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History of alleged sightings Rumours of a monster or animal living in the loch are claimed by believers to have been known for several centuries, though others have questioned the accuracy or relevance of such tales, which were generally unheard of before the early 1960s when a strong "wave of interest" in legitimizing Nessie's 1930s-based history began. The earliest report cited is taken from the Life of St. Columba by Adamnan, written around the 7th century. It describes how in 565 Columba saved the life of a Pict, who was being supposedly attacked by the monster. Adamnan describes the event as follows: "...(He) raised his holy hand, while all the rest, brethren as well as strangers, were stupefied with terror, and, invoking the name of God, formed the saving sign of the cross in the air, and commanded the ferocious monster, saying, "Thou shalt go no further, nor touch the man; go back with all speed." Then at the voice of the saint, the monster was terrified, and fled more quickly than if it had been pulled back with ropes, though it had just got so near to Lugne, as he swam, that there was not more than the length of a spear-staff between the man and the beast. Then the brethren seeing that the monster had gone back, and that their comrade Lugne returned to them in the boat safe and sound, were struck with admiration, and gave glory to God in the blessed man. And even the barbarous heathens, who were present, were forced by the greatness of this miracle, which they themselves had seen, to magnify the God of the Christians". Critics have questioned the reliability of the Life, noting a different story in which Columba slays a wild boar by the power of his voice alone. They also point out that the event is said to have occurred on the River Ness, not in the Loch, and that Adamnan reports Columba encountering and conquering assorted "monsters", at various places in Scotland, throughout his "life". Additionally, they point out that the Loch Ness monster has no other reported instance of attacking anyone, and in fact is generally portrayed as shy. Evidence for
The Dinsdale Film In 1960 aero engineer Tim Dinsdale filmed a hump going across the water throwing up a powerful wake unlike a boat. JARIC analysed it and said that the object was "probably animate". Others were skeptical, saying that the hump cannot be ruled out as being a boat *. Some defended the film saying that Dinsdale saw much more such as a "black anaconda"-like head and that he had compared the film to a boat he later sent out. In 1993 Discovery Communications made a documentary called Loch Ness Discovered that featured an enhancement of the film. A computer expert that enhanced the 1960 Dinsdale film had noticed a shadow in the negative that wasn't very obvious in the positive. By enhancing and overlaying frames, he found what looked like the rear body, the rear flippers, and 1-2 additional humps of a plesiosaur-like body. He even said "Before I saw the film, I thought the Loch Ness Monster was a load of rubbish. Having done the enhancement, I'm not so sure". Some have argued against this saying that the angle of the film from the horizontal, the suns angle makes it unlikely *. They also claim the shape could have been the wake the object left behind that was coincidentally shaped like a plesiosaur's rear end. Nonetheless, the enhancement did show a smaller second hump and possibly a third hump. The documentary also pointed out that the number of fish in the loch is nine times more than originally thought and that the fish were feeding extensively on uncommon prey (not revealed) in the very deep waters of the loch. Evidence of a hoax Perhaps typical of the many unsatisfactory facts about Nessie is an alleged sighting in October 1871 by a "D. Mackenzie", who supposedly described seeing something that moved slowly before moving off at a faster speed. However, although this story has been repeated in several places , no original 1871 source for this report has been discovered, substantially casting doubt on it. The famed "Surgeon's Photo" (pictured top) was confirmed as a hoax based on the deathbed confessions of Chris Spurling, son-in-law of Marmaduke Wetherell. Spurling claimed the photo, which inspired much popular interest in the monster, was actually a staged photograph of clay attached to a toy submarine. Also notable are the ripples on the photo, which fit the size and circular pattern of small ripples when photographed up close, not large waves. Wetherell, a big game hunter, had been tricked into searching for an imaginary monster around the loch based on evidence which turned out to be the result of children's prank. He was publicly ridiculed in the Daily Mail, the journal which employed him. To get revenge, Marmaduke Wetherell set this hoax up, with the help of Chris Spurling (his son-in-law as mentioned), who was a specialist in sculpture, Ian Marmaduke (his son), who bought the material for the fake Nessie, and Maurice Chambers (an insurance agent), who was to call and ask Robert Wilson (a surgeon) to show the pictures. Well before Spurling's claims, however, others had argued the photo was that of an otter or a diving bird. There are in fact two "Surgeon's Photos," which depict slightly different poses, leading some to argue the photos are evidence against a hoax. However, at the time of this confession his father had already died, and Spurling wanted to disprove the photo. The surgeon who was credited for taking the photo never claimed he hadn't taken it either. Additionally, the photo is often cropped to make the monster look huge. The original uncropped shot shows the other end of the loch and the monster in the centre . The "flipper photograph" above has been highly retouched from the actual original image. The Museum of Hoaxes shows the original unenhanced photo. Charlie Wyckoff admitted that someone had then tampered with the photo to superimpose the flipper. He claimed that the original enhancement showed a much smaller flipper. Source: Loch Ness Monster: The Search for the Truth Evidence against In July 2003, the BBC reported an extensive investigation of Loch Ness by a BBC team, using 600 separate sonar beams, found no trace of any "sea monster" (i.e., any large animal, known or unknown) in the loch. The BBC team concluded that Nessie does not exist. In 2004, a documentary team for Channel 4 (primarily consisting of special effects experts from movies) deliberately tried to make people believe there was something in the loch. They constructed an elaborate animatronic model. Despite setbacks, it was a success, and numerous sightings were reported on the day, in the places they performed the hoaxes. In addition, sunlight does not penetrate very deep into the water because of peat washed into the loch from the surrounding hills. This limits the amount of algae in the loch, thereby reducing the number of plankton, small fish, and then large fish up the food chain. It is therefore unlikely that the loch's supply of food would be enough to support animals as big as a plesiosaur, particularly a breeding population of plesiosaurs. Palaeontologist Neil Clark has also proposed that the 1933 sightings were actually elephants from the travelling circus of Bertram Mills. According to the Swedish naturalist and author Bengt Sjögren (1980), the present day belief in lake monsters in for example Loch Ness, is associated with the old legends of kelpies. Sjögren claims that the accounts of lake-monsters have changed during history. Older reports often talk about horse-like appearances, but more modern reports often have more reptile and dinosaur-like-appearances, and Bengt Sjögren concludes that the legends of kelpies evolved into the present day legends of lake-monsters where the monsters "changed the appearance" to a more "realistic" and "modern" version since the discovery of dinosaurs and giant aquatic reptiles from the horse-like water-kelpie to a dinosaur-like reptile, often a plesiosaur, or even a dragon like appearance. The plesiosaur theory Reports persist that the "monster" is a plesiosaur. Arguments against the plesiosaur theory include the fact that the lake is too cold for a cold-blooded animal to survive easily, that air-breathing animals like plesiosaurs would be easily spotted when they surface to breathe, that the lake is too small to support a breeding colony and that the loch itself formed only 10,000 years ago during the last ice age, while the plesiosaur is thought to have gone extinct millions of years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous Period during the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. Others say that the neck bones of plesiosaurs (specifically Muraenosaurus) also makes the theory unlikely saying "The osteology of the neck makes it absolutely certain that the plesiosaur could not lift its head up swan-like out of the water *." However, there is no evidence that the monster is of that exact species and over time the neck muscles could have become stronger. Additionally, the monster is sometimes seen as only humps and the neck isn't always seen. However, many of these arguments are opposed by Robert Rines, who said that "animals can adapt" and that "some reptiles can stay in water for a long time". "Many sightings tell of "horns" or "ears", which may be nostrils or breathing tubes. If it (the monster) breathes regularly, it could breathe without being noticed". Supporters of the plesiosaur theory also say that the coelecanth was also thought to be extinct since the time of the plesiosaurs and was rediscovered in 1938. Although these ideas have not been proven, we cannot be sure that plesiosaurs or any other prehistoric animal were cold-blooded. There is some evidence that dinosaurs (which were contemporaries of plesiosaurs) were warm-blooded , although this remains controversal. Also, crocodilians which are 'cold-blooded', are the closest living relatives of birds, which are warm-blooded. There are some theories of how plesiosaurs may have surfaced to breathe but supporters of the notion of surviving plesiosaurs say that plesiosaurs may have lifted only their nostrils above the surface to breathe. Some artist's impressions of plesiosaurs support this. In 2001, the Academy of Applied Science, known for Robert Rines' photographs, had videoed a powerful V-shaped wake going across the water on a calm day . They also found what looked like a decaying carcass of an animal bigger than a fish. In 2002, the Academy of Applied Science verified the presence of ancient sea beds, ancient marine clam shells and former ancient sea life buried under the silty bottom in about 325 feet of freshwater in Urquhart Bay, halfway between Inverness and Fort Augustus . Popular culture The Loch Ness Monster is a recurrent figure in modern literature, television movies and games. Nessie sometimes appears to represent Scotland almost as much as the Eiffel Tower does France. The common jibe that the monster helps the local tourist industry appears to be borne out in the appropriate websites (with one of the best monster websites, nessie.co.uk, being sponsored by a local hotel), although the defensive slogan "There's more to Inverness than Nessie" on one or two other sites perhaps shows that the monster is seen as a hindrance, rather than an opportunity, in some quarters. | ||||||||||||
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