Researchers and enthusiasts begin Saturday the largest operation in half a century to find traces of “Nessie”.
What if, despite decades of unsuccessful searches, “Nessie” was indeed hiding in the murky waters of Loch Ness? Researchers and enthusiasts are launching the biggest Scottish monster hunt in 50 years on Saturday.
Drones equipped with thermal scanners, boats with infrared cameras, hydrophone… All the means are dispatched to try to unravel the mystery which has captivated the whole world for generations.
“Our aim has always been to record, study and analyze all sorts of hard-to-explain behaviors and natural phenomena,” says Alan McKenna, of the volunteer Loch Ness Exploration research team.
This organizes the “hunting” on Saturday with the Loch Ness Center of Drumnadrochit, a small village in the north of Scotland located on the edge of the lake.
A legend dating back to antiquity
Researchers believe thermal scanners could identify any anomalies while the hydrophone will pick up unusual cries underwater from the 56km2 loch, which is 240m deep.
The presence of a monster in Loch Ness is a legend that dates back to ancient times: stone carvings made by the Picts who then lived in the area depict a mysterious beast with fins.
The first written record of the creature dates back to 565 AD, in a biography of the Irish monk Saint Columba, evangelist of Scotland in the 6th century, who explained that he ordered the monster to retreat.
The first modern sighting of Nessie was reported in a local newspaper in May 1933. A local businessman and his wife were driving along the lake when they were startled by “a huge wave” in the lake water .
Fake fingerprints and hoax
In December 1933, the British newspaper The Daily Mail recruits a South African big game hunter, Marmaduke Wetherell, to locate the creature. He finds large footprints which he believes belong to an animal about six meters long.
Scientists from the Natural History Museum later explained that the tracks had been made with an umbrella stand or a false hippopotamus paw.
In 1934, English physician Robert Wilson took what came to be known as the “surgeon’s picture”, an image that appears to depict Nessie’s head and elongated neck emerging from the water. The photo, published in the DailyMailis a hoax but propels the Loch Ness Monster to international stardom.
According to the Loch Ness Centre, more than 1,100 official sightings of Nessie have been recorded to date, and the monster contributes millions of pounds to the Scottish economy each year through tourism.
A prehistoric marine reptile?
Over the years scientists and hobbyists have tried to find evidence of a large fish in the depths of the loch, while some have suggested the monster could be a prehistoric marine reptile like a plesiosaur.
In 1972 the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau undertook the largest search of the loch to date, to no avail. In 1987, during Operation Deepscan, a sonar was deployed across the entire width of the loch.
Its organizers then claim to have found an “unidentified object of unusual size and strength” in the depths.
In 2018, researchers conducted a DNA study of Loch Ness to determine what organisms live in its waters. Nothing has ever been found except many eels.
“This weekend brings us an opportunity to search the waters in a way we’ve never seen before, and we can’t wait to see what we find,” said Paul Nixon, chief executive of the Loch Ness Centre.
Organizers have brought in volunteers to watch for any movement in the water or anything else unexplainable over the weekend, but due to ‘overwhelming demand’ from enthusiasts, the group is no longer accepting of candidates.
Source: BFM TV
