Russian Geo-biologist Lyudmila Emeliyanova reports rather convincing evidence of an unknown creature, a population of creatures, living in a Siberian lake according to a Siberian Times Article

So is there a Loch Ness Monster in Siberia?
By The Siberian Times reporter
18 September 2012

A Moscow scientist is calling for a new scientific expedition to solve the mystery of a huge ‘monster’ claimed to be living in remote Lake Labynkyr in Siberia.

Is this the Siberian Nessie…?

Known as ‘Russia’s Loch Ness Monster’, the accounts of the creature in Yakutia predate the Scottish claims yet in many ways are similar.

Intriguingly, too, there are theories that Labynkyr – which has unusual cracks on its 60 to 80 metre deep floor – is connected by underwater channels to another lake, Vorota, where monster sightings have also been recorded, including by respected Soviet geologist Viktor Tverdokhlebov, an academician not given to hyperbole.

Associate Professor of Biogeography Lyudmila Emeliyanova revealed to The Siberian Times that on her own scientific mission to Labynkyr she recorded ‘several seriously big underwater objects’ with sonar readings.

She is not the only researcher to have done so.

‘It was our fourth or fifth day at the lake when our echo sounding device registered a huge object in the water under our boat,’ she said.

‘The object was very dense, of homogeneous structure, surely not a fish nor a shoal of fish, and it was above the bottom. I was very surprised but not scared and not shocked, after all we did not see this animal, we only registered a strange object in the water. But I can clearly say – at the moment, as a scientist, I cannot offer you any explanation of what this object might be.’

The readings were repeated and she became convinced there was more than one large living object in the pure waters.

‘I can’t say we literally found and touched something unusual there but we did register with our echo sounding device several seriously big underwater objects, bigger than a fish, bigger than even a group of fish.

‘This is why I fully support the idea of a new trip there and extra research.

‘I would love to take part in another visit to this lake. I know how to organise it and know enough good local people who can help on the spot. It is a hard trip I must say but it is definitely worth doing it again. This mysterious and very deep lake still has some secret to tell us.’

Freshwater Labynkyr, some 5,000 km east of Moscow, is mysterious for another reason, too. It is only around 60 kilometres from the settlement of Oymyakon – the coldest inhabited place on Earth – yet, astonishingly, the lake does not freeze over completely in winter, in contrast to virtually all lakes in the region. The ice that does form, unusually, can be too thin to walk on. It is not uncommon to drive cars on lakes in Yakutia in winter: but not Labynkyr.

One unproven theory is that Labynkyr, where much of the rock is volcanic, is warmed slightly from below by a fissure in the Earth’s crust.

Dr Emeliyanova, from the Biogeography Department of the Geographical Faculty of Moscow State University, is struck by historical accounts of monsters in Labynkyr and Vorota and believes they are credible.

They date from the late 19th century, while accounts of the Loch Ness monster are usually held to have emerged in the 1930s.

On the basis of ‘sightings’ there has been speculation that Labynkyr and Vorota might be inhabited by a school of ichthyosaurs, prehistoric marine reptiles resembling dolphins or sharks, or plesiosaurs, a popular theory concerning ‘Nessie’ in Scotland which is often depicted with a long neck.

Another version has speculated that relic killer whales could have become marooned in Labynkyr. Some accounts even suggest the ‘creature’ makes a hideous primeval cry as it attacks its prey.

‘Personally, I do believe that when the information about something strange circulates among local people for so many years, it just can’t be groundless, it means something is there,’ she said. ‘I know the local people very well – they are ingenuous but they do not lie,’ she said previously.

Now she adds: ‘I have been on a dozen expeditions to this region and I can say I know the character of local people quite well. They are emotional – but are not intended to show their emotions and they are very true and honest by nature, often more honest than is necessary. This is why I am not ready to reject all these stories.’

For her another factor is how the stories of monsters in Yakutia relate solely to these two lakes out of more than 800,000 across this giant region.

‘There are many lakes in Yakutia and around the Indigirka River, hundreds of them, big and small, their shores are more or less populated, but all the talk is about Labynkyr and Vorota lakes, and it has gone on for many dozens of years. It makes us think about it. And these stories about the local monster are older than those about the Loch Ness monster.’

Even so, she insisted of her 2002 trip: ‘I did not go there to chase the lake monster: as a biogeographer I was interested mainly in that very territory, I wanted to visit and study it.

‘But, of course, I was curious to see the place which has so many legends and stories. I did not suppose we could really find something there simply because we did not plan to spend there enough time. Our stop by the lake was just for 12 days.

‘As a scientist I know this is not enough to locate and study some unknown creature. I can put it like this, however. I believe there is a mystery in this lake because there is no smoke without fire.

‘I am sure that numerous legends which exist and circulate for many years just can’t be groundless. I read many different legends but the account below is what I heard with my own ears.

‘Several fishermen who visit this lake from time to time say they experienced the following when fishing from a boat in this lake: during quiet, and not windy, weather when there were no disturbances in the lake, some strange waves coming from under the water suddenly heavily shook their boats.

‘It was as if a big body was moving under the water and producing waves which reached the surface and shook the vessel.’

She explained: ‘These stories shook me up, for instance, about a boat which was lifted by something or somebody. Two fishermen were fishing in the middle of the lake in late Autumn, they were in a 10 metre long boat when suddenly the bow began to rise as if somebody was pushing it from under the water.

‘It was a heavy boat, only a huge and strong animal can do such a thing. The fishermen were stuck by fear. They did not see anything, no head, no jaws. Soon the boat went down.’

Another account of an entirely separate trip to the lake in August 2006 – where researchers used a Humminbird Piranha MAX 215 Portable fish-finder – produced results echoing her findings. Images are available from this trip – some are shown here – but the identities of those who took part are hidden.

‘The conditions were ideal – clear cold fresh water, no big waves, stone bottom without plants there, no engine on the boat, soft and slow moving – all this means there were almost no problems for the scanning,’ claimed one of those present.

‘Often the device showed the long chain of big fish some 4 meters above the bottom of the lake, when the depth was about 30-45 meters.

‘The further we went away from the shore, the deeper the lake was, at one moment there was no fish registered for a long period long, the screen was dead. But all of a sudden it blew up with signals about a huge shoal of fish, just like a cloud.

‘Let me say a word about local fish – all kinds of fish here are predators, the bottom of the lake is ‘dead’, stones with sand, very cold near the bottom, no plants. Fish-predators just cannot swim all together making such a huge shoal, anybody familiar with Zoology will understand what I mean.

‘This is why it meant nothing else but the huge swimming object with some air inside.

‘We went twice above the object, it was at the depth of 30 metres (where the floor was 50 metres below). The upper ‘fish’ was at a depth of 25 metres, the lower ‘fish’ at 32 metres. It suggests the object was seven metres wide. What was it? We can’t say.

Echo sounding device data of the underwater object in lake Labynkyr, with travelers drawing in red what they imagined the creature could have looked like. Pictures: veslo.ru

‘I switched off the ‘Fish ID’ and we watched just pure scanning…..soon we registered a ‘shadow’ some 15-17 meters under our boat, it was about 6.5 meters long. It was pretty clear, it was not a fish and not a tree. There cannot be fish that big, and a log would have been registered in a different way. How can it swim under the water?

‘The most active ‘shadows’ or ‘bodies’ were registered in certain parts of the lake when the depth was 42 to 60 metres.’

‘The next shadow; the width of the object is about 70 cm, and although the screen shows its silhouette differently to how we imagined, my mind vividly paints a picture of a beast, swimming across the echo device scanning ray.

‘Another object was ‘caught’ at the depth of 20 meters. It was definitely a live creature – look at the density! – but of a smaller size, like 2.5 meters.

Perhaps another giant fish. Or a baby of our monster?’

On another amateur trip to explore the lake, in 2000, Russian traveler Vladimir wrote: ‘There was a signal from our echo sounding device, something was moving around our net with fish, something very big, seven to ten meters, it is hard to say because we did not know the speed of the object.

‘And our nerves are not made of iron, there were two of us in the rubber boat, far away from the shore… we did not want to find it out, just got away from there…

‘There were interesting trails on the water as if something big enough is swimming not very deep and playing in the water… There is a strange island there. It is in the middle of the lake and lots of broken nests of the sea gulls. The gulls were just crushed alive when they were asleep and did not have a chance to fly away. Some birds were eaten, some just left there… Who did it?

‘In my humble opinion… there are four or five big animals in this lake, not more. If people do not rush there, maybe they will survive.’

In the 1960s, there are accounts of ‘a monster with a long neck coming up out of the lake making an eerie sound’. Some versions say it was lizard-like.

In Soviet times and before, the lake was almost inaccessible. Today that is changing. Travel companies in Yakutsk, capital of Yakutia or the Sakha Republic, are already offering private trips to visit the lake, enabling people to carry out their own monster hunts.

This perhaps gives an added urgency to Dr Emeliyanova’s plans to reach the lake and explore it in a fully scientific way: yet funds, so far not found, are needed to support this venture.

There is also this account from geologist Viktor Tverdokhlebov:

30 July: This is what happened today. It was sunny friendly morning, Boris Bashkatov and I went on a walking trip around Lake Vorota. We had to climb rocks on the way – about 11 am the way became dangerous and we decided to go down a bit, closer to the water. Looking at the water from the rock, I clearly saw a terrace under the water with a huge white spot on it. But when I looked at the terrace again a minute later there was no white spot there. ‘Maybe sunshine is joking with me’, I thought. But suddenly Boris shouted ‘Look! What is there, in the middle?’ We stopped. Some 300-400 meters away on the water there was clearly seen some white object, shining under the sunlight. ‘A barrel’, said Boris, ‘made of tin.’ ‘Maybe a horse got into the lake,’ I said.

Truly, the object was swimming, and fast enough. It was something alive, some animal. It was making an arch – first along the lake, then right towards us. As it was getting closer, a strange coldness like a stupor was growing inside me. Above the water there was big dark grey body, the white colour has gone. On this dark grey background there were clearly visible two symmetrical light spots looking like eyes and there was just stick in the body – maybe a fin? Or a harpoon of an unlucky fisherman?

‘We saw just a part of the animal but we could guess its much bigger, massive body was under the water. We could guess this looking how the monster was moving – raising from the water, it threw its body forward then fully went under the water. At this time the waves were going away from its head, waves originating under the water. ‘Flapping its mouth, catching fish’, I guessed.

The animal was obviously swimming towards us and the waves made by the animal reached our legs. We looked at each other and immediately began to climb up the rock. What if ‘it’ goes out of the water? We witnessed a predator, no doubt, one of the strongest predators in this world: such indomitable, merciless and some sensible fierceness was in every his movement, in all its looks.

‘The animal stopped some 100 meters away from the shore. Suddenly it began to beat against the water, waves went all ways, we could not understand what was going on. Maybe it lasted just a minute and then the animal was gone, dived. It was only then when I thought about a camera.

‘We stood for another 10-20 minutes, it was quiet. We went further.

‘There was no doubt, we saw the ‘devil’ – the legendary monster of this area. The Yakut fisherman was right, the animal had dark grey skin and the distance between its eyes was surely not less than a raft of 10 logs. But he saw it in Labynkyr and we saw it in Vorota lake. They are 20 km away from each other – and they are not connected.

‘I recalled that white spot under the water. Obviously, the animal was hunting at that underwater terrace and we scared it when shouted going down the rocks.’

Hopefully the remote location of this lake might prevent this possible creature from becoming the tourist attraction that Nessie is and allow serious study, if that is warranted, without the carnival atmosphere.

It has always bothered me that we attribute an unknown animal as a monster. Provided that they exist at all, it is by far the rare event that any of these creatures exhibit unnatural behavior. If they are reported to act aggressively it is typically easily explainable as a reaction to what is happening around them. It is simply human fear of the unknown, and our self assumed superiority over nature that we use to justify treating parts of it with disregard or contempt. If there is a monster in nature, it is us.