Lake Champlain's Enigmatic Creature: Champ - A Hidden Marvel

Have you heard of Champ, the lake monster said to inhabit Lake Champlain in North America? With over 300 reported sightings, Champ has been a topic of fascination for many years. I recently came across a video from the YouTube channel BMO Creative that delves into the history and possible explanations for this elusive creature. According to the video, Champ has been described as having interlocking silver scales and a reputation as the American equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster. The first European sighting of Champ was reported by French explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1609, and Native American tribes of the region have long known of these creatures, with the Abanaki even having a name for it. One of the most compelling pieces of evidence presented in the video is a photograph taken in 1977 by Sandra Mansi. The photograph, which was examined by experts at the University of Chicago and the University of Arizona, is said to show a living creature and bears no resemblance to any known animal. The media frenzy surrounding the photo even led to it being published in the New York Times and Time Magazine. There are numerous theories about what Champ could be, including a landlocked plesiosaur, a giant rogue soft shell turtle, or even a prehistoric whale. However, one theory that particularly caught my attention is that Champ could be an extinct saurian known as the zigdon or the basilosaurus. In 2003, a team of scientists led by Elizabeth von Mugan Thaler recorded a series of high-frequency ticking and chirping noises in Lake Champlain. These sounds are similar to those made by dolphins and beluga whales using bio sonar to track their food. However, there are no known animals that live in freshwater lakes that make these kinds of sounds. Could Champ be the source of these mysterious noises? The video also features an interview with a witness who saw a serpentine creature with an alligator-like head in Lake Champlain in 2005. The witness, Dick Aalter, was able to capture video footage of the creature, which has been considered some of the best visual evidence for lake monsters to date. So, what do you think Champ is? Could it be a surviving plesiosaur, a giant turtle, or even a prehistoric whale? Or could it be something else entirely? I encourage you to watch the full video and decide for yourself. Who knows, maybe one day we'll finally have definitive proof of the existence of Champ.