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According to Dr. Malcom Clarke, of the Marine Biological Association , temperature also seems to affect the squid's buoyancy mechanism. Warm water will cause a giant squid to rise to the surface and not be able to get back down. With water temperature even higher at the surface, the squid maybe doomed. It is not surprising then, that most squid groundings occur near where two ocean streams, one cold and one warm, meet. Perhaps the squid found himself suddenly in water too warm for him.
Schools of squid surface at night to hunt lanternfish, shrimp, mollusks, and other cephalopods.
Ok not ruling out a giant squid lets say someone did place this in here for the video. Squid do not "break" the surface like this that I know of. They lack muscle to be above water. Now if this is an elaborate hoax with a motor boat and platoon device that would be possible.
Could it be that a "Giant Squid" was placed in the lake to create this video?
Local folklore also tells that the lake is enchanted and that angels go in and out of the water.
Features in a Martian meteorite believed by some to be the fossilised remains of alien bacteria may have formed underwater, scientists claim.
Researchers have found a "striking" match between microscopic features on underwater rocks and mineral deposits from Earth and microbe-like structures in the famous Martian meteorite ALH84001.
...
The evidence comes from volcanic rocks and underwater geological formations called calcareous pinnacles found below the surface of Lake Van in Turkey, the world's biggest alkaline lake.
With the dawning of the twentieth century, a long forgotten culture has been rediscovered in the Anatolian Highlands of Asia Minor. This ancient civilization, Urartu (pronounced oo-rar'-too), which was centered about Lake Van, flourished from the ninth to the sixth century B.C...
But where exactly was it located Mesopotamian inscriptions do not say; however, the Zoroastrian Bundahishn text and the Christian records of Arbela in Iraqi Kurdistan both refer to a location named Dilamƒn as having existed around the head waters of the Tigris, south-west of Lake Van - the very area in which the biblical Eden is said to have been located.
I'm a special effects/rubber monster artist who works in Hollywood, and I
have some thoughts I would like to share concerning the Lake Van/Turkey
footage.
I actually do believe in Lake Monsters--at least, some of 'em. Nessie has
had many witnesses over the years, and Ogopogo some very fine video footage.
On to to Lake Van monster, though. My background has trained me to spot fake monsters quickly--in a sense, I fake them professionally myself for movies--and, although there may or may not be something cryptozoological in the lake, I think the Lake Van video footage is some of the more transparent hoaxing I've seen.
The edited nature of the footage, first off, suggests that someone behind
the scenes is trying to prevent the audience from seeing "everything" in the scene. The camera appears to be keeping away from panning left in the moving shot--which is where a motorboat would be if the "creature" were being tugged on a cable/rope.
In the stationary shot, the exhalation from the creature's nostrils
appears not to be respiratory (in-and-out or intermittent), but constant, as
you might see from an air hose.
The moving shot itself suffers from two major flaws:
1., the creature's back never exhibits flexibility, and is perfectly straight, as if the creature's "detail" (ridges and soforth) was modeled on the upper side of a two-by-four (in Plastic Wood, perhaps?) which was then weighted so that it would not float too obviously above the surface. 2., it moves as though being pulled on a cable (hence the tight tracking of the camera on the object, to hide the agency doing the pulling) and does not exhibit muscular action such as that exhibited by the object in the Ogopogo video footage.
The object in the Lake Van footage even "lurches" suddenly, as though the
motorboat's engine had just started up. I personally doubt very much that
the footage shows an animal. In many cases like this, it is useful to
observe not only the behavior of the object being photographed, but the
behavior of the camera as well.
As a point of comparison, though, take a look at the Ogopogo video footage; you will notice many subtle flexibility's and muscular movements as the creature swims and dives. (You will also notice far fewer cuts per minute of screen time--so if there is a puppeteer under the water, they are doing a long and convincing performance.) And the fin slapping the water, to my eye, looks absolutely like a real animal, and not at all like a rubber
puppet. Such convincing movement would be very, very difficult to fake. A
rubber puppet being "motivated" by a mechanism or by a submerged performer would look much less spontaneous. That fin belongs to a powerful animal--and, while much has been made of the fin and the visible "head" or "nose" in the video footage, I am much more prone to stare at the long, thick body trailing behind these, just as obvious (if not more so) although submerged.
Hoaxes can be frustrating for the crytozoologist, but they do keep us on our toes, and can even be enjoyed in a spirit of fun once they are uncovered for what they are--and there's no doubt that, on occasion, certain hoaxes have helped to perpetuate the public's interest in mysterious creatures.
No, I don't believe the Lake Van footage shows an animal--but that's not to say I would go SWIMMING in Lake Van any time soon. Just to be on the safe side. - Rodd Matsui ([email protected])
At 11:46 2005-09-14, you wrote:
>According to the article, the footage was handed
>to Jacques Cousteau for study, but Mr Cousteau
>since passed away, and there was no conclusion
>about the video footage. There's also no other
>satisfying conclusions about the video anywhere one the Internet.
- According to Jacques Cousteaus (eldest) son,
Jean-Michel, Mr. Cousteau never got the footage
before he passed away and afterwards none of the
crew of the Costeau people saw it worthwile to retrive.
>I would like to know if you've looked at the
>footage, and if you have any theories or opinions about the footage.
- I have seen it, yes, and in my opinion the
object which is said to be the "monster" is too
stiff to be a living creature. Unal Kozak, who
alledgely took the footage, have been impossible
to trace and no one at the University of Van ever heard of him.
- On the other hand there appears to be a true
unknown in the lake, since people in Turkey we
have been in touch with say's that Canavar,
Turkish for "monster", is as known there as
Nessie is over in Europe and elsewhere.
- We have advanced plans to go there ourselves
and search for it, but so far we've been stopped
by the ongoing war between the Turkish government
and the PKK, which today are considered to be a
terrorist organization. Lake Van, or Van Gülu as
the Turks call it, is also only 200 km from the
border to Iraq, where the war with the USA seems
to be going on for many years yet.
- If Turkey joins the European Union and thereby
comes to a peaceful solution with the PKK, who we
believe are freedom fighters not terrorists, and
the war between the USA and Iraq comes to a
close, GUST will search Van Gülu and until than I
remain open to what this lake could hide.
Best Regards,
Jan Sundberg, Expedition Leader
GUST
Originally posted by Gemwolf
Looking for pics of Squid, I couldn't find a single one where a Squid surfaced. Which raised the question. Would and/or could a squid surface?
Originally posted by Gemwolf
Thanx for your input ShadowXIX.
This does thus mean that the giant squid does "surface", but only to hunt? But none the less I think we've got enough "proof" that the creature was not a squid - unless it is a new species of squid?
Originally posted by Gemwolf
Looking at your "summation" of what we've got so far, GameSetMatch, it seems that like any good mystery we have now more questions than when we first started. LoL.
Well, looking at what we've got so far: Two specialists from different backgrounds (a movie special effects specialist and the other a specialist who makes a living out of searching the planet's waters for cryptoids) both saying that the creature's movement is "too stiff" to be a real animal. But both saying (or at least suggesting) that there probably is something in Lake Van. And it has a (Turkish) name: Canavar.
And from what we've got so far it seems that Unal Kozak does not exist. There's little to confirm the existence of this person, except for the mention of his name in the CNN article. I'll write a mail to the University he supposedly worked for. But let's think about it - he should be 34 by now. He had a good education and "supposedly" wrote a book on the topic, and he should have done some serious investigation into the Monster. A person with this résumé should have more hits on his name on Google. But the question remains: Why? Why hoax this? This story was big enough for CNN to report... That should say something? Or was CNN in on it? Was the story done "tongue in the cheek"? Did CNN maybe want to do a story on the Lake Van Monster, but had no material on the subject?
Originally posted by Gemwolf
But GameSetMatch, I think you might have touched a serious topic. The Turkish government. This might be something the conspiracy theorists will have a ball with - personally I'm not into that sort of thing. But it does look suspicious. A person (and any sign that he existed) vanishes without a trace. The video disappears. The Turkish government is known to disallow investigations into possible extra-ordinary places/objects/events.
This is starting to sound like something out of a movie? The mention of Freedom fighters/terrorists... War... Yeah... I'm sure Hollywood would be able to pull a movie out of this one! LoL.
Yeah I hope the owner of the website picks up on my interest. If I do not hear anything from him by Sunday I will send out an email to all his artists. Yup I think locals would be our best source at the moment and I did not even mention the CNN report when I sent the email to the resort on Lake Van. I did not want to spook'em or anything.
Originally posted by Gemwolf
It would be interesting to see what (if so) the Prehistoricillustrated artists come up with. Can't wait!
I think even if the video was a hoax, we need to do some investigation into the Lake Van Monster as there's little documentation about it on the Internet. Brilliant idea to start getting some info from the locals! My we should look at the Lake Van Monster without the video in mind - or at least for some part of the investigation?
Originally posted by GameSetMatch
Yes thank you ShadowXIX for the input; The one thing that came to mind with the accounts of the giant squid was 2 of the accounts where of the giant squid attacking another giant animal, and probably the reason the squid was above the surface was due to the whale brought it there. Of course this is all speculation, but it brings up a question that there is no large animals other than our creature in Lake Van. No whales, manatees, dolphins , etc... that we know of. This same issue plagues my theorys as well. No large food source...