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Evidence

Over the last decade, Katy Elizabeth and her Champ Search has gathered the most evidence of any Lake creature in the world. Echolocation, Video, Sonar Images and in 2022 Sonar video. 

Echolocation 2014

Echolocation 2014

On July 31, 2014 on our hydrophone system, we captured a pulsating sound, a lower frequency of echolocation. We decided on this location, particularly because this is one of the prime sighting locations, as well as specific times these animals have been seen.

I have performed thousands of hours of bioacoustic studies on the lake and its tributaries, recording known species of fish (Sturgeon, Perch Etc.) and man-made sounds (boat motors, sonar) that do not fit into this category of sound that we recorded that evening. (see video above). 

2014 Video


I had captured a video on August 9, 2014, at approximately 1:34 p.m. while sitting at my post with Dennis Hall at Button Bay.

The video came to the attention of security expert William Dranginis. An analyst who specialized in decoding blurry images. Dranginis calculated the size of the object using a passing bird as a clue.

“What I'm observing in this footage seems to be some type of moving object that's moving along the surface of the water from left to right and seems to be about 15 to 20 feet long. It makes me wonder if what we are seeing on the surface is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. There could be more of the creature’s body below the water.”

Still shot from August 9, 2014 video.


Enlarged Still from August 9, 2014


Echolocation 2018 

Audio clip Coming soon!

Sonar Evidence (2019)

On August 5, 2019, My organization Champ Search, aboard our research vessel "Kelpie" ventured out on an expedition covering 30 miles of Lake Champlain on both the New York and Vermont sides of Lake Champlain, scanning with our Dragonfly Pro-4 Chirp Sonar System. During this time, the gas gauge on the boat plummeted down with great significance and we decided turned around to head back to port. During this time, I was traveling around 45 MPH and noticed two unusual anomalies on the on the sandy bottom of the Lake at approx.165 ft. We were urgent to get back to avoid running out of gas and I couldn't see the images clearly on the screen due to the sun glare, but I snapped a screenshot on the sonar as they looked very different from the 56 other images we had seen previously that day.

The next morning I decided to go over each of the sonar images and came across that particular and peculiar screenshot and enlarged it. To my amazement, I was in complete shock as all of the eyewitness descriptions (particularly the on-land sightings of the whole body of Champ) flooded into my head, as well as the head and neck sighting that I had experienced on the evening of July 24, 2014.


The animal appears to be hunkered down on the sandy bottom. My idea is that they both heard the sonar and because we were traveling at a fast speed, dove to the bottom, very similar to the account of a Japanese crew in 1993 that picked up and chased a large target that went to the bottom and appeared to be avoiding the sound of the sonar.

Since these animals have echolocation capabilities, it leads me to believe they have a very sensitive hearing range.





On August 29, 2019, we ventured back out to the location of these sonar targets and the location was empty which indicated the objects were not substrate or logs on the bottom.


Also on August 29, 2019, Further up the lake we captured the same two elongate animals swimming in rapid locomotion, around 30-48 ft shown upper right hand corner. 



Sonar video 2022

September 10th, 2022,  cruising Lake Champlain with our new military grade live sonar unit sonar aboard our research vessel "Kelpie II" at a depth of about 42.5 feet,  a creature appears to swim from left to right. Estimation of  approximately 20 feet in length, an appendage near the front of its body which looks like a fin pushing in an oar-like fashion against the water and propelling it forward.“Similar in the long streamlined body as seen in our 2019 sonar of two swimming underneath the boat.”

The sonar still enlargement of “Water Horse” type head (left) compared to a Pipefish but thicker snout. Same morphology as the head seen in sonar images from 2019. Pipefish which, together with the seahorses and seadragons, form the family Syngnathidae. 

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