Case file · Cryptid
Issie of Lake Ikeda
In September 1978 about 20 people at Lake Ikeda in Kagoshima said they saw a large dark creature with humps moving in the water; it was nicknamed Issie after Nessie.
1978 CE · 31.23, 130.56 · status: claim
The account
A photograph taken that December by Toshiaki Matsubara was widely printed. The town put up a statue of the monster and sightings fed a local tourist boom in the 1980s.
The sceptical view
The lake holds very large giant mottled eels, some over 1.5 m, which may explain many reports; swimming deer and boat wakes are other candidates.