Canadian 2008 UFO Survey Released February 20, 2009

The press release for the 2008 Survey can be found here

Since 1989, UFOlogy Research of Manitoba has solicited sightings data from active Canadian researchers. This data is annually compiled into the "Canadian UFO Survey." The survey is made publicly available in an attempt to promote the dissemination of information across the field of ufology. This page contains many of the surveys, as well as the data.

More Canadians than ever saw something unexplained up there last year.

The Ufology Research Group says in 2008, Canucks saw a record number of unidentified flying objects across the Great White North.

The Winnipeg-based volunteer group recorded 1,004 sightings last year – the highest number since the group started tallying sightings in 1989.

"My position is there is something that is being seen by people," research coordinator Chris Rutkowski told the Sun today. "There's no proof that aliens are coming to Canada in any great numbers but what we're saying is that there are enough reports and many of them are unexplained so we think science should take a better look at it."

There could be a variety of reasons why reports are up, Rutkowski said, including more space junk, more people embracing astronomy and even the economic downturn.

"It could be the economy, maybe people are looking upward for some help in the economy since it doesn't seem like anybody else is helping," he said.

Rutkowski says the vast majority of sightings turn out to be explainable objects like airplanes but around 10% didn't have a ready explanation.

"That got whittled down to a little over 1% that are what we call higher quality unknowns where there was some decent investigation, the witnesses were cooperative, some diagrams, maybe some photos," he said.

The strangest sighting of the year was in Wadena, Sask., in March.

Two cars travelling on a highway there had to brake suddenly when both drivers saw a gray and metallic object fly directly across the road in front of them.

"Maybe the aliens have to be ticketed for flying too low? I don't know," Rutkowski said with a laugh.

The 2008 Canadian UFO Survey: Summary of Results

• There were 1004 UFO sightings reported in Canada in 2008, nearly three each day. This is an all-time record high number of reports in one year.
• Alberta, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Ontario each had provincial alltime record high numbers of UFOs reported in 2008.
• In 2008, about 10 per cent of all UFO reports were judged unexplained. This percentage of “unknowns” falls to less than one per cent when only higher-quality cases are considered.
• The average number of witnesses per sighting is about two.
• The typical UFO sighting lasted approximately 18 minutes in 2008.

The "Survey Essay" page contains just that; the essays produced each year summarizing the findings of the survey for that year, along with explanations of trends, as well as describing some of the more interesting cases for each year.

The "Search The Database" link is currently inactive. In the future, the complete database will be put on the web, allowing any users to search the database for sightings based on the criteria of their choosing.

The "Data Tables" page contains the raw data, in html table format, for most of the Survey years. Basic data, such as date, time, number of witnesses, etc. is listed, as well as a very limited general description of each sighting. Right now we have only the data for the years 1993 through 2004. We hope to get 1989 through 1992 online in the near future.

The "Charts" page contains assorted charts summarizing the data over the years. One can find such things as the distribution of sightings by province, time of day, etc. The charts are in .gif format.With respect to the charts, there is a trade-off that must be made. If one is to be able to view the results of the different variables being measured, the chart is frequently too large to fit on the monitor, and one has to scroll left or right to view the entire results. Shrinking the charts to fit the screen, while making the entire chart as a whole visable, makes it difficult to actually interpret the chart, as the labels become too small. I have chosen to forsake convenience and make the charts large enough that one can actually read the results. Given this, the various charts are best viewed with the latest version of Internet Explorer, as it gives you the ability to easily resize the images. Printing the charts using I.E. seems to work well too. With Netscape however, some of the charts don't print on a single page, and either come out on two pages, or it simply cuts off a portion of the chart.

The "Testimonies" page is currently inactive, but will contain eyewitness accounts, in the own words of the witnesses.

Sources:

http://survey.canadianuforeport.com/

and

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2009/02/20/8468106.html