BY ANDREW HAMILTON

A Japanese television crew will be in Galway later this month to investigate the reported sightings of a monster in the lakes around Clifden. The TV crew are coming to Ireland to make a documentary for a Japanese version of the Discovery Channel about lake monsters in Ireland and will also be visiting lakes in Cork and Kerry.

The five man crew will investigate their theory that there could be as many as three undiscovered species of animals living in the lakes around Clifden. It is currently believed that these animals are most comfortable in water but can also move across land as the Clifden lakes are locked by bog on all sides.

One possibility is that the television crew may be on the trail of the elusive ‘horse eel’ that some believe inhabits the waters of Lough Auna and Lough Shanakeever. The two glacial valley lakes, located to the north of Clifden, have been the focus of many claimed sightings stretching as far back as the 1880s.

The 'horse-eel' is believed to be an animal with a front half which resembles a horse and a back half which tapers off like an eel. The animal existence has been a subject of debate in the area for many years and even provoked an investigated by the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau in 1968.

An account of one alleged sighting of the horse-eel in Lough Shanakeever from 1963 describes it as a 'large greyish hump, about seven or eight feet in length and roughly two feet in height'. There have been countless other alleged sightings of the horse eel over the years and most have been consistent with this description.

Indeed it is notable that another mysterious 'worm-like' lake creature is believed to inhabit the water of Lough Mask just north of Oughterard. There has been at least one documented sighting of the creature which may well be the same creature believed to inhabit the Clifden lakes.

In one incident, which took place in the early 1960s, it was reported that a large eel-like fish of eight or 10 feet in length was spotted in shallow water of Lough Mask swimming in water of no more than four feet in dept.

The Japanese crew will arrive in Galway on Tuesday and the three days of filming will commence on October 15. If you have any information that may prove useful or have spotted a horse eel or any other unusual lake creature yourself then contact Declan Somers at 087 7426377.

http://www.galwayadvertiser.ie/dws/story.t...news/51376.html

Japan makes anime

As much as I'd like them to find something, if there was a monster in every lake that had a lake monster legend, National Geographic would have a special issue devoted to them. But who knows, maybe there's something in the bottom of one of them. Something besides a big sturgeon, I mean.

Bah, I've been to Galway. Any sort of sea monster would've gotten bored to death a loong time ago.

cool

Japan should make a Bigfoot anime

well if they never find monsters in al the other lakes, so maybe they'll find one in this lake

i haven't heard anyhing about this monster, any stories/photos etc?

Japanese are known to throw huge amount of moneys away on a totally useless or hopeless thing, so I would just laugh at them for doing this.

Very interesting of course Oggopoggo and Nessie are much more interesting then an eel with a identity crisis.

Totally sick(cool).

Like creating multi-billion pound games, technology and anime industries