Here’s what witness/kayaker Mr Pickles had to say about his encounter. (No we didn’t make up that name. All reports mark his name as Tom Pickles. You may continue with jokes about clowns and “pickle testers.”)

‘I thought it was a dog,’ said Tom. ‘Then I realised it was much bigger and moving really quickly. Each hump was moving in a rippling motion and it was swimming fast. I could tell it was much bigger underneath from the huge shadow around it.

‘Its skin was like a seal’s but its shape was abnormal – it’s not like any animal I’ve ever seen before. We saw it for about 20 seconds. It was petrifying. We paddled back to the shore straight away.’

The monster in question was not the Loch Ness Monster of long time fame. It was Bownessie of more recent fame. Bownessie has been spotted in Lake Windermere since 1955. Reports of this creature swimming about the northern England lake have been on an uptick since 2006.

Yes, we understand it’s via The Daily Mail. Remarking on strangeness in the world was once the main thrust of this site. We’ll allow this photo of a sea-based monster living in our times to slip through our Daily Mail BS censors. Why are all the photos of sea monsters, sky monsters or what-have-you blurry as the morning after St Patrick’s Day? Seriously, we either need to develop higher standards for monster photos or create mandatory photography classes for anyone rich enough to buy their fancy camera phones.

This story is pretty old by internet standards so we ran a new search for Bownessie to see what have discovered since this mid-February sighting. It seems even cryptozologists had there doubts about the photo’s authenticity.

While the photo has made the rounds of the Internet, professional “cryptozoologists” or people who study animals that haven’t been identified by science, say they have their doubts.

“I’m always cautious of photographs,” said Loren Coleman, director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine, and author of “Cryptozoology: A to Z.”

“If you look at this photograph, its pretty distinct with these humps. We have seen this kind of thing before, sometimes it’s garbage bags tied together and sometimes it’s anonymous creatures.”

No doubt this guy has received countless “strange photos” from dubious origins. But everyone loves a good monster mystery.

They love it until said monster starts eating pets and children, anyway.

via huffpo, daily mail, cnet, The Telegraph, Discovery