Arlene Gaal

Do you believe there is an Ogopogo?

There is no doubt in my mind that there is an unidentified animal living in lake Okanagan, whose name is Ogopogo. The Indians call it N'ha-a-itk or Naitaka. And it goes back three centuries in the Okanagan Valley. So therefore people has been having experiences on Okanagan Lake for three centuries. But my belief structured when I had my own experiences out there. Where I was able to photograph something on the lake that was neither a whale, a submarine, no sturgeon. So therefore the only conclusion I could come to was the fact that we were dealing with this unidentified animal or USO called Ogopogo.

When was the first time you started believed in it?

The first time I truly believe there was something in that lake was when I view the folden film. The folden film was taken in 1968 and I still think it's one of the best proofs of the existence of Ogopogo. And after I saw this film footage, and I repeated myself, seeing this large animal moving through the water at high speed, knowing that again no whales lives in lake Okanagan no submarine or whatever, it has to be Ogopogo. So what I did is, I went a little further and I started checking the files in Kelowna and located a lot of material. I went through and realize that there is no book, there is nothing written about it. So I went ahead. Found the gentleman who took the film footage. He wasn't interested in keeping it so I offered him some money and I bought it from him. So using the folden film and the evidence that I gathered from the chamber of commerce office, etc, I put together my first book, "Beneath the depth". So that's where I began. From there on in, I sort of became the archival station for Ogopogo. People were calling me, and say: I've had a sighting, I've taken a picture, and I've taken some videotape. We would like you to see it or talk it over with us and see what you think. And this is how it's been going for... almost a quarter of century now. Interesting enough!

Have you ever saw Ogopogo?

My first experience came in 1979 when I was checking out an other sightings that occurred by the bridge. I realized that I would never, ever go near Okanagan lake without my camera. I had my camera on the seat of my car. Got out of my car, checking all the details of Bill Steciuk sighting and after about 20 minutes, 25 minutes, I was now ready to go. My eyes suddenly saw a shadow beneath the surface of the water. So I followed the shadow very very carefully, and then what I saw, just... more than caught me by surprise, because what happen, this large something rolls up out of the water, by the bridge, waves rolling off his back, tumbling over... I went Oh my god NO!! So I grabbed my camera, ran for it to the edge of the lake and shot 5 sequential shots. And after the lake died down, there was no boats on the lake, it was near calm, the tourist where all gone home. This was in mid-October. And it was just a beautiful falls day. But I sat back down in my car and I tried very hard to convince myself: No it wasn't there, I was having an illusion, like everyone else does when they see something unusual. But then the realization was: You had a camera, you took some pictures. So therefore, if there is anything, it will be revealed on the footage. I was working for the Daily Courrier at that time as well and went to talk to the managing editor. And he said: Ok give the film footage to Joe, which is my son who is a photographer for the Courrier. So Joe developed the picture and when he came home, he brought them home, we saw something very black and long on the surface of the water of a mirror calm lake that wasn't there before and couldn't be explain. So that was my first experience. That was really exciting! Cause you write a book with a partial belief structure. You promote your book with a partial belief structure. But until you have had that first experience yourself, you know up goes the craft.

Were you scared?

No, not really. Because your adrenaline goes up so therefore you react according to your adrenaline. And of course my adrenaline went for my camera. So there is no time to be frightening, because the animal wasn't coming out of the water, it was out of depth of about 350 feet so therefore it wasn't going to harm me. I was on the shore and it was still in the water. And it has never known to... you know, one surfaces to get up out of the water and walk over and say Hello!!

What do you think it looks like?

From what came up at that time there were no distinguishing feature, because it's just evidently from what I gather, just the animal body that came up. But I feel what we are looking at is a creature that is very similar what we're seeing in Loch Ness and in lake Champlain. Which is very close to the prehistoric Jurassic park type of plesiausor. And I think the cover of the book (she showed up the cover of her third book, In Search of Ogopogo) is very close to what... It's extremely close of the animal that we're seeing in Lake Okanagan.

The legend...

Songs about Ogopogo...

There is been a numerous of songs. I think the one who's the most interesting was written by a gentleman in England. And it goes:

His father was an earwig, his mother was a whale
A little bit of head and hardly any tail
And Ogopogo was his name

And there's actually music that goes along with this as well.

We had: Ogopogo rap, I wonder if the Ogopogo's lonely... But there's everything Ogopogo, as you know... around the valley. Ogopogo watches, Ogopogo noodles, Ogopogo toys... Ogopogo hydroplanes that is being built right now. Therefore people are starting capitalizing on what others would consider commercial venture.

Do you think that the animal a friendly Ogopogo?

This creature has never, to my knowledge, armed anyone. But let just say that you provoque it, or it feels that someone is going to attacked it, it's going to react the same way my dog will react or you will react to protect itself. So I think its animal... he's lived in this lake for such a long time and there is more than one animal in the lake Okanagan, not just one. So it has its own territories, it knows there is boater, it knows there is swimmers. So no one has ever been eaten or harmed. Who had some unusual holes in boats. Or last October we had a crew on the lake out there, fishing for icy shrimp. And they saw something on their sonar, it went right through their net. So it was at least 40 feet long and left a huge hole. And I knew that was going to happen when they went out there to capture some icy shrimp. My book... I was still writing my book and I said: I hope icy shrimp is the only thing they catch. Because they were fishing in an area that is very popular for Ogopogo sightings. This animal obviously has places that it frequence more than others. Mainly because of the food, it may have a resting place, a birthing place, who knows? But all of these places are familiar to the creature and that is why there are more sightings to some places of the lake.

Do you think it's the same kind of creature that lives in other lakes?

It's a very similar creature. Mainly because Lake Okanagan and Loch Ness are on the same latitude, they have the same temperature in the lake system, they have the same species of fish, and also sea weed or whatever. The only differences is that Loch Ness is a much smaller lake, and Loch Ness is a very dirty and murky lake, where Okanagan Lake is picturesque and much clear. So maybe it the reason we have more opportunities.

Why should we make Ogopogo known all across Canada?

Some people feel that Ogopogo is here for commercial use only. I feel differently. Mainly because I'm in so far an investigation and you do realize that this animal... it's extremely large and must be protected. And it must be consider like an endangered species. But on the other hand you look at the fact that people are people and they will commercialize on an interesting topic. And Ogopogo is a very interesting topic of conversation. It brings people here from all over the world. I have worked with over, close to 50 crews since 1977. In search of, Unsolved mysteries, Inside Edition, Nippon Television 3 times from Japan, German television stations, I don't know how many crews have been here from Los Angeles... It's just continuous interested.

The Japanese

I worked with them in 1990-1991 and year 2000. When they were here the first time, all we had was a houseboat and some squatter boats and a helicopter. The second time they came in 1991, we had a submarine, we had a helicopter, we had a head boat, we had squatter boats. But they came here when the weather was very cold and there was still snow on the ground. I remember walking on the deck, thinking, I'm going to slip into the lake, I can't swim. They had everything necessary to do a proper search the second time, but the wrong time of year. The first time they were here, in 1990, they manage to get one shot of something happening in Peachland. And also when I was out of the boat been interview by ABC TV, something showed up on sonar at 550 feet. We were at 550 feet of water and 320-foot mark. And suddenly this animal, similar to the folden film, with an elongated head serpentine head, wide body, and what appears to be a long tail, with bubble coming off his back. You would thing that we had set it up, but it wasn't possible to have something here in 550 feet of water, it shows up at 320-depth mark and of course we had ABC TV were there to interview me, not expecting to get something on sonar, which we did immediately. That was kind of neat.

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