and setting along the Fore River in Portland, Maine, was hidden in the evening darkness. Nevertheless, here it is, with images from Bill Appleton’s Cryptomundo-based stablizations of the Gordon Holmes Nessie video.

My author friend Jerry Clark noted that what was operating here, in counterpoint to my view, was: The Nickell principle: “We will take up an existence by its otters.”

Coincidentially, another good friend, Patrick Huyghe emailed me: “Joe was otterly ridiculous.”

Yes, it seems to be owls as the answer for Joe Nickell to debunk any strange cryptid seen above ground level in the southern USA, and otters to explain everything mysterious in any lake throughout the world. Ah, if life was so simple.

field guide lake monsters

The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep (NY: Tarcher/Penguin, 2003).

Thanks to goochcamper for the uploading the clip to YouTube.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.


17 Responses to “Loren is Youtubed”

  1. Chris Noel responds:

    Great job, Loren.

  2. Rick Noll responds:

    Good job Loren… made it much more interesting to watch this news piece than someone just getting up in front of a camera and saying “Don’t cha see, thar she is is, thars no disputin that now!” For the longest time I thought we were all on par with Werner’s impression of a crytozoologist.

    I think your effort was worth it. Hope some book sales come from it.

  3. DavidFullam responds:

    You survived Paula Zahn? You truly are a man among men!

  4. Kimble responds:

    I had to chuckle at Nickell’s end comments: that otters are known to swin in a line…that these are probably otters…then this video IS of otters.

  5. voodoochild responds:

    Did anyone else notice that Joe Nickell contradicted himself? He stated that large European otters inhabit the Loch, then later said that a British expedition had checked the entire span of the Loch, but found NO large animals? What happened to all the otters?

  6. Patrick Bede responds:

    Otters in formation, huh?

    Geez.

    I’ve heard it all now.

    I wonder if the guy’s ever actually observed otters or beavers in the wild? It certainly does NOT sound like it.

  7. bill green responds:

    hey loren again great new interview you did last night on cnn. thanks bill . im glad your new interview is on youtube it should realy help you with your research & get more info etc about other cryptozoology animals as well.

  8. sschaper responds:

    Well done! You gave a very credible presentation, increasing the credibility of cryptozoology. Very well done, Loren.

  9. Crypt_Raider responds:

    Very nice!

    I agree that it’s possible that previous sightings were of otters and such, and that them swimming leaves a trail as they break through the waves, BUT a 70′ trail, I don’t think so.

    I was also impressed to see that you were open to different opinion and other explanations. Allot of the time when Cryptozoologists are called to the plate they’re normally so desperate to prove something’s existence that they seem crazy and unwilling to see things for what they also may be! It really gives the field of Cryptozoology a bad name.

    You on the other hand, handled it superbly. Kudos!!!

    Also I was not aware of the book you had wrote. It seems very interesting. I will have to pick up a copy.

    Nice work!

  10. jerrywayne responds:

    I thought Nickell gave a plausable, if not definitive, explanation for what appears on the video. On the other hand, it was unfortunate that Coleman countered Nickell’s negative evidence (no sonar “sightings” during the major scan of Ness; no remains found of “Nessie” over the years; not enough food source for a breeding colony of “monsters” at Ness) with an ad hoc assumption that the legendary creatures of Ness come to and leave the lake by land and waterway.

  11. Pvolitans responds:

    Good job Loren!

    A stream of otters swimming in a line seems a lot less believable. I can understand why you’d shake your head. If we’re talking about multiple animals moving in tandem, explain why there are no heads bobbing up for air around the large mass that is trailing the obvious head and neck? Are the otters taking breaths in synchrony now? Are they timing their breathing?

    I’m seriously skeptical of the skeptic’s explanation, at any rational level. There is obviously one large mass moving behind the head and though I wouldn’t jump the gun to say it’s plesiosaur, I’d say that it’s something that would compel further study.

    Point of interest: to prove the hypothesis that ‘Nessie’ might migrate like salmon along tributaries, then these tributaries would be the perfect chokepoints for observation.

  12. asrai responds:

    Nice job!

    And having looked at this footage again I still don’t think that it is a otter or otters swimming in a line. First of all the otters he is talking about, lutra lutra, are highly territorial and live alone for the most part. So I don’t think we’d see a bunch of them swimming in a line. Also it would take a lot a otters to give the appearance of a 70′ creature.

  13. Cryptonut responds:

    Loren: Very aticulate, and you fairly represented the evidence and didn’t look to puff anything up more than it was, until more can be gleaned from the video evidence, talking with the individual who did the filming, etc. On the other hand, Nickell’s point of view was ridiculous. It’s as if being a skeptic gives one the freedom to say everything is bogus without any investigation at all. Did he have any more evidence to prove that they were otters? He wants to lump some other sightings into every one of them without any investigation on his part. No credibility.

  14. Mnynames responds:

    Otters in formation? It must be the British Otter Patrol! Cue patriotic music and newsreel footage.

  15. CryptoGoji responds:

    Nice interview Loren. Otters swimming in a row? maybe a few, but not enough to bring a 70′ line. I still think that this other man is only fooling himself to be on tv, but somebody had to take the opposing viewpoint and he was prolbaly as good as anybody.

  16. Tengu responds:

    a family of otters would swim in a row.

    Grey seals are bigger and there is certainly (certainly according to the NHM) a seal(s) in the loch.

    what is the scale of the thing, anyway??

  17. sasquatch responds:

    Yeah Voodoochild; I did catch the contradiction, also the BBC sonor scans he mentioned have since been exposed as not being as extensive as claimed. That fact was not brought up-maybe due to time limitations? Anyway, my opinion is that this thing is pretty big when compared to the waves, I’d say just what is clearly creature (their could be more underwater) and not it’s wake; is about 12-15 feet long. I’ve been on lakes and oceans enough to have a decent intuitive feel for wave size to feel confident in my estimate. There DOES appear to be a bulbous head, (fairly) long, thin neck and larger massive area that trails behind…The closest thing I can think of that matches? Plesiosaur.

Sorry. Comments have been closed.

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