A 1,300-year-old quest/Did the Loch Ness monster really exist?

2023-09-09 15:46:00, Blog CNA

Monster hunters have once again gathered in Northern Scotland for what is being billed as the biggest search for the Loch Ness monster in 50 years. The expedition, which will be staffed by volunteers monitoring the surface of the lake for "unexplained" movements, follows several high-profile attempts to track down the creature after more than 1,000 independent alerts.

The monster was first recorded in the biography of a Catholic missionary from Ireland, Saint Columba, who traveled to Scotland. He claimed to have witnessed the burial of a man who had been killed by a water beast.

The monster then reappeared to attack another swimmer in the River Ness, from which the monster's name Loch Ness derives. In his official biography it is written that Saint Columba made the sign of the cross, forcing the beast to swim away.

In 1933, Loch Ness was flooded with expeditions and tourist tours after a local newspaper, The Inverness Courier, reported that a couple had spotted a "frightening-looking monster" while traveling along the loch.

“There, the creature rolled away and dived for 1 minute. Her body resembled that of a whale, and the water that flowed around stirred like in a boiling cauldron," the newspaper reported. Many other alerts followed, which were enthusiastically covered by the newspapers.

Scientists began to say that perhaps it is not a real monster. However, "Loch Ness fever" required an explanation from scientists, many of whom thought that the fantastic creature was likely to be a familiar sea creature, such as a seal.

A 1,300-year-old quest/Did the Loch Ness monster really exist?

Dr. William Beebe, head of the Department of Tropical Research at the Zoological Society of New York (now the Wildlife Conservation Society), said at a conference in January 1934 that he believed "the monster is nothing more than a big squid".

His comments led the New York Times to write in a headline that there were no more "Ocean Dragons". The Daily Mail published the black and white photo of what was claimed to be Nessie on April 21, 1934. The photo depicted a long serpentine neck and a head raised above water.

In 1994, the image, known as the "surgeon's picture", was revealed to be a 12 12-inch tall model made of plastic wood and a toy submarine. Sir Edward Mountain, an insurance businessman, organized a search in 1934.

He sent 20 people equipped with Kodak cameras and special glasses to the lake. Edward told a scientific society that the expedition crew saw the monster 21 times in the 2 weeks of the search.

Meanwhile in 1961 the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau was formed. She made several new expeditions, including night checks. The group disbanded in 1977. Dr. Robert H. Rajnes of Boston University led a 1-month search of Loch Ness, using underwater cameras and taking more than 108,000 photographs and images produced by the sonar system to search for bottom of the lake for possible skeletons and corpses.

That research was sponsored by the Academy of Applied Sciences, a group of engineers and inventors based in Boston, and the famous American newspaper "The New York Times". The expedition found no new evidence to explain the signaling over Loch Ness.

Adrian Shajn, a naturalist by profession, led Operation Deepscan, which has been called the "largest scientific expedition ever undertaken" in Loch Ness, and which involved at least 20 vessels aiming to do a thorough sonar scan of the loch. They didn't find the Loch Ness monster either.

The British Broadcasting Corporation used 600 beams to pick up sounds and investigate the lake again, but concluded that the Loch Nessi monster did not exist. Even the British television BBC tested the public by hiding a fence post under the surface of the lake and raising it in front of a group of tourists.

When the group members were asked to describe what they had seen, some drew a head in the shape of a monster. Professor Neil Xhemell of the University of Otago in Dundee, New Zealand, presented findings from 250 water samples he took from Loch Ness which he tested for DNA.

He said he found a "significant amount of eel DNA" but no genetic information to support the now-popular theory that the monster could be a Jurassic-era reptile. Professor Xhemell said that "what people see and believe is the Loch Ness monster could be a giant eel".

A 1,300-year-old quest/Did the Loch Ness monster really exist?

Loch Ness Exploration, a volunteer research group, is now leading the latest search, which is said to be the biggest to take place in the loch since 1972. The group will scan the loch for unusual movements, and use tools including heat-detecting drones and a hydrophone that detects acoustic signals underwater.

The places from where the expedition can be followed are already occupied by many curious people. But people will still be able to see the search in the lake thanks to a live TV broadcast. According to the official alert log, there have been 3 alleged sightings of the monster this year alone. The search continues./ Adapted from CNA