Swedish Blobbogey Video
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 28th, 2008
Regarding the story posted here earlier today…
Xeno passes along this translation:
Transcript of video
TITLE: Sweden’s Legendary Great Lake Sea Monster (Storsjödjuret) Caught on Film
ANNOUNCER: ..on Storsjöodjuret, and now six constantly monitoring cameras have captured a blurry image. And now an American TV-company is on its way to present it.
VIDEO VOICE OVER: This is said to be the first moving images of Storsjöodjuret, taken by an underwater camera. The red [rectangle] is supposed to mark heat. At least the group around Storsjöodjuret want to believe that the swedish Loch Ness is captured on film. And a special monitoring station have been built in Svenstavik.
SUSANNE KINDSTRÖM (project Storsjöodjuret): It is clear that it contains heat and cells, otherwise [the equipment] would not indicate “red”. So.. eh, [is it] a sea snake or is a part of Storsjöodjuret, one could ask. As we’ve just discovered.
INTERVIEWER: It can’t be a piece of wood, or something else..?
SUSANNE KINDSTRÖM: That’s NO piece of wood, that I can see! Not by the pattern of movement.
VIDEO VOICE OVER: And this is supposed to be the back fin of the beast, and here the camera should indicate heat also. [Shown on video is a BLUE rectangle]
Since the project Storsjöodjuret started this spring [2008], the interest has been huge – most of all from abroad. The american TV-company NBC is said to be making a story about the beast this fall. And next summer, they are going to [increase the amount of monitoring cameras] from 6 to 30. It is on this rock [pictured] the cameras are placed today.
INTERVIEWER: But.. do you [really] think you will ever get Storsjöodjuret on film?
KURT JONSSON (project Storsjöodjuret): I believe so. And I am also convinced that the technology will also be able to.. in 15 or 20 years, you will be able to search any lake. From space, or with probes. Technology goes forward..
INTERVIEWER: It won’t end with it being a piece of wood?
KURT JONSSON: No, I don’t think so. Something will turn up, yes.
Translator’s notes:
I have rephrased some of what was said to make the meanings more clear. As always with interviews, half-finished sentences abound..
Storsjön is a location, translating into “The big lake”, odjur is approximately “beast”. Thus, it is the beast of the big lake. The broadcast itself is taken from an SVT (Swedish Television) news show that is fairly reputable.
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.
Ok, that’s a pretty good video. Gotta watch it a few more times, but it’s not a sturgeon.
i’m not sure if that’s so much a monster as it is a drowning snake.
You know, after reading the wiki on it, it certainly matches the eywitness sightings of the creature. It’s basically a large serpent. I wouldn’t rule out that this some known species of eel or snake, just much larger than is usually anticipated. I also wouldn’t rule out an unknown species of eel or snake.
Pretty cool. Thanks, Loren.
storsjoodjuret
looks like snake, or maybe we have a yellow belly on film?
[Transcript of video has been uploaded above/]
Very cool…
For once, there is actual meat in them bones. Wonder what the Swedish media is making of this one. Wonder also if Amrican media will pick up on this too.
Very nice, Loren.
On a more personal note, I have lived in Östersund, which is a city bisected by the lake Storsjön, home of Storsjöodjuret. It is a very popular creature, being made into the icon of the city itself, found on everything from letterheads to trashcans. However, it has never – in my experience – been taken very seriously as an actual being. Theories are usually that it is an eel or a form of catfish, both native to the country.
As for it being a sea snake, that seems highly unlikely. Sweden is home to few snakes; small constrictors and one venomous snake (Huggorm). Sea snakes are mostly found in warm tropical waters, and I would suspect that the climate is much too cold for them to be in a lake that freezes over during winter.
I personally do not think it is likely that Storsjön is home to a cryptid, but it can be home to a native creature of unusual size, or one not thought to inhabit lakes.
I love the interviewer…
“Are you SURE it is not a piece of wood???”
“Er—–NO. And No. And surprisingly, No. Good heavens, No. And great Googly-Moogly, No.”
“Sure, Sure? Really, Really sure???”
There doesn’t seem to be any way to determine its size.
The head is shaped like a salamander’s. That’s where I’m putting my chips.
Here is the link to the six cameras.
/Fredrik, the Swedsih Cryptomundoite
The Swedish eels do not grow very large, just over a meter and the largest snake, the European Adder grows to only 90cm. I am not sure if the Adder likes to take a swim;)
Catfish is more possible in my view. The European Catfish (Siluris glanis) can grow to 5 metres and weigh 400kg (largest caught in Sweden was 3.6m, 180kg).
Makes me wonder if it is possible that the European lake monsters actually are very large Catfish?
is there some information about the size?
You know, if its just a meter long, I wouldn’t call it a Lakemonster.
(btw the catfishs we have in Germany, are in max range about 3 meters ~10 feet)
cu MPc
Doesnt look like anything known to me.
Snake body and a large head like a newt or something.
Theres no way to kno exact size so who knows for sure what it is…
Hopefully its Storsjöodjuret 🙂
It’s hard to tell what size the thing is without any reference points. Could be a submerged, dying worm if the size was small scale. Hard to tell what it is but I am far from saying that it shows a giant lake monster. Two things that I will say is that it appears to be a living creature, and that it is not a piece of wood. Seriously, wood? Where did that come from?
Wow, that’s some pretty interesting footage.
Sea snake, sea worm, and eel I would say definatly might be within the range of possible suspects….. I’ll throw out a couple more possibilites…oarfish and caecilian.
Have they made any attempts to calculate it’s size????
I was wondering if this is a still digital image, a video captured still or if it is a thermal image from a video capture.
The reason I ask is that it gives me some foundation on which to analyze the still. If it is a a regular color digital image, that tells me one thing. If it is a still from a thermal imaging camera, that tells me another thing in analyzing the photo. It could even be thermal currents moving in the water and manifests itself as some kind of creature when it is not.
So Loren, if you have any more information on this still, please post it here and let us know. Thanks in advance!
“odjur” eh? clearly an otter! 😉
seriously, worm, snake, salamander, loose bit of bait.
“VIDEO VOICE OVER: And this is supposed to be the back fin of the beast, and here the camera should indicate heat also. [Shown on video is a BLUE rectangle]”
It’s very confusing to me. The rectangle (and it’s red) is nowhere near the object you can see moving in the film. So, does this mean that what we actually see moving is not giving off any heat? I don’t see anything down where the rectangle is until later on in that first clip. You can barely see a light object move by. Very, very complexing.
Actually, the rectangle starts off on the “head” of the object, but fails to follow it for very long. Still very odd.
Thank you for the translation, Xeno 🙂
…”I personally do not think it is likely that Storsjön is home to a cryptid, but it can be home to a native creature of unusual size, or one not thought to inhabit lakes.” Xeno, really quickly, does the lake completely freeze over? I mean would there be places for an air breathing anything to get air in the middle of winter? If not, how many non-air breathing–non-cryptids are there that could get to that size? Just curious.
Well it is also making the main stream news services…
Sweden’s Loch Ness monster possibly caught on camera
Fri Aug 29, 11:51 AM ET
STOCKHOLM (AFP) – Sweden’s own version of the Loch Ness monster, the Storsjoe or Great Lake monster, has been caught on film by surveillance videos, an association that installed the cameras said Friday.
Whatever the subject of this video is, its locomotion seems very worm-like to me. Also, the only thing I can think of which looks even somewhat similar is the subject of a December 1964 photo taken off the coast of Australia, near Queensland, by Robert Serrec. It looks like a gigantic tadpole or something. That was a marine environmet, whereas this is freshwater… but like whatever that other photo shows, this thing’s head is wider, or a larger diameter, compared to the rest of its serpentine, or worm-like body. Too bad, as others have said, that we don’t know at least the approximate physical size of the thing. Interesting, for sure.
A glacially influenced lake, deep cold waters, glacial silt sediment, sporadic sightings, no evidence that the lake could support a population the known primary terrestrial or lacustrine candidates. Sounds so much like so many of the other lake creatures.
Presuming that the object is a large animal and not a concerted effort to misrepresent it, my vote would be for an eel, lamprey or hagfish with an indeterminate growth potential living in the nearly suspended animation for what could be long periods of time until something dies and sinks nearby at which time environmental signals would alert the local population to feed and/or reproduce.
The sort of critter that would feast on the carcass of a cow or moose or some other megafauna washed into the lake and sink in water so cold that submerged carcasses don’t produce the gasses which typically causes carcasses to inflate and float at the surface after a few days.
Before going down this road again, just for the sake of completeness, has anyone checked the local Halloween shops first? 🙂
It’s head sure looks like a pit viper shape…As children in Spain my brothers and I saw one up close…But do they range into Sweden? And swim underwater? Well, I also agree that it looks salamander-ish too but no legs?! Well anyway this is an interesting video but without a scale indicator-?… we’ll see.
@pre-cbs
Nice to see another Swede. I hope you agreed with my translation! 😉
@mystery_man
The “piece of wood” (or wooden board)-thing struck me as odd too. It seems clear from the images that the object is not rigid at all (as Susanne Kindström comments with “..by the pattern of movement”). It is clear that the interviewer has nothing but sour grapes for this project and its findings – something very off-putting to me.
Rational inquiry and investigation should be encouraged at all times.
@PhotoExpert
“I was wondering if this is a still digital image, a video captured still or if it is a thermal image from a video capture.”
Looking at the projects homepage (storsjoodjuret.nu), I found this (and translated it):
The system in place today is composed of two Hi-Def cameras, one 3 and one 5 megapixel. A Hi-Def DVD has 720×576 lines of pixels. A 5 megapixel camera from UTS delivers 2048×1536 lines of pixels. [Note: this is what it says on the webpage, I have not fact checked it.]
We also have a camera of 1 megapixel monitoring the station itself. [Apparently to ward off tamperers, thieves and possibly hoaxers.]
The most interesting camera is called FLIR. It is analog, and has limited resolution BUT it is thermographic.
There are also two analog cameras, with “ordinary” resolution.
The system they are using to monitor the input is called Aimetis Aira V5, and is made in Canada. The purpose of this program is to identify “natural” movement, such as rain, and wave motion. It is designed to record only when it detects something “interesting”, which it then targets with the rectangle to log it into the database.
@mojo
“The rectangle (and it’s red) is nowhere near the object you can see moving in the film.”
The first clip shows a red rectangle, the second (very short) clip shows a blue rectangle (in the lower right corner). I added the comment about the blue rectangle because I was personally confused, since Susanne Kindström states: “It is clear that it contains heat and cells, otherwise [the equipment] would not indicate ‘red'”.
@shumway10973
“Xeno, really quickly, does the lake completely freeze over?”
I actually had a hard time pinning this down. From what I remember from living there, all visible parts were indeed solidly frozen over. It freezes over thick enough to drive cars and snowmobiles over much of it.
I searched for a definitive answer, but I failed to find one. It is certainly not completely frozen over every season, what with the latest winters being pretty mild here.
See the fact sheet at the bottom for some detail I did find.
“If not, how many non-air breathing–non-cryptids are there that could get to that size?”
Like I mentioned earlier, eel and catfish are good candidates. I also found out that it is home to both beavers and otters, both of which are notorious for being responsible for “cryptid” sightings. However, you phrase the question with “get to that size” – I have to point out that (as many have already commented) we have NO information about size. Any size references as of yet are purely anecdotal.
FACTS ABOUT STORSJÖN
Storsjön has an area of 464 km² (the fifth largest in Sweden), and a maximum depth of 74m. The average depth, however, is 17.3m. The lake floor is very varied, with many crevices, in parts with a rocky floor, in other parts with mud. In summer, the average temperature of the lake is 12-18 degrees C at the top, and 4-6º C at the bottom. In winter, the average temperature (below the ice, of course) is 4º C.
Storsjön is home to several species of fish including arctic char, grayling, common whitefish and eel. It is also home to two mammals – beavers and otters.
The Swedish website offers 3 videos. After watching them I lost my excitement. (Part of it though could be due to language barrier as I may be missing important information.) The first video shows a creature that could be anything from a 30 foot serpent to a planktonic worm. Is there absolute proof that it is a large creature? And if so, how large is it? If it’s anywhere under 10 feet long there is no point calling it a cryptid as it could be an eel. Without commentary, I am not sure what the second video shows. The third video shows a grouper-like fish that’s probably a pike.
Reminds me a bit of an Olm : Wiki Page For Olms
“The olm, or proteus (Proteus anguinus), is a blind amphibian endemic to the subterranean waters of caves of the Dinaric karst of southern Europe. It lives in the waters that flow underground through this extensive limestone region including waters of the Soča river basin near Trieste in Italy, through to southern Slovenia, southwestern Croatia, and Herzegovina. The olm is the only species in its genus Proteus, the only European species of the family Proteidae, and the only European exclusively cave-dwelling chordate. It is also occasionally called the “human fish” by locals because of its human-like skin (translated literally from Slovene: človeška ribica and Croatian: čovječja ribica), as well as “cave salamander” or “white salamander.”
I wonder if the guys from Destination Truth are going to investigate. They are the only ones I know of here in the US that actually do more than just interview witnesses. They get all the proper gear and seriously try to find the cryptids they are investigating or at least evidence the witnesses are seeing something real or aren’t’ misidentifying some animal. Anyway, this is the best video of an aquatic cryptid. They can’t say it’s a log, a school of fish, or a sturgeon.
Not convinced it looks like an inanimate object where the camera is moving but the object is stationery.
how the heck can this be a catfish!!??????????
helloo!!!!!!