Nessie is a plesiosaur. Of that, seven-year-old Rowan, who is vacationing in Scotland with his parents, is quite sure. The dinosaur thesis is of course popular with children, but by all accounts no proto-animal lives on the bottom of Loch Ness.
So Nessie is just a fantasy? No, say many people who have dealt extensively with the lake in the Scottish Highlands. “It’s something fish-like, maybe an amphibian,” says Roland Watson, who blogs about the myth, on Saturday of the German Press Agency.
Like many enthusiasts, Watson descended on Loch Ness over the weekend to witness what is arguably the greatest search for Nessie in decades – 90 years after the first prominent Nessie sighting. Project manager Alan McKenna emphasizes that the Scottish lake with the most water – 36 kilometers long and up to 2.7 kilometers wide – has not been scrutinized so systematically since 1972.
Dozens of volunteers are on duty at 17 observation posts along the banks, who, despite the heavy rain, search the lake for hours with their eyes for surprising signs or strange wave movements. Hundreds of people watch the water from afar via webcams. Above all, McKenna hopes for modern technology. On the way on the lake, he lets an extremely sensitive hydrophone into the water, a kind of recording device that picks up all sounds from the lake, which is up to 230 meters deep. However, the water whipped up by the rain and other boats spoil the quality. Later, drones with thermal imaging cameras should rise.
perseverance required
“Finding the monster would be nice,” McKenna said. “But it’s about understanding the lake.” His volunteer group Loch Ness Exploration is planning to set up an audio library in which all the tones and noises from the lake are recorded. Looking for Nessie takes perseverance. That will take years, McKenna stressed in Drumnadrochit.
The village on the west side of the lake is the center of Nessie tourism. Here, in 1933, hotel manager Aldie Mackay reported seeing a “whale-like creature” – a report in the local newspaper “Inverness Courier” triggered the hype. Nessie has long been Scotland’s most prominent tourism ambassador. The Loch Ness Center is now located in Mackay’s Hotel, which recently reopened after a renovation worth millions with a large exhibition about Nessie – and is now co-financing the search together with Loch Ness Exploration.
So the search is a PR campaign? McKenna denied that. Sure, the hype for his project doesn’t hurt, he admitted. But what matters most to him is science. “It’s not about proving Nessie’s existence.” Rather, there is still so much in the lake that one does not know and understand – not just a possible monster.
Again and again mysterious sightings
In fact, there have been mysterious sightings for decades, and it was only in June that the Daily Telegraph newspaper published a photo of a French tourist. It shows a large dark shadow in the lake under a cloudless sky, which moved just below the surface for minutes before suddenly disappearing. The “Official Register of Loch Ness Monster Sightings” counts 1149 reports – from the monk Columbanus in 565 AD to the present day.
Blogger Watson made an inexplicable observation just three years ago, he says. He heard a loud splash and when he turned around a large fountain of water fell onto the lake. He couldn’t see the source anymore. But it is hardly possible that just one big fish triggered such a reaction. Other guesses range from porpoises or dolphins – very unlikely because the inflow is too shallow – to seals (are seen from time to time), otters (“when they swim in a row, they form a lot of little humps,” Watson says) to large catfish or salmon.
McKenna and his companions didn’t find anything on Saturday afternoon, and little Rowan was a little bit disappointed. Captain Ali Matheson blames the failure on the rain: “It’s as if Loch Ness put up a barrier and said, ‘No, you won’t find it’.”
