Champ, The Lake Champlain Monster - FAQs

The captain of Champlain Submarine Cruises said yesterday that the Underwater Rides in search of Champ has been a huge success! The following are the most popular questions being asked:

What is Champ- a dinosaur, a plesiosaur, a whale?
While some people believe that Champ is a dinosaur that managed to escape extinction, others think Champ is a primitive form of whale called a zeuglodon.
Still others believe Champ could be related to a plesiosaur, a prehistoric water dwelling reptile with a long snakelike head and four large flippers. Plesiosaurs loved fish and other aquatic animals.

How many Champs would it take to continue a population in Lake Champlain?
It would take approximately 50 mature Champs, to have a breeding population in the Lake and 500 to keep the species alive in the long term. Lake Champlain has been around for 10,000 years. It is 120 miles long, 400 feet deep in places and home to a diverse population of birds and aquatic life, which would provide an ideal habitat for such a creature.

Are there any pictures of Champ?
The best picture of Champ is the Mansi photograph taken in the summer of 1977. Sandra Mansi and her fiancé Anthony were vacationing on the shores of Lake Champlain when they saw a great head and neck break the surface of the lake. Sandra quickly grabbed her Kodak Instamatic and snapped a shot. That shot is the best evidence that Champ actually exists in Lake Champlain. The photograph has been examined by experts who claim that it has not been altered in any way. The photograph was in the New York Times and Time Magazine among others. Mansi Photograph. There are other purported pictures of Champ but the Mansi one is clearly the best to date.