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The Loch Ness Monster

Slytherin said:
admittedly, i have misplaced my zoology degree, but wouldn't a catfish in the UK be a bit of an anomaly in itself?
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Can't remember their exact locations but BIG catfish are found in many European countries. You can also buy them from many aquarium shops. Most probably grow too big for their tank/bowl and some will get released.

On the subject of the spine curvature, there's nothing stopping the fish curving sideways out of the water, it may be a pleasant sensation for them.
That's just brought back a memory of my goldfish who used to swim backwards.
 
The trouble with Nessie is that half the sightings are false and based on the classical image of nessie. I think that it is a sturgeon, or other large fish. Unfortunately :(
 
So does that mean the famous image was a surgeon taking a picture of a sturgeon?
 
Catfish

A large catfish was recently seen in a Kent river...and it was a large one, a Wells species I think, so it is possible. And, yes, especially as many Nessie sightings are inconclusive I think a Catfish is as likely as any.
 
I've come across various stories of catfish in ponds & lakes in the UK.

The tales are probably ULs, but seem to center on the idear that in the 19th Century, the squire, rector or some other local 'gentry', introduced them as some sort of experiment & now they must be massive. Normaly, this is 'proved' by an anglers tale, of how some body hooked the catfish & was pulled into the water OR the line broke, "And e' were using hunnerd pound shark fishing line!!!!". As if!!!!!

Probably it's total rubbish, but maybe there is a hundred pound plus cat fish out there?:miaow:
 
Alot of sightings could be explained as giant catfish but there are alot that cant.
Perhaps sightings of the giant hump in the water are cat fish but what about the people who say that they see a creature with the head of a horse? even the picts drew pictures of nessie and called it the sea horse.
Id like to think it is more than just a fish but if thats what it is its still the loch ness monster :cool:
 
Lol Xanatic :D

The reason I tend towards the large fish theories is that there is not one square metre in Loch Ness that hasn't been mapped. I think that something as large as Nessie is meant to be wouldn't have a chance.

Anyone else know the story where a couple driving home (long time ago, 1940s or 50s I think) came across what appeared to be a fallen tree blocking the road? The log lifted it's head and they realised they were looking at a sea monster - Nessie. The creature pulled itself over the road and into the loch, and they drove on. The couple's description was of a creature looking much like a Plesiosaur.

DH
 
I wrote of a case from the '50s, or even earlier about a Kent couple who saw a camel-type creature, straw-coloured move across the road from the direction of the loch. The motorist went on to state that too many researchers were looking in the water for answers rather than the forests!
I still think a catfish is possible...another creature which can move across land. And the long-necked sightings don't seem to stand up any more, indeed, many have been dismissed. If there wre more long-necked sightings now then they would be taken seriously, but most just sem to describe upturned boats.
 
I doubt anyone could get a camel mixed up with a catfish tho, if this kent couple is to belived then the creature they saw resembles the old pictish kelpy more than a catfish would so then maybe loch ness is home to more than one monster? perhaps there is giant fish and a type of unknown creature that live in (or out) the loch and the sightings of the hump and sightings of the long neck are 2 totally different creatures.
 
There was also that guy on a moped or motorbike who was driving along the lake. In his front light he saw something crawling across the road that looked like plesiosaur. Sadly his headlight was dynamo, so when he stopped the bike the light went out. At which point I would have screamed out loud.
 
If the plesiosaurs are being seen on the road, then presumably they are migratory.
Can I therefore re-offer my theory that they live in the sea and only use the loch as a breeding ground/nursery area. Lets face it, it's been pretty well proven that a relic colony could not have survived there with the levels of food present there. Also, think of the levels of mutation caused by inbreeding.
 
I just can't shake the feeling that herds of migratory plesiosaurs sweeping across Scotland would be fairly hard to miss.
 
No! Long horns & a shaggy coat & they'll look just like Highland Cattle.

Mind you, the long tail might be a bit of a give away!!!!!;)
 
There are all these scientist cruising up and down Loch Ness with their million pound sonar and not finding a thing, why not just dump a load of fresh fish into the loch and see what comes up to eat them? It worked in Godzilla.
 
There's been done a lot of things like that. Throwing a ton of smoked bacon into the lake and such. But nobody knows what Nessie likes eating.
 
I like the idea of Nessie being able to move about on land as this would get around the implication that there isn't enough food in the lake to support such a large beast or family of same.

The only problem is that you'd think someone would have found some trace of this by now wouldn't you? You know, footprints, droppings, torn up vegitation etc.
 
If you read The Great Orm of Loch Ness by FW Holiday, you'll find references to depressions and areas of crushed foliage that, appartantly, the locals attribute to Nessie. Loads of people think Holiday's a bit of a nut, but his books are definately worth a read. I'm a bit of a fan myself.

RE: the plesiosaurs. It really is not plausable that any animal that has to breathe air and is the size that Nessie apparantly is, could remain undetected in a body of water that small. I know Loch Ness is large compared to, say, your garden pond, but on a global scale it's not very big at all. Let's say Nessie as a lung capacity on a par with a sperm whale and can go without air for about an hour. That means at least once an hour, an animal is going to have to show itself on the surface. Presumably, there's a whole colony of creatures and not just one individual, so that's a number of very large creatures that would need to surface at least 24 times a day each. On a confined, narrow body of water with the amount of surface traffic the Ness has, there's no way that could remain undiscovered. And besides, sometimes months and years elapse and no one reports a sighting at all.

Someone's going to point out that plesiosaurs etc can use their long necks like a snorkel to breath on the surface undetected by only showing their nostrils above water. A similar thing was once believed about sauropod dinosaurs, brachiosaur et al. THe theory was discounted though, because it doesn't work in practise. More than a few feet below the surface, the water pressure is too great for the animal to draw a breath. An animal would have to lie with its lungs very close to the surface in order to breathe, again making it very visible on a regular basis.

Most of the evidence suggests long-necked plesiosaurs were primarily surface dwellers anyway. We know the angle they held their flippers at prevented them from diving, and their long neck would be very cumbersome under water. They probably used their necks like water birds do, fishing from the surface, resembling very much a giant reptilian swan.

Pretty damn spectacular on the end of a fishing line. but not in the Ness






:)
 
A recent Nessie documentary on Channel 5 highlighted Sundbergs inadequate attempts at trapping the monster. It seems that eels are the only thing to show up on camera, but once again, so-called experts get frustrated by the lack of sonar detection but then again, any creature down there is going to sense a bloody great boat coming. Most animals have far superior senses than us thicko's...
 
Watching a program about a year i think where they sweeped the loch in several boats using sonar didnt they find several large objects swimming round the bottom of the loch? I never heard anything about this since and as the program was a reapt this must have been quite a while ago.did they ever find out what these objects were?
 
New loch ness monster sighting

I was wondering has anyone seen the new video fotage of the loch ness monster shown on the ITV news today. Apparently the man who shot it won £500 from his bookies for most convincing evidence of the monsters exisitance.
 
nope :(

This will have probably been dropped from the headlines by the evening news so I'm guessing 5:25 - newsround will be the last chance to see it.
 
New Loch Ness Footage

Just read the story on the daily fortean news expecting to see the footage itself.
Any chance it's been released, I would LOVE to see that!
 
Trouble is, so many people get excited over these pices of earth-shattering footage but nothing ever really comes of it, except in that it may slash a few odds at the bookies. The last film of 'Nessie' was taken from that cruise boat but it seemed so seal-like and then there was all this hysteria saying, "Nessie filmed", but it's things like that which both keep the legend alive but also don't help it. People have to stop going to the loch and getting excited over splashes, ripples and shadows, because there are many of them. I recently saw some footage of a 'creature' in a Swedish lake and the female witness was so excited, but it was just a wake...what the Hell are people like ?
 
At the end of Richard and Judy last night, I'm sure Richard said the footage would be on their show today - 'though they sometimes shift things to other days if it's a busy show. So don't blame me if all you get is an interview with Michael Bolton or something.
 
Can someone post this video on the web?

Or at least describe it for the rest of us?

thanks

Chris
 
Chris Baker said:
Or at least describe it for the rest of us?
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From what I caught on the BBC news (three times - advantage to living in Scotland!) -

Wobbly hand-held video of body of water, with small black dot, and (maybe) a wake. Clip from over three minute film lasted maybe 20 seconds. As shown, evidence of something in on or the water, but impossible to say what.

I'd love to see a frame-by-frame breakdown, enhancement, whatever.

(BTW, since the tourist season starts soon, it must have been Nessie - why don't y'all come see? :D )
 
I just saw it on jolly old Richard N' Judy... looked interesting but as usual indistinct and wobbly.. didnt look like a fake tho just a seal only it was too big and came up out of the water too far...
 
It's just been on. And so was Michael Bolton. In fact, Michael Bolton was talking about it, too. Strange.

My god, it was hideous. Leathery skin, strange shaped body and evil, evil eyes. Oh, no that was Richard. I'm joking, of course. Sorry.:p

They showed a fair bit of the video but it was hard to make out anything other than a black blob bobbing up and down. The bloke filming it was on a hill and had his camcorder at full zoom, so there wasn't much definition. The camerawork wasn't at all steady, so it's hard to see whatever it was moving. I got the feeling the man had just run up a hill, or was trying to balance.

I would've said it was a seal, but the paleantologist they had on said not. Also, the people who have looked at it more closely said that the top of it was 3 - 4 ft above the surface of the water.

So who knows. Maybe a floating log. Maybe a buoy. Maybe a black bag. Maybe an optical illusion. Maybe a ball. Maybe someone in a wetsuit having a swim. Maybe a mystery creature from the deep.

Interesting footage, but nothing conclusive.:)
 
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