OTHER STRANGE SEA CREATURES
 Long before Loch Ness became famous, the beautiful Argentine Andes Nahuel Huapi Lake was known for the cryptid that inhabited its depths. (Costello, Peter, In Search of Lake Monsters, 1975.) Nahuelito is named after the lake which covers 318 sq. miles at the foot of the Patagonian mountains. Fossilized skeletons of the ichthyosaur (like that on the right) have been found near Bariloche not far from the lake, leading some to assign this identity to the cryptid. Supposedly, Nahuelito has been visible for several minutes on the surface of the lake and has been sighted by scores of tourists and locals. Estimates of the creature's length range from 15 ft. and upwards. As early as 1897 Dr. Clementi Onelli (Director of the Buenos Aires Zoo) had been receiving reports of an unknown creature which left huge tracks and crushed bushes and undergrowth leading to the lake shore. An American gold prospector named Martin Sheffield told in his reports of Argentina of an animal with a huge neck like a swan which moved with a body like that of a crocodile. An expedition, which was led by José Cihagi, superintendent of the zoo, was unsuccessful in locating Nahuelito, causing Leonard Matters in the July 1922 issue of Scientific American to conclude that the plesiosaur, "if it ever existed, appears to have fled to parts unknown." About 1910 George Garrett was managing a company on Lake Nahuel Huapi when he had the following encounter:
"...we were beating windward up an inlet called 'Pass Coytrue,' which bounded the peninsula. This inlet was about five miles in length, a mile or so in width, and of an unfathomable depth. Just as we were near the rocky shore of the peninsula, before tacking, I happened to look astern towards the centre of the inlet, and, to my great surprise, I saw about a quarter of a mile to leeward, an object which appeared to be 15 or 20 feet in diameter, and perhaps six feet above the water. After a few minutes, the monster disappeared. On mentioning my experience to my neighbours, they said the Indians often spoke of immense water animals they had seen from time to time." (Toronto Globe, April 6, 1922.)
The Great Lakes in north America have had more than their fair share of sea monster stories, including a photo of "Bessie" taken in 1991 by John Kraft. Other strange, swimming reptiles have become famous, like the creature that has been sighted in Canada's Lake Okanagan and is called Ogopogo by the locals. Then there is Memphre, the mysterious creature of Lake Memphremagog, on the Vermont-Quebec border that has been observed since the 1800’s. What has been reported as a plesiosaur has also been repeatedly sighted in Bynoe Harbor near Darwin, Australia. It is said to be depicted in Aborigine cave paintings in the north. The corpse pictured middle right washed ashore on Mann Hill Beach in Plymouth, MA during November of 1970. Described by one eyewitness as a "camel without legs" this carcass has confounded investigators for four decades. It was said to be about 20 ft long, weighing approximately 2 tons and closely resembled a plesiosaur.
Probably the most-respected "sea serpent" story involves the Cadborosaurus ("Caddy") which has been observed numerous times off the coast of British Columbia.
Professor P. LeBlond of the University of British Columbia presented a compelling paper on Caddy to the Canadian and American Societies of Zooloogy and a 3-meter carcass of an apparent juvenile was discovered in the stomach of a sperm whale. This corpse photo shown lower right is courtesy of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, copyright 1995. Other speculative stories about USO’s (Unidentified Swimming Objects) abound from England, Sweden, Russia, France, Japan, etc. Could some of these creatures be plesiosaurs as well?
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