The object captured on camera by Colleen Hanchar. *(Colleen Hanchar)*

Dale and Colleen Hanchar were boating with their friend Myrna Germaine Brown just over a week ago on Lake Okanagan in British Columbia, Canada, when they spotted something unusual in the water, reported Global News.

Dale initially spotted the object and told Colleen to get her camera ready as he turned the boat around, steering the ship within 10 feet of it.

“As a boater, I was just looking, [to see] is this something dangerous that needs to be marked so somebody doesn't run into it, like a dead head or something like that,” Dale said. “We went on by and I got thinking about it, and I said to Myrna and my wife ‘that didn't look right, we’ve got to go look at that again.'"

“We were all puzzled as to what could that possibly be,” he added. “You know, we kind of eliminated what it wasn't in our heads, and we talked about it a little bit and then we just kept on going.”

The full image taken by Colleen. *(Colleen Hanchar)*

Despite having photographed the object with Colleen's phone and even seeing it with the naked eye, the couple and their friend were unable to identify it.

“For one thing, the two nodular things are sticking up…whatever they are, those that are about three feet apart,” Dale said. “And I've done some research since we took this picture and it's not a plant. It's not kelp because this is a lake, it's not the ocean. It's not a sturgeon. It's not a dead deer upside down. You can eliminate all these things, but the next question is, what is it?”

Ultimately, Dale said he just wants to know if anyone saw it or knows what it could have been.

“If it's totally disappeared, and nobody knows what it is, then what is that? We don't know?” he asked.

The unidentified nature of the object has some wondering if it could be Ogopogo, Lake Okanagan’s resident monster.

Legends of a serpentine lake monster in the Okanagan Valley date back centuries, with countless witnesses reporting sightings—including the area’s indigenous people, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, who call the creature N'ha-a-itk. While no definitive proof of its existence has yet surfaced—despite numerous modern sightings, sometimes including video footage and photographs—some have speculated that Ogopogo might be a surviving member of a primitive species of whale from the Late Eocene period, which existed approximately 40 to 33.9 million years ago.

But not everyone is convinced this photograph represents evidence of a monster in Lake Okanagan.

Cryptid researcher, folklorist, and fortean Adam Benedict offered Global News a more prosaic explanation for the object.

“What caught my attention was the two protruding objects at the surface. But when I bring it onto a larger screen and zoom in, I see a water bird of some sort in the process of a dive either just right below the surface or in the process of coming up,” he said. “The two protruding objects on the back would of course be its legs in some way, whether they're bent or they're kicking, but you can clearly see just below the surface an eye as well as its beak right at the top of the water line.”

Lake Okanagan is home to several species of diving duck, such as the greater scaup, which can dive over 20 feet and hold its breath for up to a minute.

The reason that some people interpret it as a monster, Benedict explained, is due to the lake's reputation.

“One thing, you know, whenever you're dealing with a lake that has a history or reputation of having something in it your mind is always going to go to that thing first,” he said. “Your mind is instantly going to go to ‘I'm seeing the monster. I'm seeing the creature.’”

"If a person was boating on a lake that wasn’t associated with a myth, however, it may not shake out the same way," he added.

An image provided by Benedict which highlights some of the object’s avian features.

Benedict’s comments have been met with derision by some cryptid enthusiasts, who say they are unable to see anything resembling waterfowl in the picture.

"Yeah, I thought he was ridiculous for assuming it was some sort of waterfowl," one person commented on social media. "I mean really, there's absolutely zero resemblance."

"What the hell does this guy see that he thinks it's an aquatic bird?" commented another. "I don't see anything that resembles a bird in this at all."

The Singular Fortean Society contacted Benedict for a response to his detractors, to which he replied, “Don’t let your desire of wanting it to be a monster allow you to forget about actual animals also existing in the lake."

To report your own encounter with the impossible, reach out to us directly at the Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.

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