We will be making our expedition a bit earlier than usual this year and will be posting our report sometime in early June.
We seem to have favorable weather expected for this years expedition. However we are regretful Liz will not be able to attend .
It seems to have been a quiet year so far , I haven't heard of any Champ sightings yet this year.
We will continue our research at lake Champlain and will continue documenting anything we come across that could be misidentifications for Champ as knowing all the possible misidentifications is also important in sorting out sighting reports.
so far our list of possible misidentifications includes
otters
deer or moose swimming across the lake
large fish or eels
boat wakes
debris
seiche
rocks sticking up partly out of water
converging boat wakes where wakes from two boats hit and look like a long black animal leaving a v shaped wake behind
standing waves
logs or branches floating
black ducks which can sometimes from a distance look like a long black animal if they are flying just above the water
if we come across other possible misidentifications we will add them to our list . We are also trying to get photos of all these things so they can be compared with Champ photos or videos in the future.
We are looking for solid evidence of champ but knowing the other things people can mistake for champ is equally important. We need to investigate every sighting that comes up and review the information and weigh it against previous sightings and possible misidentifications .
If we fail to do this several things happen you get conflicting descriptions of the appearance of the animals and all witnesses begin to lose credibility because of the conflicts in sighting reports .
You also have people not being sure what a champ is supposed to look like and thinking anything unusual they see is champ.
Misidentifications must be sorted from actual sightings, having a list and photos of these other things makes it much easier to determine the real sightings.