June 6, 2009
Sean Viloria has released his embargoed photographs of what may be Ogopogo to me at Cryptomundo to share with interested researchers and the public.
Viloria emails the following:
I have been awaiting the public release of still photographs from my August 2008 sighting in Okanagan Lake.
I wanted to make sure that MonsterQuest got to break the story and a few images first and foremost.
Now that “Lake Demons” has aired and The Kelowna Daily Courier today has printed one still [not online, however] from the many I have been able to collect in the last year, I thought I should share a closer look at the images with yourself and the Cryptomundo readership.
Attached (above) are high-res enhanced copies of photos I took on August 23rd, 2008, just past Peachland, near Kelowna, British Columbia.
I have also attached a photo (below) of the prototype sculpture I made by hand which was mentioned in the article.
Please note that everyone involved with the MonsterQuest production, the head of the British Columbia fisheries, author and historian Arlene Gaal, researcher John Kirk (BCSCC), and Dr. Edward Bousfield have all analyzed these pictures and nobody has been able to offer anything in way of an explanation.
These images are not of a wave pattern, log, bird or any of the great number of living fish species that have been documented to live in the Okanagan nor are they doctored or hoaxed in any way.
I have developed a strong belief that we are on the brink of a potentially explosive scientific discovery. ~ Sean Viloria
Photo of Jessica Weigers (Sean’s girlfriend), MonsterQuest director Joshua Dorsey, and Sean Viloria.
Also, Viloria passed along the article that appeared in the British Columbia newspaper today.
Sean Viloria has a series of digital images that may be the latest proof of Ogopogo‘s existence in Okanagan Lake
“Even to this day, I‘m not saying I‘ve captured the Ogopogo on film. I‘m saying I‘ve taken these pictures of something physical, moving, swimming in the lake and I don‘t know what they are,” said the Kelowna resident.
“A biologist said the object could have been at least 40 feet in length, which is gigantic for anything that could be living in the lake.”
Some images possibly show a back with bony ridges, a head and neck, or appendages.
The colour appeared to change from his initial sighting of something black to something red, leading to speculation that pollution may be affecting the creature‘s skin or there could be more than one, perhaps a thriving population.
“Something is most definitely there, something unknown to science that has made its home in Okanagan Lake. There are so many reasons why this could be the truth and there‘s so much evidence pushing for that. I think it definitely deserves a bit more serious look from the scientific community.”
Arlene Gaal, 2009, taken by Paul Cropper and shared with Cryptomundo.
Kelowna Ogopogo author Arlene Gaal, expert John Kirk and noted Toronto biologist Dr. Edward Bousfield can‘t explain what Viloria photographed, other than to speculate it‘s some kind of unknown aquatic creature. Even a biologist in the provincial fisheries department said it would be unusual to find anything like it in the lake.
Viloria shared three or four photos with the TV show MonsterQuest and didn‘t want to release them
publicly until after the Ogopogo segment aired, which occurred recently in the U.S.
“I feel blessed that we saw anything, that we were part of anything. I think it‘s important that this information is made public. I have nothing to fear; I have nothing to hide. I saw what I saw and the camera doesn‘t lie. It‘s just a matter of time before we collect something factual, something that scientists can look at and study,” he said.
“Just hearing about this or reading about this, if it will take a few people out of their daily rat race routine and make them think that maybe there is a little something more out there, I don‘t think that‘s such a bad thing.”
The Aug. 15, 2008 sighting occurred on Highway 97 between Peachland and Summerland: “black cresting humps that were coming in and out of the water, kind of your stereotypical sighting. It was a fair distance away, probably a third into the lake, but you could tell the girth and size of this thing.”
He accidentally turned his digital camera off, but did get an image of something dark in the water, all but submerged.
The second sighting occurred on Aug. 23, 2008 when they stopped for the Highway 97 widening project just south of the first sighting. Viloria saw a “thrashing, big movement in the water” and took 11 more photos.
“There was something there. I was kind of floored because I had no explanation for them whatsoever,” said Viloria.
Viloria joked he will never swim or waterski in Okanagan Lake again. He is contemplating a mini-expedition at the end of summer. As an artist, he has scuplted a 30-centimetre long prototype of an accurate Ogopogo representation. City council may be approached with the concept of a bronze statue at some point.
Source: “Ogopogo spotted in lake,” by J. P. Squire, June 6, 2009, The Kelowna Daily Courier.
Photo from the MonsterQuest shoot, 2008.
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, Cryptomundo Exclusive, Cryptotourism, CryptoZoo News, Lake Monsters, MonsterQuest, Ogopogo, Photos, Replica Cryptia