DT After Lake Van Monster

Posted by: Loren Coleman on April 6th, 2009

A group of American filmmakers have arrived in the eastern province of Van to shoot a documentary on the “Lake Van Monster.”

In 1997, a university teaching assistant shot video of what has become known as the Lake Van Monster.

Lake Van Monster

Above is a still from that video shot by 26 year old Unal Kozak.

The reality television investigation on Turkey’s largest lake will be broadcast as part of the U.S. series “Destination Truth.”

Paying a visit to the mayor of Van’s Gevas town on Saturday, April 4, 2009, U.S. production crew said that they believed in the existence of a monster in Lake Van.

After their meeting with the mayor, the group shot several scenes, some scuba divers from the team dived into the lake and documentarists later proceeded to Akdamar Island.

Spending the whole night at the island, filmmakers waited for the “monster to appear”. 

Anyone wish to take any bets on whether the “monster appeared” or not?

Note this is from the new Hurriyet Turkish news report:

“The Lake Van Monster was not reported until 1995. There are now more than 1,000 people claiming to have witnessed the beast which is reported to measure around fifteen meters long with spikes on its back and appears similar to a Plesiosaur or Ichthyosaurus. Following these reports, the Turkish government sent an official scientific survey group to the lake who failed to spot the creature.”

This is from Wikipedia:

“The Lake Van Monster (Turkish: Van Gölü Canavarı) was not reported until 1995 in Lake Van, a large alkaline lake in Eastern Turkey. There are now more than 1,000 people claiming to have witnessed the beast which is reported to measure around fifteen meters long with spikes on its back and appears similar to a Plesiosaur or Ichthyosaurus. Following these reports the Turkish government sent an official scientific survey group to the lake who failed to spot the creature.”

“In 1997 a local man, Unal Kozak, a teaching assistant at Van University, captured the creature on video which was sent for analysis. He has written a book about the monster. Yet his video is under constant criticism, with questions like why it never pans left, possibly because of a boat that may have carried the creature. Or why the monster only goes straight, instead of curving through the water. Even criticism as to why the breathing is not in and out, but a continuous release, much like the effects of an air hose.”

“Destination Truth” is a weekly adventure series that invites viewers along on one man’s search for the truth while he investigates stories of the unexplained across the globe. Every week, the presenter of the show Josh Gates and his small crew of producers visit a different international destination alleged to be the home of a notorious, supernatural or mysterious creature, such as the Chilean Chupacabras, as well as some lesser-known phenomena, such as the dinosaur-like creatures reported in the skies over Papua New Guinea, a haunted village in Thailand and the wolfman of Argentina, said the Turkish news service Hurriyet.

Loren Coleman 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.


8 Responses to “DT After Lake Van Monster”

  1. Samson77 responds:

    The guy makes a video of a log and a wave and all of a sudden he is an expert who writes a book?
    I think the lake van log investigation has been pretty much exhausted.

  2. Samson77 responds:

    Destination Drama continues to prove itself a mockery Cryptozoology and nothing more than smoke, mirrors, and sensationalism.

  3. norman-uk responds:

    Well I never Samson77! —-Part 1
    Clearly the picture was only a possibility of the ”monster” but you cannot state positively it was of a log and a wave. I dont suppose the 1000 people were all seeing a log and a wave.
    Where did Unak Kozak say he was an expert, or was he just a man writing a book?
    If you want an expert, caution Will Robinson ! It has been said experts are people who know more and more about less and less. It happens.
    My opinion is that there is a way to go with the Lake Van monster yet and it is of interest

  4. norman-uk responds:

    Samson77part 2
    The series we are seeing in the UK is still called Monster Quest but actually I think your word ”Drama” instead of ”Truth” in the latest version is nearer the mark. But perhaps docudrama would be even nearer, but wouldnt resonate though would it?

    One can analyse the programme and wonder about strange things like a bus driver bumping fortuitously into Josh Gates with two possible yeti hairs in his pocket and whats the relevance of finding, in the night, a pair of old underpants in a cave ? Lots of room to criticise the programme for all its mock excitements and constructs.

    BUT I AM A FAN!!, I know its show business and it does entertain even if one needs to suspend reality for a bit, much of the time. If viewed in a sceptic and negative way one will neither learn nor enjoy. Who goes where Gates goes, on mainstream TV? Where can you see anyone tackling the subject of the Mapinguary or interview David Oren and lots more? I think we are lucky to have the programme and that it has escaped being stifled by the demands of the sceptics with a narrow application of science. Gates uses science as an anchor not as a straightjacket (I use this in a complimentary sense).

    In addition I admire Gates and his crew, I think they are courageous, and intelligent, extremely hard working-in the field anyway and show hugh initiative. They do programmes which entertain and if one is discriminating, educate. Good luck to them.

  5. cliff responds:

    I agree with norman-uk, at least you can always count on DT to entertain, whereas other shows fall flat. A good example of that being a coordinated air/sea expedition that chases a shark whale for days, I was bored to tears this past Wednesday night watching that garbage. To me, that was more like a mockery at the end than anything I’ve ever seen on DT. You have 2 shows searching for cryptids, one of the shows takes an analytical approach that can be appreciated in some regards, but lacks imagination and entertainment in others. Then the other show, DT, takes a balls to the wall, gung-ho, go get ’em approach and manages to fit in enough background info to educate, the cast doesn’t take themselves so seriously that they are boring, you get some personality and character that lend to some comic relief and just make things interesting. It’s just my opinion and my views, but I’ll take DT over MQ any day.

  6. Loren Coleman responds:

    I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m getting tired of Josh Gates writing in all the time using this name “Cliff.”

    LOL.

    🙂

  7. norman-uk responds:

    I have to apologise I referred to monster quest when it should have been monster hunter !

    I do also greatly appreciate monster quest in a different way though I do have my quibbles (of course). For example a man had what he thought was a large cat taking his stock, but for a some reason no mention in the programme was made of the Jaguarundi which seemed like a good candidate. Even though a video showed what looked like one !

    Still good programmes !

  8. cliff responds:

    LOL Loren, yep, I’m the “other” Josh Gates, except Sci-Fi isn’t paying me a lucrative salary to trek the world with a cutie-pie assistant named Ryder, or what was the one before that was sooo frreakin hot, Araceli I think was her name?

    Anyway Loren, you sometimes get exclusive info from the DT folks, do you happen to have any info on when the new season starts?

    I have looked on the web trying to get a firm date, but the date for the Season Premiere of DT has been as elusive as Orang Pendek…..

Sorry. Comments have been closed.

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