UFOs and USOs -The Santa Catalina Channel.

[Karl12]

Santa Catalina Channel.

Map:









The Santa Catalina Channel has been a rather infamous UFO/USO hotspot over the decades and (although it's the History Channel) there's a short segment about the area in the vid below.

Apparently people have been spotting them there for decades and back in the sixties families were even going down there to see them with a packed lunch.








See 3:10

Writes Ann Druffel,


“This body of water lies between the coastlines of Southern California and Santa Catalina Island, 20 miles offshore to the southwest. The area has for at least thirty years been the scene of UFO reports of all kinds: surface sightings of hazy craft which cruise leisurely in full view of military installations, aerial spheres bobbing in oscillating flight, gigantic cloud-cigars, and at least one report of an underwater UFO with uniformed occupants.”


Another researcher, Robert Stanley, editor of the now defunct magazine Unicus, writes,


“Even in the sixties, families were going down to the beach and waiting for a UFO to pass by…. By the 1970s, whole families were going down to the beach at Point Dume at night to watch the multi-colored UFOs [that] would sink under the water at times.”


MUFON field investigator Bill Hamilton writes,


“For years witnesses have seen many types of UFO cruising off the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Southern California. UFOs have actually been seen to come out of the water in the San Pedro Channel.”


I had already uncovered several firsthand cases myself. My next step was to put together a comprehensive list of all the recorded ocean-going encounters in the area.

I came up with more than 50 sightings..



Article: Fate Magazine, February 2006

As per usual many of the pertinent links have now been deleted from the internet but there are saved articles below which cover the freaky goings on.

The first California underwater UFO was on July 7, 1947 when two San Raphael teen-agers saw a "flat glistening object" emerge from the water, fly around and then dive back into the water 400 yards from shore. Throughout this same year, numerous steamers reported a mysterious 'undersea mountain' or a 'large mass underwater' which kept appearing and disappearing in various locations in the San Francisco Bay and down the coast.
Following this, the sightings came regularly, in 1951, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1962, 1964, 1970, 1980, 1990, 1991, 1993, 2004 the list goes on, most from the Santa Catalina channel. The sightings involve many highly credible witnesses including lifeguards, security guards, law enforcement officials, military officers and countless citizens.


Link Deleted.

Some interesting dates in that last article and here's more info on those 1947 reports of 'flying discs over Catalina' (the same time as Roswell).

One of the first such reports to make it into the local paper, was the supposedly widely-viewed account of several “flying discs” over Avalon in 1947, just about the same time as the infamous Roswell incident...

Not as widely reported at the same time, however, were a number of other “disc” sightings both before and after the Roswell incident.

On the evening of June 26, 1947, U.S. Army Major George Wilcox of Warren, Arizona, reported a series of “eight or nine” disc-shaped objects traveling near his home and at an altitude of about 1,000 feet above the nearby mountains.

That same evening, a Captain E.B. Detchmendy reported seeing a “white disc glowing like an electric light bulb” passing over Pope, New Mexico, a sighting echoed by several local townspeople.

Dozens of other sightings—many by military officers—were reported in the region in the coming days and weeks.

But the Southwest wasn’t the only venue. Similar sightings were reported throughout much of the western United States as far north as Washington State and as far west as California—including Catalina Island.

On July 8, 1947, the very same day that Roswell’s Daily Record was reporting the initial “flying disc” story, a remarkable incident reportedly occurred in the skies above Avalon. An article on the front page of the week’s issue of the Catalina Islander details an alleged sighting by three visiting Army veterans of six “flying discs” traveling at high speed from the northeast and passing directly over Avalon before disappearing over East Peak.

According to the story, the six discs appeared at about 1 p.m. and flew in a formation of two sets of three and were witnessed not only by the veterans, but by “hundreds” of others as well.

Alvio Russo, one of the reported witnesses and an Army Air Corps veteran who had flown 35 bombing missions over Germany with the Eighth Air Force, estimated the velocity of the discs at “850 miles an hour,” according to the story.

Bob Jung, listed as a “former aerial photographer” agreed with this estimate and said they were flying roughly as fast as the U.S. Navy’s “Tiny Tim” rocket, which he had photographed numerous times for the Navy.


Link Deleted.

[Karl12]

As well as older sightings there have also been more recent(ish) reports from the area and thought Preston Dennett did a mighty fine job of exploring 'the night of the UFO's' which occurred on June 14th, 1992.

There's some pretty crazy police dispatch UFO recordings found in the video and apparently over two dozen witnesses in more than ten different locations (spaced no more than twenty miles apart) all reported extremely strange UFO activity and 'numerous people called the police, local newspaper and UFO groups'.

'Pie' and 'disc' shaped objects putting out light-beams (and a humming noise) are being described by some witnesses and there are other accounts of objects emerging from the ocean, hovering over houses or chasing motor vehicles down the highway.

Pretty insane stuff.

On the evening of June 14, 1992, a massive UFO wave occurred over the small community of Topanga Canyon, California. Hundreds of UFOs were seen by multiple witnesses across the canyon. Objects hovered over homes, shot across the sky, chased cars down the road, even lifting one up in the sky. But the full story has never been told. Until now. This video presents brand new startling information about this famous case, including excerpts from phone calls made to the police, new eyewitnesses, photographs and more, including an apparent abduction. On this evening, numerous people called the police, the local newspaper, and UFO groups. In this video, you will hear the police tape firsthand, and listen to actual witnesses reporting the incredible events which occured on that evening. The night of June 14, 1992 remains one of the most incredible UFO events in California history, and marked the beginning of a two-year-long UFO wave of stupendous proportions.

Excerpts

Found in the NUFORC archive, researcher Robert Gribble also received a call from one of the witnesses who describes his experience, his almost hysterical girlfriend and the weeping blisters, sunburn and nausea they both experienced afterwards.

In 1974, Robert Gribble started the National UFO Reporing Center (NUFORC) near Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. The NUFORC's 24 hour hotline number was distributed to police, airports and military bases, with a request to refer claimed UFO witnesses to the NUFORC. Gribble or his associates took hundreds of telephone calls from people who claimed to have seen UFOs.

The NUFORC still operates as of March, 2009, now with Peter Davenport as director. Witnesses range from ordinary citizens to pilots, military personnel, Federal Aviation Administration employees, police and scientists.

[Karl12]

Coastal Sightings:

1953: Engineer Frederick Hehr and several others are on Santa Monica beach when they observe a “squadron of saucers” performing maneuvers in the daylight sky over the bay. Later that day, the objects return and perform more maneuvers for a period of about ten minutes.






July 10th, 1955: Around 11:00 a.m., several fishermen off the coast of Newport Beach observe a bluish-silver, cigar-shaped object flying overhead at a “moderate speed and medium altitude.” Two and a half hours later, a Washington family of three are sailing 13 miles off the coast of Newport Beach on their way to Catalina Island when they observe a “perfectly round, gray-white” craft about 2,500 feet above their boat. When the object maintains its position over their boat, they radio the Coast Guard, which sends out a plane. The object darts away before the plane arrives.






November 6th, 1957: Early morning in Playa Del Rey, three cars driving along the Pacific Coast Highway suddenly stall when a large “egg-shaped object” surrounded in a “blue haze” lands on the beach only a few yards away. Witnesses Richard Kehoe, Ronald Burke, and Joe Thomas exit their cars and observe two strange-looking men disembarking from the object. The UFO occupants have “yellowish-green skin” and wear “black leather pants, white belts and light colored jerseys.” They walk up to the witnesses and begin asking questions. Kehoe and the others are unable to understand the occupants, who are apparently speaking a foreign language. After a few moments, the figures return to the object, which takes off and accelerates out of sight. That same day at 3:50 p.m., an officer and 12 airmen from an Air Force detachment in nearby Long Beach observe six saucer-shaped objects zooming across the sky. Two hours later, officers at Los Alamitos Naval Air Station report seeing “numerous” objects criss-crossing the sky. At the same time, police stations in Long Beach receive more than 100 calls from residents reporting UFOs.






December 1957: The crew of the British steamship Ramsey observes a large metallic gray disk with antenna-like projections off the coast of San Pedro. One of the crewmen grabs his camera and captures a blurry photo of the object before it moves away.






1960: Actor Chad Everett and two friends are on the rooftop of his Beverly Hills home one night when they observe a lighted object moving back and forth at high speeds over the nearby ocean. Because the object moves so quickly and at right angles, the witnesses are convinced it is a genuine UFO.






1970: As investigated by Bill Hamilton, an anonymous gentleman sailing from Catalina Island to San Pedro Harbor observes a metallic saucer with four “hemispherical pods” underneath it flying only a few hundred feet above his boat.






May 1973: Art director George Gray (pseudonym) observes an object sending down a beam of light while driving along the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica in the pre-dawn hours:
“The UFO was over where the beach was…hovering I would say maybe a hundred, two hundred feet in the air. It was silver. It was your basic UFO…it was definitely completely metallic with a silver dome on top and a silver dome on the bottom of it, like two plates put together. And it had little lights around it.”
Gray is able to bring in additional witnesses before the object moves away.






Summer 1988: Professional photographer Kim Carlsberg observes a darting, star-like object while relaxing in her Malibu beachfront home. Suddenly, the object moves directly toward her.
“The brilliant point of light advanced until it became a luminous sphere some fifty feet in diameter,” reports Carlsberg. “It ominously hung in the air a hundred feet from my window… the apparent standoff lasted no more than a minute before the sphere departed as quickly as it appeared. It tore away diagonally through the night sky and vanished.”






Summer 1990: Private pilot Toshi Inouye and his student observe a large, red, glowing cigar-shaped object hovering near their plane as they fly over the Santa Monica Bay in late afternoon.
“It was standing still in the air, glowing red,” says Inouye. “We were kind of stunned. We didn’t know what to do.”
Inouye considers calling the nearby airport control tower when the object suddenly darts away.






May 4, 1990: Early in the morning, two Malibu surfers are lying on their surfboards waiting for the next wave when they observe a,
“brushed aluminum saucer with a bump in the middle [which] approached the shoreline from out of the fog bank sitting about a mile offshore.”
The object darts back and forth then moves back out to sea.






1998: Adam (pool-cleaner) and Mario (military private) are driving along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu when they see six black, diamond-shaped objects darting at high speed up and down the coast. The two men are so impressed by the brief sighting that they spend the next hour driving up and down the coast hoping for a repeat appearance. While they don’t see any more UFOs, they do find other UFO watchers.
Says Adam,
“We did come across a couple of people who were just sitting in their lawn chairs along the road. I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but they were just sitting there along the side of the road, just looking up.”






January 3, 2004: Young Chyren is standing along the Santa Monica coast at midday when he observes a metallic, saucer-shaped craft hovering only a few thousand feet directly above a small yacht less than a mile out at sea. He quickly grabs his camera and snaps a photograph.

[Karl12]

Into the Ocean:

November 21st, 1951: As reported by researcher Harold Wilkins, several witnesses observe “an unidentified burning object” descending into the ocean somewhere off the coast of California.






August 8th, 1954: The Japanese steam­ship Aliki is off the coast of Long Beach when several members of the crew observe an underwater UFO.
As the intercepted radio message from the ship reads,
“Saw fireball move in and out of sea without being doused. Left wake of white smoke; course erratic; vanished from sight.”






1955: Residents from the northern California coastal town of Santa Maria observe a “long silvery object” emerging from the ocean and taking off into space.






January 15th, 1956 (Evening): Residents of Redondo Beach report seeing a large, glowing object glide down out of the sky and float on the surface of the ocean about 75 yards off shore.
Dozens of witnesses converge on the scene, including a local night watchman, Redondo Beach lifeguards, and police officers from adjacent Hermosa Beach. As the crowd gathers, the water around the object starts to “froth” and the UFO sinks beneath the surface. The glow of the object, however, remains so intense that it can still be seen.
Police officers radio for assistance and divers are brought in to investigate. Unfortunately, by the time the divers arrive, the object is gone. Another police officer tests the area with a Geiger counter, which fails to register any radiation. Another search the next day also yields no results.






February 9th, 1956: Military personnel observe a fireball descending into the ocean off the coast of Redondo Beach. One year later, UFO researcher Leonard Stringfield obtains an official report on the incident, which says only:
“Fireball hits water. Submerges.”






July 28th, 1962: The captain of a chartered fishing boat notices lights floating in a stationary position in the water about six miles south of Catalina Island.
Upon closer observation, the captain is startled to see what he assumes at first is a Russian sub:
“It appeared to be the stern of a submarine,” he says. “We could see five men, two in white garb, two in dark trousers and white shirts, and one in a sky-blue jump suit. We passed abeam at about a quarter mile and I was certain it was a submarine low in the water, steel gray, no markings, decks almost awash, with only its tail and an odd aft-structure showing.”
Suddenly the submarine heads straight for the fishing boat as if to ram it. The captain makes an emergency turn as the sub moves past them at high speed, emitting no noise and leaving no wake except for a “good-sized swell.” The captain contacts the navy, which is unable to positively identify the sub.
UFO researchers Coral and Jim Lorenzen hear about the case and speculate that it may have been a UFO and not a submarine:
“The high speed, lack of wake and sound, and the huge swell make this object suspect.”
One might also mention the odd shape of the submarine itself, its lack of fear of observation, and its aggressive maneuvering.






February 5th, 1964: Eleven passengers are rescued by the Coast Guard from their emergency raft following the unexplained sinking of their yacht, the Hattie D. The crew was sailing south down the coast of California from Seattle, Washington, when their yacht either struck or was rammed by an unidentified “metal object.”
Crewman Carl Jansen says,
“I don’t care how deep it was…what holed us was steel, and a long piece. There was no give at all.”






December 2nd, 1965: Mrs. Irwin Cohen and her son observe a glowing red object descending into the sea off San Pedro, setting off a large cloud of steam. As the object descends, the witnesses snap a few photos. They wonder if they witnessed a Navy missile or some other unknown object.






October 1968: George Hiner is fishing in his boat off the eastern end of Catalina Island when he spots a “white-domed shaped object” (sic) through his binoculars. As he watches, the object rises ten feet above the surface of the water, then descends and rises again. He notices a strange parachute-like device beneath the object, which gently descends and then sinks beneath the waves.






June 1980: Therapist Linda Susan Young and a friend are driving along the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica at night when Young observes an unusually bright light floating in place several miles out to sea.
Young was puzzled by its appearance and turned to tell her friend:
“I said to the guy with me, ‘What do you suppose this is?’ And he turned around and looked at it. And he only saw it for a second when it just shot straight up in the air and blinked out. It didn’t look like it went far enough to disappear from view, like a distance. It just sort of stopped. It just stopped being there…I have always assumed it was a UFO.”






1980s: An anonymous gentleman (a senior electronics engineer) sailing on a foggy day between Santa Barbara Island and Santa Cruz Island observes a “fluorescent green colored light” ahead of him in the mist. Thinking it was another ship using bright lights to navigate the fog, he stops and waits for it to pass. As it approaches, however, he is still unable to distinguish any detail.
When it is a quarter mile away and heading directly toward him, the witness discovers why:
“I finally realized that this dumb thing was underwater…I’m guessing it was—I don’t know—maybe 300 feet in diameter, but I couldn’t get any vertical dimension on it because it was under me in the water. It literally passed directly underneath me.”
The witness is sailing a fully equipped, 38-foot sailboat. As the object passes beneath him, he takes several readings from the depth sounder, determining that the object is about 100 feet deep. At this point, both depth sounders quit functioning. The witness checks his compasses.
“All three of them were slowly rotating and I wasn’t… I tried calling the Coast Guard and the radio was dead.”
The object moves away and disappears, leaving the witness badly frightened. A later check on his equipment reveals that all the compass mountings were broken. Says the witness of the incident,
“It was weird. I was just too damned petrified to move.”

Underwater Lights

1990: According to investigator Bill Hamilton, starting in late 1989 numerous witnesses in Marina Del Rey begin to have repeated encounters with “strange blue-green lights in the water.”
As Hamilton writes,
“In 1989 and again in 1990, witnesses have seen as many as twenty events an hour. One large light appeared to be as much as 100 feet in diameter. This large light spawned babies no larger than 10 to 12 feet in length. These lights were seen to move swiftly under the ocean’s surface some 500 to 1000 feet from the coastline in Abalone Cove…one of the lights was reported to have emerged from the water.”






Spring 1991: In the early morning hours, Tony X. looks out the window of his Malibu beachfront home and observes a brilliantly lit object floating on the ocean’s surface about two miles away.
“It looked like a big prism,” says Tony, “kind of various colors out there. I got a telescope out there and looked at it.”
After a few hours, the light winks out.
Two years later, in January 1993, the object returns.
“I got the telescope out and looked at it, and it was the same kind of thing…the colors seemed so pure for lack of a better word. They seemed real coherent.”
Tony calls up the Coast Guard, but they deny having any information.






May 5, 1992: Two friends walking along Malibu Beach observe a “sort of light/fireball” descend from the sky and into the ocean. Says one witness,
“It was going at an incredible speed and it was less than a mile away. It looked like it hit the ocean…. Once the object made its way to the ocean’s surface, it disappeared, so my guess is that it went underwater.”






1994: Two men walking near the coast of Rancho Palos Verdes at night see several “glowing disks” floating in the water. One of the witnesses returns at a later date and sees the disks again. On this occasion, he observes several black helicopters in the area. Later, he is confronted by unnamed individuals (men in black?) who tell him in no uncertain terms that this area, off Abalone Cove, is off-limits.






January 11th, 2002: An anonymous gentleman camping along the coast at Point Mugu sees a light moving back and forth 100 feet above the water, and two other lights beneath the surface of the sea. The objects dart back and forth in tandem for 30 minutes (moving unlike any plane or helicopter), giving the witness the impression that they are searching for something. Afterwards, the light in the sky accelerates out of sight and the two objects in the water dive down and disappear.