Discovery News focused on a cryptozoology story to start the month. Indeed, it was their top story for Tuesday. Two bits of news footage (added at the below) surfaced, as a result. (Late update: On March 2, 2011, Ben Radford added his view of the Bownessie news here.)

MARCH 01, 2011

‘BOWNESSIE’ LATEST LAKE MONSTER?
Move over Loch Ness and Bessie, “Bownessie” is the latest mysterious creature reportedly spotted in a lake. But skeptics smell a hoax.

The reporter Eric Niiler extensively interviewed me, and fairly used my quotes:

“I’m always cautious of photographs,” said Loren Coleman, director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine, and author of Cryptozoology A to Z.”

“If you look at this photograph, it’s pretty distinct with these humps. We have seen this kind of thing before, sometimes it’s garbage bags tied together and sometimes it’s anonymous [I said "anomalous" - LC] creatures.”

Coleman should know. He spent several weeks on a Loch Ness expedition in 1999 and has researched how sightings of lake monsters seem to persist in the so-called “monster latitudes” of water bodies that include Lake Champlain, Lake Okanagan, B.C., Loch Ness and Lake Brosno, Russia. Coleman says they are all deepwater lakes in remote areas, surrounded (until recently) by forests.

Visitors to these lakes who report strange sightings are often unfamiliar with local wildlife, Coleman said. So the wake of an otter, snake or drifting log becomes a strange sea animal….

While this most recent case of the “Bownessie” (named for the local town in England) may not hold up to scrutiny, Coleman believes there are far too many sightings of strange creatures to discount all of them.

He points to scientific discoveries of new species of beaked whales, giant squid, monitor lizards and other large animals that were the subject of legends until very recently.

“We all like a mystery,” he said.

Others sent in video links: