Nessie, the Loch Ness monster.

I’m not keeping it for myself any longer. This is my coming out. Yes, I’m a believer. I believe Nessie is alive!

How can I be so naive? I mean, the scientific evidence is overwhelming, Nessie can’t exist.

Well, I am not so sure…. What are the facts…

Columba wrote about Nessie on August 22nd in the year 565!
Well, this guy is somewhat of a historical hero. Columba is a monk who is on a mission to convert Scotland to Christianity. Every fart this monk let slip on every island he set foot on is recorded in the chronicles. What is the story?

Travelling through Scotland, Columba had to cross Loch Ness. On the bank, he found a man attacked by a water monster. The boat for the crossing lay on the opposite bank and Colomba asked a follower to swim across to fetch it. Without hesitation, the man jumped in and began to swim. The monster surfaced and darted at the man with a roar. While everyone was stupefied with terror, Colomba kept his cool and while making the sign of the cross he demanded the monster to back off. And at the voice of the saint, the monster fled as if terrified.

Adamnan. “Life of St. Columba.”

Colomba used a Nessie resembling monster to convert those simple buggers to become Christians. Of course, this story was recorded 100 years later from when it took place.
Real story? Hmmm. Even the church historians have a few doubts…

Is it only cryptozoology?
Make belief? Something science cannot confirm? But science did give it a name!
In 1817 it was Megophias monstrosus. To be changed in 1892 to Megophias megophias (Rafinesque). To be changed in 1958 to Megalotaria longicollis. And finally, end up with Nessiteras rhombopteryx in 1975. This last name is a mixture of the pet name ‘Nessie’ and the Greek word ‘teras’, which means ‘remarkable being’. And the second name refers to the diamond-shaped flippers. If the scientists have given you a name does that mean you don’t exist?

For real, could Nessie ever exist?
The most plausible is that Nessie is a Plesiosaurus. That means that Nessie is 65 million years old. Wow, that is old. Nothing can live that long, right? The waters of Loch Ness must be pretty special to escape the extinction of the dinosaurs.
There must be a small population of Plesiosaurus swimming around in Loch Ness to cover those 65 million years and reproducing. Otherwise, there should have been a smelly, dead Plesiosaurus lying on the bank of Loch Ness or we should find bones, right? A big Plesiosaurus must have quite an appetite is to sustain a weight of 450 kg. Luckily, the diet of a Plesiosaurus exists of fish and there is fish in Loch Ness but not an awful lot. But will a loch of 39 km length, 1,6 km wide and 132 meters deep provide enough fish for a flock of animals of 450 kg?

Can we rely upon eyewitnesses for the existence of Nessie?
Between 565 and 1975 there are many sightings recorded. They all describe something with a long neck and humps above the water.

I can see why a Plesiosaurus comes to mind when looking at these pictures. The funny thing is that between 565 and 1933 there were not many eyewitness accounts of Nessie. From 1933 there are motorcyclists almost running over Nessie and a housekeeper who saw her, a fishing boat with sonar on the loch and a soldier observed her for 20 minutes. All kinds of pictures and films appeared but they all proved to be fake, even the doctors one. Now, if you can’t trust a doctor, who can you trust?
Nowadays there is still one guy who is an absolute believer. Steve Feltham, left his home and job in 1991, bought himself an old library bus and parked in on a parking lot of a pub overlooking Loch Ness and is living there to this day. Hoping on a Nessie encounter like the one he had back in 1993 but forgot his camera.

What about scientific expeditions?
Of course, there have been genuine researching teams combing the loch in 1932, 1963, 1987 and the latest in 2000. Twelve scientists searched the loch with sonar equipment and they found an object of 5-meter length. When they returned the boat the object was gone. Could that have been the elusive Nessie?
As we speak, a scientific lab is researching water from Loch Ness on eDNA to end all speculation about the existence of Nessie. Somewhere in 2019, the results of the research should be made public. And this will end all speculations for once and for all…..

Well, scientifically Nessie is debunked. How many proofs do you need to see that Nessie is just a myth, a nice story to add some mystique and folklore to the land. Good for tourism.

But when I stand on the shore of Loch Ness and stare over the calm waters and look at the old mountains surrounding the Loch, I can’t help to become a believer. The romance of the place takes me back to stories of old, legends, kings, queens. I can picture a group of knights on horseback clattering down the road. And there is Nessie, raising her head up from the water, checking out what the noise is all about. I must say it again, I’m a believer

Charlotte Gannet