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Certainly there's been quite a lack of sightings since the cameraphone was invented.
 
"there's been quite a lack of sightings since the cameraphone was invented."

Gone the same way as UFOs. Technology seems to be taking all the mystery out of the world!
 
Sadly I think we can blame reality rather technology for that. Goddamned reality!
 
Review of new book by Gareth Williams about the Monster:

Loch Ness: The greatest PR stunt of the century
Rupert Hawksley
28 November 2015 7:00am

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/loch-ness-the-greatest-pr-stunt-of-the-century/

Impossible to give the 'gist' of such a big subject. Just a couple of snippets, then, which are new to me (or, more probably, my memory's failing as I get older...).

Sir Peter Scott, founder of the World Wide Fund for Nature, even proposed an official name for the monster, Nessiters rhombopteryx, in a scientific journal. It turned out to be an anagram of “Monster hoax by Sir Peter S”. :p

But the final revelation – not new, as it happens – is a good one. The story goes that a London-based publicity man called Digby George Gerahty was hired in the Thirties by a group of Scottish hoteliers desperate to increase trade. Fortunately, another of Gerahty’s customers knew exactly what to do. This man was an estate agent based in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. He had made a fortune after inventing Ogopogo, an indigenous lake monster that had attracted swarms of tourists to the area.

Gerahty specifically targeted Loch Ness because of the ancient monster myths, hired some accomplices (remember all those anonymous articles in the Northern Chronicle?) and delivered arguably the greatest PR stunt of the 20th century. “Over several pints of beer we became midwives of the reborn Loch Ness monster,” Gerahty explained before his death. “All we had to do was to arrange for the monster to be sighted. This we did and the story snowballed… It was, of course, pure hokum.” :evil:
 
I'm not a believer in the monster but the Gerahty claim was made in print by the man himself as early as 1950. Chortling over his own ingenuity and the credulity of the punters is what PR men do. The monster was very much a tabloid story in a period when tourism of any kind was aspirational for the masses. I can imagine the laconic response that such a monster-wheeze would elicit from a consortium of canny Scots hoteliers.

This page takes a look at the sparse history of the monster before 1933.

Monsters, that page reminds us, were the height of fashion in 1933. It specifically references King Kong of that year but this was also the period of massive tabloid interest in Borley Rectory and Gef, the talking mongoose. In America, it was the heyday of the live Spook Show. Scottish tourism had been driven on a tide of invented heritage for a century or more; picturesque folklore was part of the gothic package.

Sea and Lake Monsters had a long Celtic history - more Irish than Scots.
A striking image of one was rediscovered this year.

As a means of driving the tourist trade to the region, the monster story has surely had some effect over the decades; I just don't see it rescuing any hoteliers from the doldrums of the Depression era. More tangible evidence of Gerahty's involvement with this mysterious consortium might persuade me; as things stand, it's just another hump in the water! ;)
 
Monster Fan Clubs and Tourist Boat Captains rejoice! :clap:

Monster not in her lair when they called? Maybe they left a note: "No monster licence at this address! You have ten days to comply!" :p
 
As some expert wrote...

But like whales, dolphins and sea turtles, plesiosaurs had lungs. They were air-breathers so they must have had to surface several times per day to breathe.
 
Nessie Found! ;)
Film's lost Nessie monster prop found in Loch Ness
By Steven McKenzieBBC Scotland Highlands and Islands reporter
_89211010_nessieprop.jpg
Image copyrightAF archive/Alamy
Image captionA still from the movie showing the new prop made following the loss of the 30ft version
A 30ft (9m) model of the Loch Ness Monster built for a Sherlock Holmes movie has been found almost 50 years after it sank in the loch.

The beast was created for the Billy Wilder-directed The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, starring Sir Robert Stephens and Sir Christopher Lee.

It has been seen for the first time in images captured by an underwater robot.

Loch Ness expert Adrian Shine said the shape, measurements and location pointed to the object being the prop.

_89210697_nessiefive.jpg
Image copyrightKongsberg Maritime
Image captionAn underwater robot detected the Nessie model during a survey of parts of Loch Ness
_89209478_nessiescan.jpg
Image copyrightKongsberg Maritime
Image captionAnother of Kongsberg Maritime's images of the lost Nessie model
The robot, operated by Norwegian company Kongsberg Maritime, is being used to investigate what lies in the depths of Loch Ness.

VisitScotland and Mr Shine's The Loch Ness Project, which gathers scientific information on the loch's ecology and the potential for a monster, is supporting the survey.

Mr Shine told the BBC News Scotland website: "We have found a monster, but not the one many people might have expected.

"The model was built with a neck and two humps and taken alongside a pier for filming of portions of the film in 1969.

"The director did not want the humps and asked that they be removed, despite warnings I suspect from the rest of the production that this would affect its buoyancy.

"And the inevitable happened. The model sank."

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Media captionA high tech sonar sweep of Loch Ness locates a Nessie-shaped Sherlock Holmes film prop
_89209513_nessienew.jpg
Image copyrightKongsberg Maritime
Image captionA computer generated image of the film prop based on the scan made by the drone
Mr Shine added: "We can confidently say that this is the model because of where it was found, the shape - there is the neck and no humps - and from the measurements."

The model was floated out to a place in the loch where only a few months earlier claims of sighting of Nessie had been made.

The strange case of the lost Nessie prop
_89209509_leebbc.jpg

Image captionSir Christopher Lee starred in the film
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes was made in the US and UK in 1969 and released in cinemas in 1970.

It was directed by Billy Wilder, a famous figure of Hollywood's "golden age" whose long catalogue of features included Some Like It Hot starring Marilyn Monroe.

The Sherlock film tells of the detective investigating the disappearance of an engineer. The case takes him to Loch Ness and an encounter with a monster.

Sir Robert Stephens played Holmes, Colin Blakely was Dr Watson and Sir Christopher Lee was the sleuth's brother, Mycroft Holmes.

Talented special effects artist Wally Veevers, whose other work included 2001: A Space Odyssey, Superman and Local Hero, led the building of the 30ft-long Loch Ness Monster.

It sank on its first outing on the loch while being towed behind a boat.

Wilder is said to have comforted Veevers after watching his creation disappear beneath the waves.

The director, who had also been dogged with problems lighting scenes at Loch Ness, had a new monster made - but just its head and neck - and moved the filming to a large water tank in the film studio.

Kongsberg's torpedo-shaped Munin drone is equipped with sonar imaging and has already made several sweeps of the loch's bottom.

Among other material the drone has already detected have been the wreck of an unidentified sunken boat.

However, measurements made using the device dispute a claim made in January of a new deepest point in the loch.

A tour boat skipper Keith Stewart recorded a depth of 889ft (270.9m) on sonar equipment he uses.

The official maximum depth, which still remains in place, is 754ft (229.8m).

_89196810_robot.jpg
Image copyrightKongsberg Maritime
Image captionKongsberg's robot Munin
_89196819_wreck.jpg
Image copyrightKonsberg Maritime/VisitScotland
Image captionAn image of the sunken boat found during the survey
_82452216_loch.jpg
Image copyrightGoogle
Image captionThe latest survey challenges a recording of a new deepest point in the loch
Kongsburg's survey work forms part of Mr Shine's ongoing called Operation Groundtruth,

Malcolm Roughead, chief executive of VisitScotland, added: "No two areas around or on the water feel the same - whether it is a sense of awe at the beauty of the scenery or a feeling of anticipation at what might surface from below the waters.

"We are excited to see the findings from this in-depth survey by Kongsberg, but no matter how state-of-the-art the equipment is, and no matter what it may reveal, there will always be a sense of mystery and the unknown around what really lies beneath Loch Ness."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-36024638
 
Apologies if this is covered somewhere previously in the thread. I have a memory of watching a factual TV program in the 80's that was covering a new survey or exploration of Loch Ness that was being done at the time. They didn't find the monster but they found an unidentified object or device that they didn't recognise and were appealing for people to write in with suggestions as to what it was. My memory of this is very hazy but I think it was two glass or clear plastic chambers with a small glass chamber in between them. It looked like some kind of scientific equipment.
It's quite possible my wires are crossed on this due to time and memory, but would be interested if anyone remembered this?
 
everybody relax, the goodies are on the case, they even have cameras with special lenses that take blurry out of focus pictures.
Brilliant! Made me LOL. (A pity the BBC didn't have better focused cameras back then.)

Was that Bernard Bresslaw as the zoo keeper? And I canna remember the name of of Scottish guy either, although he was well-known at the time.
 
Brilliant! Made me LOL. (A pity the BBC didn't have better focused cameras back then.)

Was that Bernard Bresslaw as the zoo keeper? And I canna remember the name of of Scottish guy either, although he was well-known at the time.
One of them definately used to be in the Carry On films but I'm too lazy to look up his name at the moment ..
 
Possibly leaping fish. Possibly a seal spooking fish.

So much in the article is wrong. Do these people do research? I mean, the internet is right there on the computer they're using to write their stories.
 
Interesting photo. Seals do not do it for me. IF this is the loch ness creature then we can discard the prehistoric plesiosaur theory. This photo shows something more "snakelike". I don't think it is a snake. That would be a colossal snake. But like so many Nessie photos you cannot really tell just what it is. Personally I think a strange creature exists in the loch. I just have no idea what it is. However, a few years ago something in the loch appeared on camera that had a definite flipper. This photo creature does not appear to have flippers.
 
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