Account of 1974 sighting of Champ [...]
Retold- June 21, 2000
Hi Dennis,An old timer told me this account many years ago and I know the man wasn't lying. He asked that I never repeat it to anyone, using his name. He's dead now, so I don't think he'd mind. Anyway, he said that many years ago (I think in the early 1970s) he and his granddaughter were fishing from shore near the "cow banks," which is on South Hero.
It was very early morning, in July I believe. He said suddenly they heard loud "breathing sounds." When they looked down the shore they saw a huge animal pull itself up onto the shore. With binoculars he observed it, from about 150 yards away. I am enclosing a sketch I have done from memory, of the sketch he drew for me, of what it looked like and it's approximate size. He did say it was VERY big, weighing tons. He said steam-like breath came from two appendages on it's nose, which retracted even, as it was breathing. He said he could hear the breath sounds, even from that great distance! He said it had two large "flappers" for front feet. As they rose to try to get a little closer, it saw them and quickly backed back into the lake and was gone. He said it was the 2nd time they had seen it there, once a couple years previously, but well out into the lake, swimming, then sounding. He said he KNEW "Champ" existed, as he'd seen it twice with his own eyes. He swore to me he was being honest, and I never knew this man to even lie about the size of the fish he caught. He was a retired school teacher and a respectable man, in my opinion. Attached is my rendition of his
sketch.
-Jim
(from Champquest archives at the Wayback Machine).
And now for comparisons of my own. First off, the Champ in this case is
very much smaller that the Loch Ness sighting Scott compares it to:
But then again the head-neck in each case is strikingly like the Surgeon's photo at Loch Ness
How would these snorkels work under the water pressure when the lungs are so far below the waterline? (Because we are dealing with a long-necked animal here).
ReplyDeleteOK, fair question.
DeleteAnd the answer is, the snorkels are not the problem, the depth to which the lungs are below the surface is the problem. The problem with pumping air into the lungs through a long windpipe at depths probably defines which attitude the creature can assume when breathing at the surface. It is probably more likely that the creature breathes with its body extended below the water level but parallel to the surface, or surfacing at a slight angle, rather than breathing with its body surfacing in a vertical position. Breathing in that position is much harder and in a large Longneck we are talking about forcing air down a 15 to 20 foot long neck. We can use the model of an elephant using its trunk as a snorkel when swimming underwater and the strength of the lungs expanding in the elephant because the volume of a Longneck is about equivalent to that of an elephant. With that in mind, breathing with the body submerged at 10 feet down is not much of a problem while breathing with the body held vertically 30 feet down (as per Heuvelmans) is probably outside the range of appropriate muscle strength given the size of the chest cavity. Whales can manage but their bodies are very much larger and not built along the same body plan at all.
The vertical pressure of a column of water at a given depth is called head pressure. Here is the way to calculate it:
Head Pressure in Feet=
[(P.S.I. X 2.31)/Specific Gravity]
=> 20 = PSI X 2.31 / 1
=> PSI = 20*12 / 2.31
=> PSI =8.658 Pounds Per Square Inch is the pressure equivalent to 20 feet
=> 20 foot of head = 0.609 599 995 92 kilogram-force/square centimeter
=> 20 foot of head = 59.781 338 kilo pascal
=>20 foot of head = 6.097 560 975 6 meter of head
Because the water pressure increases greatly at greater pressure, breathing while the body is at a significantly lower depth than the head is will cause you problems, and bigger problems the further you go down.
Because of this it is extremely unlikely the very long-necked Plesiosaurs of the Elasmosauridae could breathe very well at a full extension of their necks vertically at depth. The body must ordinarily have been held extended and parallel to the surface but at no great depth. 10 feet down is a reasonable enough depth to work, my calculations indicate to me.
With this in mind, the snorkels themselves are not subject to unusual tolerances since they only operate at the surface or just below. The windpipe has got a job, though, and it becomes a harder job the deeper that the body is submerged.