March 8, 2011

Bownessie Photo Explained?

Bownessie

Has the latest well-publicized photograph (above) of Lake Windermere’s Bownessie or Bowness Monster been solved?

Bownessie

Is it to be explained by an old tried and true but tired tale of misidentification?

Bownessie

Bownessie Photographers: Sarah Harrington and Tom Pickles.

Was what was captured photographically only a row of split tires (or “tyres” in the UK)? (See below.)

Compare to:

Last week a family found something by the lake which casts suspicions on the existence of the beast – a large tyre cut open which when floating on water looks rather like the four-humped creature.

‘We were walking in the area where the picture was taken and suddenly saw this tyre cut open lying on the footpath. I thought, “This looks like the creature,” ’ said John Phillips, 46, who was at Windermere for the half-term break with wife Liz and their three daughters.

Mr Phillips, of Solihull, West Midlands, threw the tyre into the water and said he was stunned by the resemblance to the photo.

‘If you looked at this tyre floating from a distance, it did look a Nessie-like creature,’ he said.

‘But in the original picture there was a wave of water behind the creature, which suggested it was moving at speed. I think it was being pulled with a rope by a person or a boat. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s fun, but maybe this tyre is the Bowness Monster.’Daily Mail

Ah, so misidentification, yes, with a hint of human intervention. That equals hoax.

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.

Filed under Breaking News, CryptoZoo News, Evidence, Eyewitness Accounts, Forensic Science, Hoaxes, Lake Monsters, Loch Ness Monster, Photos, Weird Animal News