The 2016 Canadian UFO Survey was released at the end of last month and reports that there were 1,131 UFO sighting reports in Canada last year.
The number of sightings per year has been growing steadily since the survey began in 1989, and 2016 was the fifth year in a row that recorded more than 1000 sightings.
Astronomer Chris Rutkowski of Ufology Research based in Manitoba compiled the reports and said around a fifth of the reports had likely explanations, and most of the rest did not have enough information to be classified either way.
Only four percent were classified as unexplained and only 1.5% as explained.
Rutkowski is very keen to point out that the group is just looking into the reports, not making any judgments on aliens or otherwise.
He said, “Some people claim that they’ve seen some aliens associated with them, but we don’t have any proof of that.”
The reports were collected from a variety of sources, including government agencies, UFO groups, and direct to Ufology Research itself.
They ranged from “10 orange lights grouped together, disappeared and reappeared before disappearing completely” through to “zigzagging white dot, making a sharp turn” and had varying degrees of evidence supplied.
Since 1989, 18,038 UFO sightings have been recorded in Canada by the UFO Survey. This is considerably more than the 12,618 UFO reports recorded by e United States Air Force’s infamous Project Blue Book, which collected reports from around the world between 1947 and 1969. A clear sign that UFO sightings are increasing.
In 2016, most of the sightings occurred during the summer months, and these mainly consisted of lights in the sky known as Nocturnal Lights. Close Encounters consisted of less than one percent of the sightings.
UFO spotted in a backyard in British Colombia, Canada
The above object was captured by a “freaked” out individual in the small town of Hope, British Colombia, about an hour and a half away from Vancouver.
They submitted a report explaining they had taken the snap with their cell phone but had not noticed the object at the time. They added the UFO was visible in the cellphone’s gallery but could only be viewed when clicked on full screen.
The photographer also reported that there had been a “lot of activity” in the Vancouver area over the last two to three months.
The UFO Reporting Center suggested that the object may be a bird or insect and that the blurred effect is caused by motion. They also speculated that the object might be close to the lens.
You can read the full report here.