Lake Iliamna in southern Alaska belongs to lakes of glacial tectonic origin. In Russian times it was called Shelekhovo and is the largest Alaskan lake.
It is 124 km long and 35 km wide, and its maximum depth is about 300 meters. The waters of the lake are home to the largest population of sockeye salmon, and in total there are 28 species of fish. This is a great place for fishing and hiking.
Bruce Wright, a former National Marine Fisheries Service marine ecologist, carefully avoids the word "monster" in a recent interview with the Anchorage Daily News. However, the object of his keen interest is precisely the same mysterious inhabitant of Lake Iliamna.
In 2010, Wright took part in the filming of the "River Monsters" program, which featured the mysterious water creature nicknamed "The Horror of Alaska." That year, on the set of the program, he did not manage to catch anything special in Iliamna Lake, except for a large white sturgeon, but Wright became very interested in the local legend.
Wright later learned that the local Tlingit Indians once saw a 30-foot (9-meter) "square-headed" creature attempting to attack their boat. And in 2017, local fisherman Gary Nielsen and several other fishermen claimed to have seen creatures over 60 feet (18 meters) long in Iliamn.
A strange creature was seen in these waters by other people and described it as not at all like a whale, dolphin or seal. Once they even offered $ 100,000 for his capture, but the money remained unpaid.
Bruce Wright.
This summer, Bruce Wright wants to take a series of camera dives in the waters of the Iliamna, hoping to capture the mysterious creature. He will be assisted by diving specialist Charlotte Levy.
Promotional video:
Of the large creatures, only a separate population of freshwater seals lives in the lake, which once came here long ago from the ocean.
Inhabitants of the villages on the shores of the lake are sure that the mysterious large animal is completely real. Moreover, their descriptions of this creature are often similar to the description of a shark.
2 years ago, Nielsen and other fishermen saw something very large in the lake and it was not one, but a whole group of these creatures.
A sturgeon caught in 2010 in Lake Iliamna by the team of the * River Monsters * program.
According to one version, a beluga whale could be a strange creature. Beluga whales sometimes swim into the local river from the Pacific Ocean, following the salmon. However, white belugas are easily recognizable primarily because of their color. According to another version, people were simply frightened by large seals.
Wright himself suggests that the mysterious monsters may indeed be sharks - the so-called polar sharks - Pacific or Greenlandic. They can grow up to 6 meters in length and live very long, up to 300 years.
Polar shark.
According to another version, people could see a very large sturgeon.
Steiger lives on the shores of Lake Iliamna and 5 years ago offered his help to Wright in his search for a mysterious monster. He regularly catches salmon on the lake and his catch has been repeatedly devoured by a very large predator, removing it directly from the hooks. One day, something severely bent a thick stainless steel hook and carried away some of the other hooks.