The Loch Ness Monster | Ep. 59

Welcome to Believing the Bizarre!

This week we tackle a MAJOR topic – The Loch Ness Monster! We go into the history along with a few encounters and discuss what exactly this creature could be.

Is Nessie a prehistoric dinosaur? Or could it be a spirit of the Loch? Maybe a genetic mutation? Listen now to find out!

Haste Ye Back Bizarros! (eat a dick, Charlie)

This week we are diving into enchanted Scottish Highland waters to take a look at the mysterious Lochness Monster.  

Nessie has been around for a long time with the first modern-day sighting thought to be in the 1870s by D. Mackenzie. But the origins can be traced back to Saint Columba around 560 AD, an Irish monk who witnessed a burial taking place by the River Ness.

When the monk inquired about the man’s unfortunate demise he was told that the man had been attacked by a “water beast” and that by the time the others could get to him in a boat he was dead. 

Reportedly St. Columba went out in a boat onto the River Ness and was approached by the beast. Making the sign of the cross he said “Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once.” The creature stopped as if it had been “pulled back with ropes” and fled.

In the 1870 sighting, Mackenzie said he saw something “wriggling and churning up the water”.

On May 2, 1933, the Inverness Courier wrote an article about a large beast or whale-like fish. The article discussed the sighting by Aldie Mackay of a large fish, with the body of a whale, rolling in the water while she and her husband were driving on a nearby road.  

The term “monster” was first used in this article. Here is a brief excerpt of that article from the Inverness Courier:

“The creature disported itself, rolling and plunging for fully a minute, its body resembling that of a whale, and the water cascading and churning like a simmering cauldron. Soon, however, it disappeared in a boiling mass of foam. Both onlookers confessed that there was something uncanny about the whole thing, for they realized that here was no ordinary denizen of the depths, because, apart from its enormous size, the beast, in taking the final plunge, sent out waves that were big enough to have been caused by a passing steamer.”

As we can see the legend of a creature in Loch Ness has been around for quite some time.

So much so that there have been several attempts to discern what Nessie is.

In 1934 there was the Edward Mountain Expedition. For 5 weeks 20 men with binoculars and cameras kept watch from 9 am to 6 pm. 21 photos were captured but nothing conclusive was found. 

From 1962-1972 the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau with self-funded volunteers asked to set up at vantage points to investigate and observe the creature known as Nessie. However, nothing conclusive was brought forth through these efforts.

In 1967 and 1968 D. Gordon Tucker, chair of the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, offered his services as a sonar developer to help solve the mystery of Loch Ness. The device was placed underwater at Temple Pier and directed at the opposite shore, casting an acoustic “net” across the loch through which no moving object could pass undetected. In this two-week trial in August, multiple targets were identified. One was probably a shoal of fish, but others moved in a way not typical of shoals at speeds up to 10 knots.

In 1972 Robert Rhine and his team captured a photo of a large flipper, however, it is later reported that the photo may have been retouched by a magazine editor.

Robert Rhine’s investigation also produced an image of what looked like two plesiosaur-like animals, suggesting several large animals living in Loch Ness, but the photo is rarely published.

Rhine also conducted sonar searches in 2001 and 2008 and eventually concluding that the monster is extinct now due to a lack of sonar readings and reportings.

In 1987 there was operation Deepscan with 24 boats with echo-sounding equipment sent across the width of the loch. In three of the photos, motion was captured. After examination, sonar expert, Darrell Lowrance said, “There’s something here that we don’t understand, and there’s something here that’s larger than a fish, maybe some species that haven’t been detected before. I don’t know.”

As you can see there has been a lot of research poured into proving, or disproving the existence of Nessie. Depending on your view it can be surmised that it’s plausible that something is there, or that there is no conclusive evidence that would suggest there is a monster or fish of unusual size in Loch Ness. 

What could be some explanations for these reported sightings?

Misidentification of known animals

People really did see something but perhaps it wasn’t a monster. Things like bird wakes, eels, an elephant, Greenland shark, wels catfish, and resident animals that could give the appearance of something larger.

Misidentification of inanimate objects or effects

Another explanation brought forth to explain what Nessie could be are inanimate objects, or optical illusions.

In 1933 a tree was found that could have explained the shape of Nessie. Another suggestion to explain was that decomposing logs of Scottish Pine as it rose to the surface could be mistaken for the elusive creature.

Wind conditions and refraction are also considered to be responsible for many sightings of Nessie, as they can distort or exaggerate the size of known animals or objects.

Folklore

What about another Scottish Legend? No, not David Tennant, but KELPIES!!!!!

Kelpie legends were told to keep children away from bodies of water, Swedish naturalist and author Bengt Sjögren wrote that the legend may have been adapted to include plesiosaurs-like creatures.

Could Nessie just be a tale to keep children from Davy Jones’ locker? If it is, it’s failing miserably as this legend has done nothing but draw more people to investigate the lake.

Exotic large creatures

Plesiosaur

A plesiosaur was a long-necked aquatic reptile that became extinct during the Cretaceous–Paleogene era. A popular explanation at the time, the following arguments have been made against it:

• In an October 2006 New Scientist article, the author stated that a plesiosaur could not lift its head up swan-like out of the water.
• The loch is only about 10,000 years old, dating to the end of the last ice age. Before then, it was frozen for about 20,000 years
• If creatures similar to plesiosaurs lived in Loch Ness they would be seen frequently, since they would have to surface several times a day to breathe.

What do you think it could be Bizarros? Is it a once thought extinct creature that lives in secret beneath the waters of Loch Ness?

Or is it a decomposing log that has surfaced and gives the appearance of an unknown animal inhabiting the loch?

Or is it a Kelpie looking to drag you down into the depths of the loch never to be seen again?