Water monster sightings map
Reports of large, unidentified animals in lakes, rivers and coastal waters, including accounts of "sea serpents". Famous named cases are grouped here together; each report is somebody's account of something in the water, and many have ordinary explanations.
Other names in the sources: Champ, Ogopogo, Bessie, Sea serpent.
Background reading on Wikipedia: Champ (folklore) Ogopogo Bessie (lake monster) Sea serpent.
We map claims, not creatures. A case is what some source says someone saw or heard, with the link to that source. It is not proof that anything was there, and a retelling counts once, not as a second sighting.
By the numbers
1,014 cases on the map, 58 of them first-hand (the witness telling it). A case may stand on several documents; copies and reprints are not confirmations.
Best-documented cases
Ranked by independent sources first, then documents, then first-hand accounts. This says how well a claim is documented, not whether it is true.
Water Monster · Lake Champlain, Vermont · 1929
Three youths returning from a fishing trip reported seeing a large serpent-like creature in Lake Champlain that thrust its head above the water and lashed the surface with its tail.
Water Monster · Brest, France métropolitaine · 1879
Captain [name] reports seeing a black, eel-shaped sea serpent with vulture-like eyes rise from the water near his ship off the coast of France.
Water Monster · Fenwick Island, Delaware · 1925
Three sea captains reported sighting a huge sea serpent, apparently killed by a vessel, off Fenwick Island shoal.
Water Monster · Bear Lake, Utah · 1870
Witness reports that Marion Thomas and three sons of Phineas H. Cook encountered a large, hairy, serpent-headed creature with flippers in Bear Lake while fishing.
Water Monster · Vancouver, British Columbia · 1941
Witness reports a 10-foot sea serpent with a horse-like head and bulbous nostrils was found on the beach near Vancouver, B.C., defying identification by a biology professor.
Water Monster · Rockingham County, New Hampshire · 1830
Witnesses report a sea serpent near the Isle of Shoals, with one crew sighting it within twenty feet and another describing its size and appearance.
Further reading
- The Great New England Sea Serpent, J. P. O'Neill (1999)
Account of the 1817 Gloucester sightings and later reports.
Borrow on Internet Archive - On the Track of Unknown Animals, Bernard Heuvelmans (1959)
The founding work of cryptozoology.
Borrow on Internet Archive - Cryptozoology A to Z, Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark (1999)
Encyclopedia of reported creatures.
Borrow on Internet Archive - Abominable Science!, Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero (2013)
Skeptical history of the Yeti, Nessie and others.
Borrow on Internet Archive - In Search of Prehistoric Survivors, Karl Shuker (1995)
Borrow on Internet Archive
Books we have not reproduced: borrow them free at archive.org. Listing a book is not an endorsement of its claims.