By BRIAN MEDEL Yarmouth Bureau

SHAG HARBOUR — Something really strange is happening this summer at Shag Harbour’s UFO museum. Attendance is up by more than 70 per cent over last year at this time, say local UFO statisticians.

“Isn’t that wonderful,” said Cindy Nickerson, chairwoman of the Shag Harbour Incident Society Museum.

The Shag Harbour incident, of course, is the Oct. 4, 1967, crash of what many believe to have been an unidentified flying object into the harbour.

Even without a ferry from Maine to Yarmouth this summer, 42 American cars stopped in June and the first week of July, Nickerson said Monday.

And an opinion poll being taken by UFO museum staff this summer seems to indicate that those who come to visit are believers in extraterrestrial life.

So far, 22 of the 28 people completing a questionaire asking if they believe in out-of-this-world life forms said yes. And 13 folks said they are confident the Shag Harbour UFO was an alien spacecraft.

Last year, a number of cycling tours had come through the village by this time.

“There were 30 Americans on bicycles last year that didn’t come this year, (but) Americans in cars are up,” said Nickerson. “I’m really surprised because I didn’t think we were going to have any.”

A lot of Ontario and New Brunswick vehicles have also stopped, she said. The UFO museum is one of the few museums that does not charge an admission fee.

“That makes a difference,” Nickerson said.

Soon the UFO museum will have a UFO flight simulator visitors can try out on a computer. This is also the first year in its new location, a former general store in the centre of Shag Harbour that has more floor space and better parking.

The museum has always had over 1,000 annual visitors in the five years it has been open. Last year, they had 1,049 people drop by during the June-to-October season.

Now they’re closing in on 500 visitors in the six weeks they have been open.

Last summer, a recreational diver, David Cvet, explored the seabed off Shag Harbour, where the UFO is said to have crashed in 1967.

He said last year he came across a couple of dish-shaped depressions, each about six metres in diameter. The ocean bottom anomaly was found about 20 metres below the surface in the spot where witnesses say an alien craft swooshed low over the Shelburne County coast.

Cvet will dive again this year on July 24, said Nickerson. He will make a video that folks will be able to view at the museum.

The 2010 UFO festival in Shag Harbour is set to go Aug. 6 and 7. Boat rides to the UFO crash site and a UFO symposium are planned. Details may be found at the festival website, shagharbourufo.com.

KEN PFEIFER MUFON NEW JERSEY

WWW.WORLDUFOPHOTOS.ORG

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1191793.html