[Grammar] Prepositions of place: in vs on for water

[Sugar Please]

Hi there,

My question is specific to water birds.

Do we say:
a) The swan is paddling on the lake,
b) The swan is paddling in the lake, or
c) both

I read somewhere that for boats and ships we use "on the lake/sea" unless they have sunk. The explanation given was because the boat/ship is mostly above water, therefore "on" is used. I wonder if this can be applied to swans or ducks since most of their bodies are above the water when they are swimming, unlike humans, where most of our bodies are underwater when we are swimming.

Please help.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Skrej]

Letter b is correct. We use 'in' because the swan is actually in the water.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I suspect that some would see a swan as being "on" the water.