Refutation of Radford
Posted by: John Kirk on January 17th, 2014
I am mentioned in this article, Ogopogo: Canada’s Loch Ness Monster, and while I enjoyed my collaboration with my good friends Ben Radford and Joe Nickell, I am astonished at Ben’s conclusion regarding the size of the object in the Folden film.
We employed the assistance of a team of professional surveyors to measure distances and the size of objects in the area where the Folden filmed was obtained. I had doubtsvabout the 70 foot length of the object in the film as ascribed by people who were at the initial viewing in 1970.
The lake is very narrow at that point of the lake and using obvious reference points I had come to the conclusion that the creature in the Folden film was definitely not 70 feet long.
However, we used a 26 foot houseboat as a reference point when Ben, Joe and I carried out our comparison in 2005. While we were able to determine that the Folden animal was certainly not 70 feet long, it was substantially larger lengthwise than the houseboat.
In fact a good approximation based on the data at hand and observations of our own, the creature was in the vicinity of 35 feet or half the earlier estimate. To my knowledge there are no 35 foot fish or beavers in Okanagan Lake. Therefore nix the known animals and what are you left with? An unknown animal, that’s what.
Sorry Ben my friend, your hypothesis above just doesn’t wash.
About John Kirk
One of the founders of the BCSCC, John Kirk has enjoyed a varied and exciting career path. Both a print and broadcast journalist, John Kirk has in recent years been at the forefront of much of the BCSCC’s expeditions, investigations and publishing. John has been particularly interested in the phenomenon of unknown aquatic cryptids around the world and is the author of In the Domain of the Lake Monsters (Key Porter Books, 1998).
In addition to his interest in freshwater cryptids, John has been keenly interested in investigating the possible existence of sasquatch and other bipedal hominids of the world, and in particular, the Yeren of China. John is also chairman of the Crypto Safari organization, which specializes in sending teams of investigators to remote parts of the world to search for animals as yet unidentified by science. John travelled with a Crypto Safari team to Cameroon and northern Republic of Congo to interview witnesses among the Baka pygmies and Bantu bushmen who have sighted a large unknown animal that bears more than a superficial resemblance to a dinosaur.
Since 1996, John Kirk has been editor and publisher of the BCSCC Quarterly which is the flagship publication of the BCSCC. In demand at conferences, seminars, lectures and on television and radio programs, John has spoken all over North America and has appeared in programs on NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, TLC, Discovery, CBC, CTV and the BBC.
In his personal life John spends much time studying the histories of Scottish Clans and is himself the president of the Clan Kirk Society. John is also an avid soccer enthusiast and player.
