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On this episode, Expedition X journeys to a remote lake

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in the last frontier, Alaska.

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Whoo-hoo-hoo!

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Jess and Phil investigate new reports of an aquatic beast

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believed to inhabit these waters.

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How big do you suspect this creature is?

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Up to over 50 feet.

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She looks at me and looks back at the lake

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and says, what the F is that?

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Nobody has ever laid eyes on this.

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Ever.

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Now, my team is launching an arsenal of modern technology.

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All right, going in.

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To get to the bottom...

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Tons of salmon right there.

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...of what lurks in the frigid depths.

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Hang on!

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It's getting really murky down there.

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What's this? What's this?

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Oh, my God!

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That's big. That's dark. What is that?

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What is that?

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Alaskan Lake Monster.

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My name is Josh Gates.

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In my travels, I've experienced strange things

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that defy logic and made me question everything.

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Oh, my God.

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Now, I've put together a team to investigate

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the stranger side of the unknown.

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Let's go!

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Phil Torres is a scientist who hunts for rational explanations.

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This is the corner for actually Phil's stationery.

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Jessica Chobot's paranormal research has made her a true believer.

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If you're here with us, knock again.

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Together, we're searching for answers...

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What is happening here, Jess?

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...to the world's most extraordinary mysteries.

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This is Expedition X.

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All right, Phil, Jess, for your next investigation,

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I am sending you to a place that is as remote as it gets.

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Uh-oh. I like the sound of this.

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In fact, it is so remote and so wild

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that you are probably gonna need this.

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And you know what? Maybe even this.

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Bear spray, huh?

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That is a lot of bear spray.

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Sure is. That's because there are a lot of bears there.

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In fact, it's home to the largest brown bear population on Earth

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and not coincidentally, the largest red salmon population on Earth.

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Ooh, I think I got this one, Jess.

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We're going to Alaska.

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That's right.

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We're going to Alaska.

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That is actually pretty cool.

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I'm actually surprised that it took you this long to send us there

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because it is like a magnet for the unexplained.

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It's true. There's a lot of weird stories in Alaska,

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but in this particular case,

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we're talking about something that many native Alaskans,

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and in fact some scientists even, insist is absolutely real.

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A large, unidentified creature that supposedly lives

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in a thousand-foot deep lake.

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Iliamna is the largest lake in the last frontier.

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Sitting in southern Alaska and connected to the Bering Sea,

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it has been a life source to the indigenous people

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living along its shores for nearly 10,000 years,

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providing food and allowing them to build an economy

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around the abundant salmon.

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But for generations, the Alaska natives have claimed

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there's more than just fish swimming in Iliamna.

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Local Tlingit legends describe a 30-foot aquatic beast

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with a wolf-like head and razor-sharp teeth.

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They call it the Gnaka date.

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To the elute people, it is known as the jiggic knock,

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an aggressive predator that stalks these frigid waters,

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hunting its prey, be it animal or human.

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Local Lore says the creature attacks fishermen,

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specifically targeting boats painted red.

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In the 1940s, with increased airplane traffic over Alaska,

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comes a dramatic surge in sightings by bush pilots

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of a dark-colored, oversized beast in the lake.

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In 1963, a biologist from Alaska Fish and Game

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spots what he describes as a 30-foot-long creature

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cruising below the surface.

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In that same decade, NASA astronauts report similar sightings

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while conducting training flights around the lake.

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By 1980, reports of a mystery creature up to 50 feet long

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become so prevalent that an Anchorage newspaper

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offers a $100,000 reward for solid proof

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of the Iliamna Lake monster.

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The reward never pays out, but the reports persist.

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Now, a spate of recent sightings has attracted the attention

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of the state's Fisheries Commission.

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The office keeps an open file to document the reports,

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and two biologists are so convinced there's a unique species here.

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They've started their own investigation and believe

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they're close to solving the mystery.

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So does that reward still stand, because I'll split it with you?

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60-20-20, right?

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I said you, Josh.

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All right, cool. Sure. 60-40.

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You watch yourself, Jess.

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What?

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So what do you guys think?

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Well, I think that legends like this always come from truth,

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and this is a perfect example.

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A lot of eyewitnesses have seen this over a long period of time.

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So it's not a matter of if there's something living in this lake.

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It's a matter of us going out there and finding it.

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I agree with you there, Jess.

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I think there's something in the lake,

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but that doesn't mean that something is a lake monster.

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It could be an overgrown fish.

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It could be a school of fish that come up to the surface.

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We don't know, but that's also why I think it's kind of awesome

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that there's a team of scientists there dedicating energy

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to try to solve this.

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Well, I'm glad you feel that way,

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because you're going to be joining forces with those scientists.

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They are up at the lake right now doing research,

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trying to figure out what this thing is,

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and they have a limited window because Lake Iliamna freezes over in the winter.

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Now, they've been using stationary underwater cameras.

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What they don't have is an ROV, so we're going to help them with that.

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Hopefully, the ability to maneuver around underwater

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and get real-time video back might give us a breakthrough.

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Awesome. I'm all over that ROV.

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Video game geek gets the drive.

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No complaints there.

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So, the mission is simple.

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Get to Iliamna Lake and figure out what people are seeing.

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Could this be some sort of un-catalogged species

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that natives have been witnessing for generations?

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Or is this simply a case of misidentification of a known animal?

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We're going to find a lake monster.

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I feel it in my bones.

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I like the confidence, Jess.

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Thank you.

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I like the confidence. Also, don't get eaten by a bear.

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That's your confidence.

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Good luck.

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Phil and Jess fly nearly 3,400 miles to Alaska's largest city,

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Anchorage.

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There, they connect with local pilot Tim LaPorte,

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who's been transporting passengers and supplies to and from Iliamna

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for 45 years in his fleet of PC-12s.

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To travel more nimbly to this remote location

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and to stay under our aircraft's strict 2,500-pound weight limit,

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we've downsized the gear and the crew.

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Everybody had a light breakfast.

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What's up, guys?

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Being an Alaska bush pilot, you've got to be pretty good to fly up here.

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We're lucky.

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I'm hoping you're good for today.

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Alaska Roads will only take you so far over this rugged, undeveloped landscape.

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So this small plane will carry our intrepid adventurers

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the remaining 200 miles to Iliamna on their hunt for a monster.

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What we're looking for at Iliamna Lake is the lake monster.

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Have you heard stories about this thing?

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Yeah, absolutely. It's been something that's been seen many, many, many times.

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I actually saw it in 1977.

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Really?

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Seriously.

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What did you see?

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I had four guys flying out for fishing

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and right straight underneath of us, a dark image was on the surface of the water there.

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It made a great big arch.

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And I still remember the waves radiating out from that.

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Oh, my goodness.

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There's way too many sightings over the years for there to be a myth, you know?

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Yeah.

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We're about to fly over the lake.

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Yes, you see the size of this thing?

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This lake is huge.

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I mean, I didn't think it could be living in this lake.

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Situated on the Alaska Peninsula, Iliamna Lake is 77 miles long and 22 miles across at its widest point.

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The 1,000 square mile lake connects to Bristol Bay and the Bering Sea.

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The average depth is around 150 feet,

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but in some spots it gets down to 1,000 feet, water deep enough to submerge the Eiffel Tower.

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We got a lot of water to cover out here.

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Yeah.

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Phil and Jess land at the Iliamna Airport and hop on the ground transportation I've lined up to get them across the village.

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Around here, cars are scarce and the roads are just a little bumpy.

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Living in Alaska means sharing your backyard with moose, caribou and wolves,

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not to mention the brown bears that greatly outnumber humans here.

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It's pretty beautiful back here.

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Yeah, it is.

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At Iliamna, the power ratio is clear.

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Nature rules.

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People just try to survive.

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And if we get hurt out here, we're on our own.

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I've arranged for Phil and Jess to meet Bruce Wright and Mark Stagar at their base of operations.

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They're a pair of real-life captain Ahabs held bent on finding their white whale,

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or in this case, their dark lake monster.

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Bruce was a biologist with Alaska Fish and Game and continues to study the state's ecological habitats.

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Mark has a degree in wildlife biology and is a retired colonel and former chief aviation officer for the Alaska Army National Guard.

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Nice to meet a fellow biologist.

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Interested to see what you guys can teach us about whatever's out there in the lake.

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How big do you suspect this creature is?

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Well, there's lots of different reports.

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I mean, up to over 50 feet.

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That's crazy. What would something like that even eat?

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We have five million sockeye salmon that come up to the lake on an average year.

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And each of the females lays 2,000 to 5,000 eggs.

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So now you're looking at maybe five, six billion salmon in the lake rearing.

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And we know we have Northern Pike, Bourbet, Lake Trout, all these other predatory fish out there.

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Meaning there's plenty of fish here to sustain a monster.

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So you're saying there's a top predator in the water and we don't know what it is yet?

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We first started off trying to catch this thing.

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We thought, well, if we catch it, we would know.

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And we would set down up to 15 hooks.

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We were using a 38 pound anchor and we'd put it on the bottom baited with a full salmon head.

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We had planned to only leave it out overnight, but due to the weather, couldn't get back to it.

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When we did come back to it, as I was slowly coming in to retrieve the line,

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I noticed that the line was not going out the same way that we had put it out.

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And it actually had moved quite a bit.

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And we started pulling the line up.

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And the line was just totally tangled up.

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Several of the hooks were gone.

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And of the 14 fish heads, 10 of them were gone.

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And the 38 pound anchor was drug 50 yards.

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Oh, whoa. So this thing is strong.

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Yeah. So at that point, I absolutely knew there was something in this lake.

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So then what do you think it is?

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I'm not sure what it is.

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There's large top predators out there.

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One is the seals.

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We know there's freshwater seals that live in the lake year round.

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I think that's something else.

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I mean seals are marine mammals.

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That to me says that there's something unique about this lake.

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If the seal is a resident here and essentially shouldn't be based on the biology we know of seals around the world,

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what else could be a resident here that shouldn't be here?

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A lot of unknowns up here.

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Our plan is to head towards the eastern side of the lake where Mark says something sizable destroyed his bait system.

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Locals say the monster is aggressive and territorial, so maybe whatever attacked their rig could still be in the area.

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Summer in southern Alaska brings about 19 hours of daylight,

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and even when the sun sets, it'll remain low in the sky.

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That should give us a lot of extra light for this investigation.

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We did a recon a few days ago.

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We saw some targets on our acoustic gear that were really intriguing.

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We're trying to decipher if they were salmon or if they were something bigger.

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Sure, a tightly grouped school of fish could look like one large mass on a sonar,

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but with some reports claiming the mystery creature is upwards of 50 feet long,

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the first place my biologist brain goes is whale.

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Whales can reach that length, but this is a freshwater lake.

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Even if a whale could survive in freshwater, could it get here from the Bering Sea?

248
00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:01,000
People have claimed to see beluga whales in Iliamna.

249
00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:07,000
Now, they don't grow much past 15 feet, but if a beluga could somehow find its way here and survive,

250
00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:10,000
maybe a larger whale can too.

251
00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:15,000
So this is close to where Tim or Pilots saw it as well.

252
00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:18,000
Yeah, I'm close.

253
00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:21,000
We're at a bit of a hot spot for all the sightings.

254
00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:28,000
The first thing overboard is going to be Bruce and Mark's camera trap.

255
00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:33,000
We attach a waterproof camera to this baited metal cage and then tie a buoy to it.

256
00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:37,000
If anything swims this way looking for a meal, the camera should capture images

257
00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:40,000
that we'll be able to retrieve from the memory card.

258
00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:42,000
Alright, well let's grab the ROV.

259
00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:44,000
But the ROV is the main event.

260
00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:52,000
It's got an onboard 4K ultra-high definition camera and a row of LED lights to help us see in the murky waters.

261
00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:57,000
This will be the first time anyone has used this tech in these waters to search for the creature.

262
00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:02,000
And Bruce believes it's just the tool he needs to finally get a visual on it.

263
00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:06,000
That's a good view.

264
00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:10,000
All the sediments we're seeing in the water, that's plankton.

265
00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:13,000
All of this is phytoplankton. It's algae.

266
00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:16,000
That's why this thing is so productive, this lake.

267
00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:20,000
Holy s***, look at all this fish.

268
00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:21,000
That's a good sign.

269
00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:22,000
That's a very good sign.

270
00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:25,000
So where there's fish, there's something that eats fish.

271
00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:30,000
Got a big target at 40 feet.

272
00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:31,000
Big target at 40 feet?

273
00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:32,000
Yeah.

274
00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:33,000
How big?

275
00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:34,000
It's hard to tell.

276
00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:35,000
It's moving.

277
00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:40,000
Not seeing anything yet.

278
00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:44,000
What's that?

279
00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:55,000
What's that?

280
00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:58,000
Is that what we saw in the sonar?

281
00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:02,000
Something just hit the ROV.

282
00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:03,000
What is that?

283
00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:08,000
So what's dragging me?

284
00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:09,000
Look at this.

285
00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:11,000
That is weird.

286
00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:15,000
All right, let's let the line go and let's see.

287
00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:22,000
Keep going up, keep going up.

288
00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:23,000
I'm pushing it.

289
00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:24,000
It's not going up.

290
00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:26,000
It just keeps dropping.

291
00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:28,000
It's not responding at all.

292
00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:31,000
The camera's working, but the motor is shot.

293
00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:33,000
Literally dead in the water.

294
00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:36,000
I think it's possible our ROV was attacked

295
00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:40,000
by something that saw it as either a thread or a snack.

296
00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:43,000
I don't understand why it's not going up.

297
00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:46,000
Despite Jess's mad video gaming skills,

298
00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:51,000
I think operator error might have had something to do with the ROV going down.

299
00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:56,000
But for argument's sake, let's say something near the lake floor did mess with it.

300
00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:58,000
Could it have been a sturgeon?

301
00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:03,000
Sturgeon can live 100 years and grow to 20 feet long,

302
00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:08,000
which makes them some of the world's oldest and largest freshwater fish.

303
00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:11,000
These bottom feeders aren't supposed to be in this lake,

304
00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:14,000
but they can be found in some southern Alaskan rivers.

305
00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:17,000
If a sturgeon did manage to make it to Iliamna,

306
00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:22,000
I can see how something that size in shallower water could get mistaken for a monster,

307
00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:26,000
especially from up in a plane like many of the reports.

308
00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:29,000
Alright, ROV's out of the water.

309
00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:30,000
Alright, good.

310
00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:35,000
Before we leave with our busted robot, we check Mark and Bruce's underwater camera.

311
00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:39,000
Maybe it snapped a shot of whatever was messing with our ROV,

312
00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:41,000
but no dice.

313
00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:44,000
So we drop it back in the water, hoping our luck changes.

314
00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:55,000
The next morning, Mark and Bruce are setting out more of their baited cameras in other parts of the lake.

315
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:59,000
While they tackle that, there's an experiment I want to try.

316
00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:02,000
Alright, I want to head towards that red box over there.

317
00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:03,000
Yeah.

318
00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:08,000
Legend says the lake monster is drawn to the color red, even attacking red bottom boats.

319
00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:19,000
I'm going to put that part of the legend to the test at a section of the lake

320
00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:22,000
where there have been recent sightings from people on shore.

321
00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:28,000
So your idea is that this is the color that the locals claim the lake monster is attracted to.

322
00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:29,000
Exactly.

323
00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:31,000
And that's why they don't use red boats like this.

324
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:33,000
And it makes sense because the salmon here are red.

325
00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:34,000
Okay.

326
00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:35,000
And that's its food source.

327
00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:38,000
So if it's attracted to that color because of its food source,

328
00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:41,000
maybe it'll be attracted to this kayak because it's the same color.

329
00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:42,000
Okay.

330
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:46,000
I'm not saying there's a lake monster out here attacking red bottom boats,

331
00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:52,000
but research shows that even though they might not have the ability to actually distinguish colors,

332
00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:55,000
submarine life do appear to gravitate to certain colors.

333
00:18:55,000 --> 00:19:00,000
Sharks are often drawn to high contrast colors like yellow, orange and red.

334
00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:01,000
So who knows?

335
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:05,000
Jess's experiment might not be as crazy as it sounds.

336
00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:10,000
So if we put this in the water, attach a trail cam to that red box over there,

337
00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:14,000
maybe we can get it to breach and we'll be able to capture it on the game camp.

338
00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:15,000
Yeah.

339
00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:17,000
We got one more thing you're going to like, Phil.

340
00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:20,000
She got a mini seismometer.

341
00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:21,000
Oh.

342
00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:24,000
So that if anything hits this as if it was attacking it,

343
00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:26,000
we will be able to register it on that.

344
00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:27,000
Nice.

345
00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:31,000
I figure we can put this down here so that if anything hits from the bottom up,

346
00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:33,000
we'll be able to get it.

347
00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:34,000
Cool.

348
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:35,000
Lighten up.

349
00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:36,000
Check it.

350
00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:37,000
Yeah.

351
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:38,000
Very nice.

352
00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:39,000
Yeah.

353
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:45,000
If there's any sudden movement of the kayak, this device will record it and send an alert to my phone.

354
00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:46,000
Cool.

355
00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:47,000
On.

356
00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:48,000
On.

357
00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:49,000
Okay.

358
00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:51,000
Let's get the kayak in the water.

359
00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:54,000
How she goes.

360
00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:55,000
Nice.

361
00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:57,000
Leave it out here overnight and get it in the morning.

362
00:19:57,000 --> 00:19:58,000
Let's do it.

363
00:19:58,000 --> 00:19:59,000
All right.

364
00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:04,000
Just as experiment gets me thinking, if the mystery creature is somehow drawn to red,

365
00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:09,000
is it possible that what we're looking for is some kind of shark that made its way up river?

366
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:12,000
There are sharks that can survive in fresh water.

367
00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:16,000
The most common shark in the Bering Sea is the Pacific sleeper shark.

368
00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:23,000
Sleeper sharks are dark colored and have been known to reach upwards of 20 feet and 8,000 pounds.

369
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:29,000
They've never been officially documented around Iliamna Lake, but I need to consider all options.

370
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:33,000
If a shark is around here, where's the best place to find it?

371
00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:38,000
The New Island is a 22 mile river that flows south into Iliamna Lake.

372
00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:44,000
We're told it's a major pathway for a mind boggling migration of sockeye salmon and rainbow trout.

373
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:49,000
So we've arranged for some high speed transport to navigate this epic waterway.

374
00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,000
You guys in here Captain John?

375
00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:52,000
Yep.

376
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:53,000
You're gonna take us up river?

377
00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:54,000
I am.

378
00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:55,000
All right.

379
00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:56,000
What should we expect?

380
00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:58,000
Are we about to get wet?

381
00:20:58,000 --> 00:20:59,000
Possibly.

382
00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:00,000
We'll try not to.

383
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:02,000
Try not to go overboard.

384
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:03,000
Yeah.

385
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:05,000
Try not to push you.

386
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:19,000
So have you ever seen a weird wake just naturally, just like one big wave coming in?

387
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:20,000
Absolutely.

388
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:27,000
You may see something above the water, you know, associated with the wake.

389
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:30,000
What does that mean?

390
00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:32,000
That's the million dollar question.

391
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:38,000
I guess the question here is, is it a lake monster or is it a wake monster?

392
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:40,000
Oh my gosh.

393
00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:42,000
Can we kick him off the boat?

394
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:53,000
Yes, it is impressive how much water is going through here.

395
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:54,000
Yeah.

396
00:21:54,000 --> 00:22:00,000
With its sturdy aluminum hull, unique sledge shaped bow and high performance engine, Captain

397
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:05,000
John's custom made boat is perfectly designed to maneuver through shallow rocky waters,

398
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:09,000
getting us into remote areas inaccessible to many other boats.

399
00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:12,000
We're watching rapids coming up right ahead.

400
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,000
This is insane.

401
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:24,000
This is awesome.

402
00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:26,000
It's flying over the rapids.

403
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:34,000
This man has no idea about like this.

404
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:36,000
Get up and move over like this.

405
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:38,000
You have done this before, right?

406
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:39,000
Yeah.

407
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:41,000
This is insane.

408
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:43,000
Whoa.

409
00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:44,000
Whoa.

410
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:47,000
You going between that?

411
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:49,000
Oh boy.

412
00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:00,000
Oh my gosh.

413
00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:03,000
You going between that?

414
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:04,000
Oh boy.

415
00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:05,000
No way.

416
00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:07,000
Hang on.

417
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:11,000
Whoa.

418
00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:13,000
Oh my god.

419
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:15,000
That was insane.

420
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:20,000
If I was a lake monster, I'd do this for fun.

421
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:21,000
Oh yeah.

422
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,000
Full of delicious salmon.

423
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:25,000
You just open your mouth and you get a bite.

424
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:30,000
As we skim over the rapids, I scan for any signs of a large aquatic predator.

425
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:33,000
While Jess is looking for a lake monster behind the local lore,

426
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:37,000
I'm trying to stay open minded on what known species it could possibly be.

427
00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:41,000
An overgrown fish like a sturgeon or even a rogue shark or whale

428
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:45,000
that found its way up here from the Bering Sea.

429
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:47,000
Oh my god.

430
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:49,000
That is all fish.

431
00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:52,000
Tons of salmon right there.

432
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:55,000
No doubt this river is an all you can eat buffet.

433
00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:57,000
Just ask the bears.

434
00:23:57,000 --> 00:23:59,000
We got a bear. We got a bear.

435
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:00,000
Right on the edge of the bear.

436
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:01,000
Oh yeah.

437
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:03,000
So the bears here get absolutely enormous

438
00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:06,000
because there's so much salmon, so much to eat.

439
00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:08,000
They can get up to 1,500 pounds.

440
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:13,000
So that is just a perfect example that predators get big in this area.

441
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:17,000
Oh, a bald eagle. Here she comes.

442
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:21,000
Wow. How about that?

443
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:22,000
That's cool.

444
00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:27,000
We've now spotted two apex predators that feast on the abundant fish in this river.

445
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:32,000
But I'm not seeing any signs of anything big living in the water.

446
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:36,000
And when that water turns into class 5 rapids,

447
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:38,000
Holy s***, it's insane.

448
00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:42,000
We decide to get out and assess from a different vantage point.

449
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:50,000
Oh my god, look at this.

450
00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:52,000
Wow.

451
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:55,000
Come on.

452
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:58,000
Oh, check it out. You can see all the salmon over there.

453
00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:00,000
Oh yeah, they're all concentrated right there.

454
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,000
I will say trying to fight against them like this, that'd be tough.

455
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:06,000
I mean, I think it's possible it could be coming up this river to feed,

456
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:10,000
but it wouldn't stay here too long, not in these rapids.

457
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:16,000
Jess and I agree that this river is too shallow and too rough for a big aquatic creature.

458
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:20,000
My guess is it lays dormant in the deep end of the lake

459
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:22,000
and pops up when it needs to feed.

460
00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:25,000
If something's hiding, it's going to be hiding in the depth.

461
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:26,000
Yeah.

462
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:28,000
So should we get out of here before we get eaten by a bear?

463
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:29,000
Yeah, I'd like that.

464
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:32,000
When considering the plausibility of a lake monster,

465
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:35,000
scientists say it would need two basic things to survive.

466
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:39,000
Plenty of food and a suitable environment where it could stay hidden.

467
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:42,000
Skeptics of the legendary Loch Ness monster

468
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:47,000
cite the lack of fish in Loch Ness to sustain what would be Nessie's oversized appetite.

469
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:50,000
But that's obviously not a problem in Iliamna.

470
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:53,000
As for a place to stay hidden,

471
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:56,000
my research reveals stories told by native elders

472
00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:59,000
who believe the creature makes its home in underwater caverns

473
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:02,000
found in the deeper parts of the lake.

474
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:05,000
But with a broken ROV and depths that are too great to dive,

475
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:08,000
we have no way to look for those caves.

476
00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:10,000
We're going to need some help.

477
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:11,000
Hey guys, how are you?

478
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:12,000
Hi.

479
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:13,000
Hey Josh.

480
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:14,000
How's the last frontier treating you?

481
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:15,000
It's gorgeous out here.

482
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:16,000
But I'll tell you what,

483
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:18,000
Lake Iliamna, there's something special about this place.

484
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,000
It is giant, it is deep, it is remote,

485
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:25,000
it is arguably the most well-preserved large lake on this hemisphere.

486
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:26,000
Yeah, great.

487
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:28,000
Have you caught the lake monster yet, Phil?

488
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:30,000
Not quite.

489
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:33,000
Okay, any idea what people are seeing there?

490
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:36,000
I'd say we have a list of suspects out here.

491
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:37,000
Could be a large fish.

492
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:41,000
Could be a sleeper shark or it could be some other thing.

493
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,000
We're trying to narrow it down.

494
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:44,000
Sleeper shark?

495
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:48,000
Okay, well I've got something that might help reel in your investigation.

496
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:50,000
I've tracked down a new lead that I want you to follow up on.

497
00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:57,000
It's a pair of sisters that just came forward claiming they spotted the lake monster near their village.

498
00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:01,000
Not only that, they even managed to capture a video of what they saw.

499
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:02,000
Wow, really?

500
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:05,000
We also need your help with something else.

501
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:09,000
Bruce and Mark, the biologists we teamed up with here, are so excited that we have an ROV.

502
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:14,000
And for the first time ever, they were able to see a live feed of what's down below.

503
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:16,000
Yeah, until the lake monster attacked it.

504
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:17,000
Wait, what?

505
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:20,000
Either that or Jess crashed it on the bottom.

506
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:21,000
Show bot.

507
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:23,000
Here's the thing.

508
00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:27,000
I've found stories that the creature lives deep in underwater caves.

509
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:29,000
So if we can find those caves.

510
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:33,000
Long story short, we need an ROV now more than ever.

511
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:37,000
Well a replacement ROV in a hurry considering where you are.

512
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:38,000
A bit of a tall order.

513
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:42,000
Also, I'm not sure I trust you anymore, but I will make some calls, see what I can come up with.

514
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:45,000
In the meantime, go talk to those witnesses, okay?

515
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:46,000
Sounds good.

516
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:48,000
Bye.

517
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:51,000
See you Josh.

518
00:27:51,000 --> 00:28:04,000
The next morning we meet sisters Christina and Alexana Salmon, prominent members of their village tribal council and whose family has lived on the shores of Iliamna for generations.

519
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:05,000
So it was right here?

520
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:06,000
This is where you saw it?

521
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:07,000
Yes, from here.

522
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:08,000
Okay.

523
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:09,000
It was in the lake.

524
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:10,000
Right where the boat is right there.

525
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:11,000
Yes.

526
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:12,000
Okay.

527
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:13,000
But it was way bigger than that boat.

528
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:16,000
Okay, you got to walk us through from the beginning.

529
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:17,000
Okay.

530
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:25,000
I came up and we're visiting right here and just like right now talking to you, you could see something moving.

531
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:31,000
And she looks at me and looks back at the lake and says, what the F is that?

532
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:34,000
My mind was trying to justify what I was seeing.

533
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:37,000
Pretend it was a submarine that could bend and turn.

534
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:39,000
So it was just flowing straight.

535
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:49,000
And then turned and at that point we saw a big black hump as it was like diving back under and it just parted the water as it went.

536
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:52,000
Now I understand you have footage of this thing.

537
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:53,000
Yes.

538
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,000
Whoa, look at that.

539
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:07,000
Now I understand you have footage of this thing.

540
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:08,000
Yes.

541
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:11,000
Whoa, look at that.

542
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:14,000
Wow, look at the size of that wake.

543
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:21,000
The sisters video is compelling, but it's not exactly the concrete proof of an aquatic monster I was hoping for.

544
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:28,000
According to their testimony, by the time they whipped out a phone and hit record on the camera, they only managed to capture the very end of the sighting.

545
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:33,000
But even that five seconds of video shows something leaving an impressive wake.

546
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:36,000
So you actually saw it kind of crest like come out of the water a little bit.

547
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:42,000
When we saw it, it was like a pure black, shiny, it looked like a whale.

548
00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:44,000
So was it a whale?

549
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:48,000
There's no way a whale could have made it up the river with no one seeing it.

550
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:50,000
It was something you've heard about your whole life.

551
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:52,000
What have you heard?

552
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:57,000
A lot of the elders have had sightings of it and they've always described it as big and gray.

553
00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:00,000
So there's something in the water here.

554
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,000
There's gotta be.

555
00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:07,000
I believe the sisters had a chance sighting of the creature as it made a rare breach of the surface.

556
00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:12,000
But if we want to see it for ourselves, we have to go to where it lives.

557
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:19,000
We meet back up with Bruce and Mark who've been busy placing underwater camera traps throughout the lake.

558
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:24,000
We'll check the cameras later, but right now, we need to find these legendary caves.

559
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:27,000
You can see caves on some of the islands as you go around.

560
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:29,000
So maybe there's caves down below.

561
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:31,000
The lake's pretty deep over here.

562
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:35,000
And then there's been sightings all up in this area.

563
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:41,000
Iliamna Lake sits on the northern edge of the Pacific Ring of Fire,

564
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:47,000
meaning the topography here is the result of earthquakes, volcanic activity, or glaciation,

565
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:53,000
any of which could create caves and tunnels, a.k.a. hiding spots for a large animal.

566
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:57,000
To help us find them, Josh came through with a special delivery from Anchorage,

567
00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:01,000
a state-of-the-art ROV and a seasoned pilot to boot.

568
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:03,000
Sorry, Jess.

569
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:06,000
Welcome to the team.

570
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:09,000
Yeah, it's a beautiful day to go out and take a break.

571
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:11,000
You do know what we're going for here.

572
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:13,000
I know that it's a monster.

573
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:16,000
I guess technically we don't know what we're going for here, but we know it's big.

574
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:21,000
But no one's been able to actually get this thing on tape, especially underwater.

575
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:25,000
So that's where we hope you and your skills can help us out.

576
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:27,000
Who knows what we'll see?

577
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:29,000
I know. All right, let's hit it.

578
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:38,000
We hightail it across the lake, traveling about 18 miles east to the search area Bruce pointed out on the map.

579
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:45,000
You don't want direct sunlight when you're sending down an ROV because that sunlight bounces off the particles in the water

580
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:47,000
and can actually make it harder to see.

581
00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:52,000
So having this fog overhead, it's not too hot out, conditions looking good.

582
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:58,000
Bruce and Mark have identified several small rocky islands scattered in this corner of the lake

583
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:01,000
that could be an indication of caves down below.

584
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:05,000
Definitely see what will look like caves over there.

585
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:09,000
We need to get an ROV in there.

586
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:14,000
Jess is all in on the ROV finding caves where a monster might live,

587
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:18,000
but I'll be using it to search for something that could be mistaken for a monster.

588
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:22,000
To help with that hunt, Bruce breaks out another trick of the trade.

589
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:29,000
This little thing right here, it's called a Mako Magnet, puts out a low frequency injured fish sound.

590
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:34,000
So this thing puts out a low frequency noise that goes how far out?

591
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:35,000
More than a mile.

592
00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:39,000
We could potentially bring in the lake monster.

593
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:40,000
We don't know.

594
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:44,000
We attach a waterproof camera to the Mako Magnet's cage.

595
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:45,000
Let's get this up on the ledge.

596
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:48,000
And to maximize our coverage all around the boat.

597
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:49,000
Alright, going in.

598
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,000
Down go the rest of our submersible cameras.

599
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:57,000
If the Mako Magnet attracts something, we'll get a shot of it no matter where it approaches from.

600
00:32:57,000 --> 00:32:59,000
Now we just gotta get a robot in the water.

601
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:03,000
With about $45,000 worth of high-tech features built into it,

602
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:08,000
this ROV is one of the most advanced underwater vehicles on the market,

603
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,000
hence the need for a specially trained pilot.

604
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:14,000
This robot can safely reach depths of a thousand feet.

605
00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:19,000
A lot of other ROVs would be crushed by the pressure.

606
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:20,000
How's the video feed looking?

607
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:21,000
It looks good.

608
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:26,000
The plan is to navigate towards the island in search of rocky caves and ledges

609
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:29,000
where a large monster could potentially hide.

610
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:31,000
It is a little cloudier over on this side though.

611
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:36,000
What is that back there?

612
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:38,000
It's like a car bumper.

613
00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:39,000
Maybe it's an airplane.

614
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:42,000
Oh, it could be a piece of an airplane maybe.

615
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:43,000
It does look metal.

616
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:45,000
I mean, it could only be a branch.

617
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:46,000
It looks metallic.

618
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:47,000
It does look like a branch, but right there it looks like...

619
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:48,000
I think that's a branch.

620
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:49,000
I think that's a branch.

621
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:50,000
Yeah.

622
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:53,000
It's getting really murky down there.

623
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:55,000
Big tree.

624
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:56,000
It's a whole bunch of trees.

625
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:04,000
Look at that.

626
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:06,000
That's a cliff-sedge.

627
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:11,000
Wow, this is wild.

628
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:14,000
Look at that.

629
00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:17,000
I'm going to go out away from the wall and then turn around and look back.

630
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:21,000
Wow, look at that structure.

631
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:24,000
Isn't it crazy nobody has ever laid eyes on this?

632
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:25,000
Ever.

633
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:27,000
Oh my gosh.

634
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:29,000
That's incredible.

635
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:36,000
We're at 126.

636
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:37,000
26?

637
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:38,000
Let's just keep going.

638
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:39,000
Keep going, because it is the end.

639
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:40,000
Why not? No one has been down here.

640
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:48,000
Big target showing up on the sonar right now.

641
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:50,000
About 150 feet down.

642
00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:53,000
Let's keep heading down that cliff.

643
00:34:57,000 --> 00:34:59,000
What's this? What's this? What's this?

644
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:01,000
Whoa.

645
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:19,000
When sharks typically live in the ocean, certain species have the ability to retain or recycle salt.

646
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:25,000
The Ganges shark, as its name suggests, inhabits the bustling rivers of India.

647
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:32,000
The spear-tooth shark can be found in the tropical riverbeds and estuaries of Papua New Guinea and Northern Australia.

648
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:35,000
Then there's the meanest of the bunch, the bull shark.

649
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:40,000
This aggressive apex predator can swim hundreds of miles upriver.

650
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:47,000
It's been documented in the Mississippi as far north as Illinois and in Louisiana's Lake Poncha Train.

651
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:54,000
And some believe it was a bull shark and not a great white that famously terrorized the New Jersey Creek in 1916

652
00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:58,000
and later inspired my favorite beach read, Jaws.

653
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:04,000
Meaning they could be hungrily hanging out in a freshwater lake or river near you.

654
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:10,000
The big target is showing up on the sonar right now.

655
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:12,000
About 150 feet down.

656
00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:14,000
Let's keep heading down that cliff.

657
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:18,000
What's this? What's this? What's this?

658
00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:22,000
Whoa. That's big. That's dark.

659
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:23,000
What is that?

660
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:32,000
Do you still see anything on the sonar?

661
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:33,000
Not anymore.

662
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:42,000
Down to 170 feet.

663
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:45,000
Still a straight drop too.

664
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:53,000
If we can find a deep water cave, we may answer the question how an aquatic giant has managed to escape discovery.

665
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:55,000
200 feet down.

666
00:36:58,000 --> 00:36:59,000
Is that starting to flat now?

667
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:01,000
Yeah, it looks totally different.

668
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:03,000
Looks totally different over here.

669
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:05,000
220.

670
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:09,000
240.

671
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:10,000
Keep going.

672
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:14,000
That looks cool.

673
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:17,000
Let's look around.

674
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:22,000
Look at those lines.

675
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:23,000
Tracks.

676
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:24,000
Yeah, tracks.

677
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:26,000
There's definitely something living down there.

678
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:27,000
That's pretty neat.

679
00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:28,000
It's really neat.

680
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:31,000
I mean, I'm surprised we haven't seen any fish.

681
00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:35,000
It's almost like they're afraid of a giant robot with lasers coming at them.

682
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:38,000
Lasers. Yeah, that's a good point.

683
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:40,000
I would be.

684
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:48,000
Well, tell you what, it is amazing to see the bottom of the slag.

685
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:52,000
I think we could safely say this ROV went where no man or woman has gone before.

686
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:53,000
Yeah.

687
00:37:53,000 --> 00:38:00,000
After another hour of searching, whatever we saw in our sonar seems to have taken off.

688
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,000
We've been able to map out some of the bottom areas.

689
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:17,000
We've gotten a sense of where there's potential food, where there's potential hiding spots.

690
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:20,000
The potential for something to be living in here.

691
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:21,000
That's massive.

692
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:28,000
I mean, it has definitely enough space, tons of food and very little interaction with people.

693
00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:36,000
So if you're ever going to have a lake monster living anywhere, I feel like this is the best place for that to happen.

694
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:41,000
And also this is just one island in the middle of a gigantic lake.

695
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:46,000
I think it'd take us a year just to survey this little tiny island.

696
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:47,000
Yep.

697
00:38:48,000 --> 00:39:01,000
The deep waters of Iliamna Lake in the sparsely populated wilds of Alaska could indeed be the perfect place for a large aquatic animal to remain undetected.

698
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:10,000
But is it really a legendary monster or some known creature being mistaken for a monster?

699
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:21,000
Jess's kayak experiment to test if the animal truly is drawn to the color red yielded no alerts from the seismograph or camera trap.

700
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:28,000
And even though there are certain sharks that can inhabit fresh water, so far none have been confirmed here.

701
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:30,000
Phil also considered the sturgeon.

702
00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:37,000
They are huge prehistoric looking fish, but they're also bottom feeders, rarely seen at the surface.

703
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:41,000
And they're undocumented in lake waters this cold.

704
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:45,000
We analyze the cell phone video captured by the salmon sisters.

705
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:52,000
Even with digital enhancement, the visual here is a giant wake, but there is no proof of what caused it.

706
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:55,000
So where does this leave us?

707
00:39:55,000 --> 00:40:04,000
Phil suspects that in a place so steeped in native lore, multiple sightings over decades of different aquatic species that aren't known to be here

708
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:08,000
may have combined to inspire a monster myth.

709
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:15,000
And after seeing first hand Iliamna's All You Can Eat salmon special, followed by a fast moving shadow at the Rocky Overhang,

710
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:21,000
Jess is doubling down that there is something unclassified growing large in the lake.

711
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:27,000
But what it is and where it came from is still a mystery, which brings us to this.

712
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:32,000
Remember those underwater cameras Bruce and Mark have been placing throughout the lake?

713
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:37,000
The data is in and the results are, well, adorable.

714
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:44,000
This is an extremely rare and very cute freshwater seal.

715
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:50,000
Iliamna Lake is one of the few places in the world that you'll find seals living in a freshwater habitat.

716
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:56,000
And just like a certain legendary lake monster, there's a lot that scientists don't know about them.

717
00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:02,000
Like how they got here, why they came, and why they stay.

718
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:10,000
The Iliamna seals average just 6 feet long, meaning they're probably not being mistaken for any monsters.

719
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:21,000
But if they can be in the lake unseen by most, perhaps some other mysterious creature might have found its way here and could still be hiding in the depths.

720
00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:31,000
For more information on Expedition X, head to Discovery.com.