Aquabeasties

Lake Windermere, England

Is there something massive swimming in the depths of England's Lake Windermere? On Saturday, September 19, John McKeown, a cameraman for Lakes TV in the Lake District, shot a video of some mysterious ripples or waves on Lake Windermere. Shortly after 8 am, Mr. McKeown saw a long v-shaped ripple or wave in the middle of the lake around 20 meters (66 feet) long. A few moments later another splash appeared and grew nearby. Eventually there were several large ripples of something that seemed to be lurking under the water. It was "quite a large subsurface disturbance," noted Mr. McKeown. He also said:

"You would almost think that there was a boat going down the middle of the lake, with the waves parting either side, sending waves either way across the lake."

McKeown thought at first that the splashes and ripples may have been caused by the ferry, which operates on cables and might have made such splashes on the surface. But Alan Mumford, the skipper of the boat "Mistress," says that "the ferry is a good mile-and-a-half up the lake." Mr. Mumford agrees that other boats in the vicinity could explain the ripples or splashes or waves, but points out that there are no boats in the video and Mr. McKeown says there were no boats around. "I'm convinced it's not the ferry, and that it's not a boat." He also points out that this sort of thing could be happening much more often than we see, but it's only visible when the waters are calm and the conditions are good like in the video. Here is the footage and a small interview with the "Mistress" skipper.

Councillor Bill Smith, the mayor of Windermere, said, “Anything that draws interest and awareness to the Lake District has to be a positive opportunity. The people that have seen it believe genuinely they have seen something, even if there is no real proof yet.

"Bownessie," as the creature has become known (for the v-shaped trail she leaves), made her first public appearance in 2006. University lecturer Steve Burnip of Hebden Bridge and his wife Eileen saw what they claimed was a 15 to 20-foot (4.5 to 6-meter) creature with a small head and two small humps following in its path. Mr. Burnip said "It was like a giant eel."

They were standing at Watbarrow point, a well-known lookout spot.

"I was absolutely flabbergasted," said Mr. Burnip, "I just stood there and couldn't believe what I was looking at."

At the time, Ian Winfield, a fish ecologist at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology at Lancaster University, said Mr. Burnip may have seen a catfish.

"The Wels catfish comes from mainland Europe and can grow to about 500cm [16.4 feet] and weigh up to 306kg [674.6 pounds] and there have been numerous records of catfish washing up dead in Cumbrian lakes," said Mr. Winfield.

Or maybe it actually was an eel, or our friend the sturgeon.
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In March 2007 Dennis Aris, a writer for The Westmorland Gazette, speculated that people could just be seeing an old mechanical pike planted in the lake:

"Could it be that the recently spotted Windermere monster is a reappearance of the infamous killer pike that inhabited the lake way back in the 1980s?

"The four-metre long mechanical monster was specially built for a film that never made it to the silver screen and years later ended up ignominiously hung by the tail at the Low Wood Ski Centre.

"Now I wonder if disgruntled water skiers, still seething at being kicked off the lake by the 10mph speed limit, have put it back into commission to scare the hell out of other lake users on the premise of 'If we can't use the lake neither will they.'"

See more here.

One morning in July 2009, Thomas Noblett, managing director of the local Langdale Chase Hotel, was swimming in the lake, training for a channel swim, and his trainer Andrew Tighe was paddling along with him in a boat. They were the only ones out on the lake, near Wray Castle. Suddenly Mr. Noblett was hit by a three-foot (one-meter) wave.

Said Mr. Noblett:

“We had gotten up early and Windermere was crystal clear. The lake was totally empty apart from us and all I could hear was the slapping of my arm against the water . . . All of a sudden this wave just hit us. Andrew said ‘where the hell did that come from?’ and it made the boat rock from side to side . . . It was like a big bow wave; a three-foot swell at least. There was two, as if a speed boat had sped past, but there were no boats on the lake."

Later, he said, "We both looked in amazement as another wave hit us, and he said, 'That's nothing, have a look at this,' and what was going up was a sort of bow wave up the middle of the lake."

“I didn’t entertain [the thought of a monster in Lake Windermere] before. Now when I’m in the lake it has my full attention,” said Mr. Noblett.

This encounter coincided with the announcement that psychic Dean "Midas" Maynard would search the lake for the creature in September. Mr. Maynard had become well known for accurately predicting sports scores as well as having a background in ghost research.

As excitement built for the expedition, Steve Burnip commented:

“I am absolutely convinced that there is a big creature in the lake. I am really pleased that there is a renewed interest in it because I know what I saw. I can see it in my head now, this grey lump and the humps breaking the water like you see in the classic Loch Ness pictures. There is something in there, something quite big and elusive.”

And then, on Saturday, September 19, Dean "Midas" Maynard and Windermere photographer Linden Adams (who took a photograph of Bownessie which baffled experts) searched the lake for Bownessie. Prior to the expedition, Mr. Adams said, “I am confident we will have a good day. I can’t say whether or not we will find anything but who knows. Since the original sightings more and more people have been coming forward claiming to have seen something.”

Kim Inglis, a Freelance Journalist, was onboard the search boat.

“I was looking at a flock of seagulls that were circulating above the lake about 100 metres. All of a sudden something came out of the water and before I could say anything it disappeared . . . I would describe it as a head but I wouldn’t go beyond that as you start imagining things . . . I definitely saw something. I believe it was probably just a big fish but I still think the idea of Bownessie is fascinating and it has put the region on the map, which is a good thing.”

A passenger on the sonar boat who had also seen a head come up out of the water confirmed her sighting.

What will rise out of Lake Windermere's waters next? Let's wait and see, and maybe theorize.