Although if we are going with whale ancestors, the rodhocetus would be a fairly good match IF it developed a longer neck. It still seems to have the same humpy, upturned boat body shape and four distinct flippers. However there are a lot of sighting also claiming a serpentine body so I’m not sure if we’re looking at eye witness mis-sightings or two completely different phenomena (one an animal, the other strange wave formations).

Read your post and a couple of your points caught my attention, specifically:

“If Nessie, Champ, etc. are air breathers… It so happens they pop up randomly when no one is looking or they somehow live in underwater caves and get their air there or go swim to sea and get their air there.”

Although a small population of air-breathing animals would be difficult to spot on a consistent basis, the fact that they would have to regularly come to the surface to breathe suggests they would eventually be seen/discovered in a landlocked environment.

Moreover, while underwater caverns are a remote – and I stress remote – possibility, one wonders:

1. How the air would be replenished and,

2. How the creatures would be able to successfully hunt for food while “tethered” to their underwater air source?

Finally, while Lake Champlain used to be attached to the ocean, it no longer is; even if it were, the distance between the two bodies of water are so great that it would be akin to holding your breath while you walked across town, only to take another breath to return home (and then repeated those trips for the rest of your life!)

1. The sea is to large and no one is capable to seeing all creatures surface.
2. I honestly think it would be hard to hoax something out in sea.
3. The sea is larger than any lake…..

Now my next question have there ever been reports of spouts associated with Champ?

Also, the article informs us that “Before von Muggenthuler’s research, tales of this beast known as Champ spread throughout the lake area but remained simply that—stories whispered over pints of beer at the local pub. No one had managed to capture the creature on video or camera, and so there was no proof other than hearsay.” So Sandra Mansi and Dennis Hall never existed?

The main point of my post though is to ask what possible effect can a videographers beliefs have on a video tape recording he makes? The tape is an independent recording medium. Should we also discount any photographic evidence recorded by anyone who believes in big hairy monsters in the woods? I think you owe Gordon Holmes an apology – he is a very genuine person who gets out and does his experiments and shares the results for free, – no hype, no press releaks. Now that is a rare thing these days.

Now I’m not a native of the Lake Champlain area so I can’t be positive, but a quick on-line check indicates that Lake Champlain does, in fact, freeze COMPLETELY over, during cold winters. As such, it’s difficult to see how a large mammal could have survived, unnoticed, until now. Even if the supposed beluga-type creature were able to maintain ice-free breathing holes, surely their “spouts” i.e. heated breath, would be clearly visible in the cold air, over long distances, across the open ice.

While von Muggenthuler appears to have recorded “something” using echolocation in the lake, the aforementioned circumstances make me wonder how it could be any type of cetacean.

Threadjack over…

Do you know of any links referring to fossil evidence for the Basilosaurus to support the theory?

I honestly believe she is being very careful in her description when describing these creatures. Keep in mind she is part of a scientific study and has or is submitting papers to the scientific community.

For example if she were to say “it looks similar to a Cadborosaurus, Plesiosaur, or Tanystropheus”. I believe all her credibility would be tossed out the window. She would be cast into the Gordon Holmes category and she would not be taken seriously. Just like Gordon Holmes’s credibility was tossed after when we all learned he was advocating fairies (that were proven to be fakes) on one of his DVDs. His fairy advocating was discovered by Loren shortly after he taped the supposed Nessie footage in May of 2007.

By leaving a description vague by saying “humpy and shows herding behavior” is a very smart approach IMO. Especially if she wants to be taken seriously within the scientific community or by everyone in general.

Just my 2 cents.