Bigfoot Encounters Sasquatch sighting stories move to Internet CanWest News Service The Times Colonist BC |
Saturday, March 24, 2007 -- NANAIMO -- The creature known as Bigfoot or Sasquatch is covering a whole new territory -- the Internet -- after a Texas man, a self-styled Bigfoot researcher, has posted a video he claims to have taken near Tofino last July. But Dr. John Bindernagel, a biologist and the author of the book, "North America's Great Ape: The Sasquatch," is concerned that the ability to post videos by anyone claiming to have footage of a Sasquatch will damage efforts to do genuine scientific research into the phenomenon. "For me the Internet is a mixed bag -- it's easier to report a sighting, but it's not vetted very well," he said. Reports of seeing the creature on Vancouver Island go back many years. Bindernagel, from the Comox Valley, claims to have found footprints in Strathcona Park near Mount Washington. In 2005, he told the Nanaimo Daily News that there have been about 100 sightings on the Island since 1850. In the same time, there have been about 400 sightings in B.C., a number he thinks is low due to people's fear of being mocked. Though evidence has yet to surface proving Bindernagel's claim that the Sasquatch is real, he thinks a scientific approach could prove its existence. He is now working on a second book about the phenomenon to argue why scientists should give it serious consideration. Bindernagel said fuzzy films on the Internet do not help him making that argument. Portions of this website are reprinted and sometimes edited to fit the standards of this website |