While I admire Sundberg's enthusiasm, he and other
cryptozoologists need to seriously consider the question of how
giant or even large animals support themselves in lakes with
little food supply (Loch Ness) or NO food supply at all (Lake
Seljord). Obviously they are entering and leaving again, by
waterways which are not obvious since they are mostly
subterranean....
A new Reuters article follows.
--Mike
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Loch Ness Hunters Set Sights on Irish Monster
Updated: Wed, Jun 13 8:01 AM EDT
By Kevin Smith
DUBLIN (Reuters) - An international team of monster hunters is
due in Ireland this month in search of a fabled serpent with the
body of a giant eel and a horse-like head.
The three-man team, led by veteran Swedish monster hunter
Jan Sundberg, plans to sweep Lough Ree in the Irish midlands
for signs of a creature they think could be related to an elusive
Norwegian lake beast known to locals as "Selma."
"There have been a number of sightings in Ireland over the years
of a beast that fits Selma's description. We want to see if we can
record and compare the sounds," Sundberg told Reuters.
Sundberg, 54, who earlier this year carried out an "ultimately
disappointing" search for Scotland's legendary Loch Ness
monster, said he had already spoken to a fisherman in the
southern county of Cork who had recently hooked "an ugly,
eel-like" creature more than nine feet long.
"Unfortunately he was unable to land it, but these kind of things
have been spotted all over Ireland for centuries."
Sundberg has used adapted submarine-detecting equipment to
make more than 100 recordings in Norway's Seljord lake --
reputed home of Selma -- which had baffled scientists.
"It sounds like an eel, which makes a very strange creaking
noise, except it must be 50-meters long because it's so loud," he
said.
Close range footage of a huge anaconda-like creature with
spikes on its back had also been taken by two Norwegian
fisherman but would not be released until after his team's next
expedition to the lake in August.
Experts in Ireland, while confirming the myths surrounding the
"horse eel," were doubtful about Sundberg's chances. "I've read
accounts of these things going back many years but my
research tells me this is a culturally based phenomenon rather
than a scientifically based one," Daithi O hOgain, professor of
Irish Folklore at University College Dublin, said.
Tales of great reptilian monsters inhabiting Irish lakes had their
roots in apocalyptic stories of "great beasts being cast into fiery
lakes" as told to Irish pagans by Christian missionaries in the
6th and 7th centuries, he said.
"Alternatively, a lot of these sightings are made by inebriated
people," he said.
However, he was reluctant to dampen Sundberg's enthusiasm.
Sundberg, whose Global Underwater Search Team is due in
Ireland on June 22, refused to be deflected.
"We've talked to a lot of people about these eel creatures over
the years and I can tell you there is great consistency in the
stories," he said.