PORT HENRY — A drone shot of a large black shape that might be Champ following their boat underwater has earned movie producers Richard Rossi and Kelly Tabor a spot on William Shatner’s “UnXplained” TV show.
The pair were shooting a scene from “The Secrets of Lake Champlain” when the large, dark mass was filmed behind their rowboat on the lake.
“The water was clear. It was a nice summer day,” Rossi said of the video shot in 2024. “We were in our rickety rowboat out in the middle of Lake Champlain. There’s this huge creature that we caught swimming right behind us. When I saw the video of Champ swimming right behind our boat, it gave me chills.”
He said the shape was just yards away from their boat in Port Henry’s Bulwagga Bay.
“We contacted scientists,” he said. “Those in the field say that (shape) has the body of a plesiosaur.”
A plesiosaur was an underwater reptile that existed about 66 million years ago, believed to be extinct. They lived worldwide and were both salt and freshwater creatures. Plesiosaurs had a long neck; a broad, flat body; four flippers for feet; and a short tail. Their fossils are up to 40 feet long.
Some cryptozoologists believe that Champ, the Lake Champlain monster, is a plesiosaur, while others say it’s a large sturgeon or even an entirely new species.
On his Oct. 3 episode, “Terrors of the Deep,” Shatner covered the Rossi-Tabor sighting.
“They captured something extraordinary,” Shatner said on the program. “Was this a relic from the age of the dinosaurs, deep in the waters of Lake Champlain?”
The “UnXplained” program airs on the History Channel and is available for streaming.
“Secrets of Lake Champlain” is a sequel to the previous film Rossi and Tabor made, “Lucy and the Lake Monster,” about a young girl who has a friendship with Champ. It’s expected to be released on Amazon Prime Video and other streaming sites in summer 2026, Rossi said.
Tabor is a native of Crown Point who writes the stories the films are based on, while Rossi is a Hollywood producer.