Ponik

The Ponik is a lake monster inhabiting lake Pohenegamook in Quebec only 300 yards from the Maine border. Lake Pohenegamook is about nine square kilometres and 660 ft deep. Ponik are described as 40 to 60 ft long with two or three humps, a sail on its back, four flippers, horse-like head and a long neck as thick as a barrel. Their bodies are shaped like a giant overturned canoe with black scaly skin like a crocodile. There is over 1000 known sightings of Ponik and is quite popular in regional culture. It's believed by locals that it lives in the underwater cave system on the northern mouth of the lake. Although there is Maliseet folklore of similar creatures, the first written account was in 1873 when the lumberjack Louis Berube saw a huge 25-30 ft “fish” in the lake.

In 1933, a road was built on the west shore of Lake Pohenegamook, and sightings increased. In 1957, Father Leopold Plante saw a black animal with two humps suddenly appear and then dive to the depths of the lake.  In 1958, the press offered a $100 reward for anyone who could take a photo of the creature, but nobody took the reward. In the 1980’s Japanese researchers wanted to explore the lake for a TV show about cryptids. Based on their SONAR readings of the lake, they saw the silhouette a 6.5 metre long animal swimming at the bottom of the lake, directly below their boat. In 2015, the mayor of the Pohenegamook pulled a publicity stunt with a hoaxed video showing a large creature's back surface in the lake. It was presumably made to attract visitors.