Latest on the Loch Ness Monster... (1 Viewer)

[Ricky Hustle]

Using 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation technology to ensure that none of the loch was missed, the team surveyed the waters said to hide Scotland's legendary tourist attraction but found no trace of the monster.

My my. This proves or disproves nothing! While we are exercising over-active imaginations why not throw some more fantasy into the equation? Maybe Nessie has a cloaking device!

Did Brit taxes pay for this study? I hope not.

 

[Cam S]

It's one thing to discover a creature in an area where humans rarely venture, but it's another to keep looking for something in a place where there are humans 24/7.

Since when are the humans exploring the depths of Loch Ness 24/7? Who said a "sea creature" has to live on the surface of the water? Chances are that if there IS a monster in either Lake Okanagan or Loch Ness it most likely doesn't surface very often, if at all. Both Lakes have incredible amounts of water in them, especially Lake Okanagan since it's longer and deeper.

 

[Jason_Els]

oops, double post :b

 

[Jason_Els]

Loch Ness is connected to the ocean on both sides of the loch because of the Caledonian canal which was finished in 1822. The canal starts in the North Sea, passes Inverness, enters Loch Dochfour, then Loch Ness, goes into Loch Oich, and then into Loch Lochy and finally the Atlantic Ocean near Fort William. This area is known as the Great Glen and, monster or no, it is one of the most beautiful areas in the British Isles.

Could Nessie pass undetected through the lochs' locks (:b couldn't resist that)? Could a juvenile Nessie pass through? Perhaps Nessies hunt or breed near the canal entrance and by accident, on occasion, get caught in the locks?

Speculation about a natural, underwater cave system linking Loch Ness to the ocean has been around forever. Loch Ness is big. 24 miles long, 1 mile at its widest point and possibly up to 1000 feet deep in places. The deepest sonar reading was 812 feet though a submersible submarine recorded just over 975 feet in a different area. The 812 reading was made by a Coast Guard auxiliary boat on training exercises in the loch and the resultant cavern is known as Edwards Deep (after the man who discovered it). The deep has been re-verified by other visits by other boats performing sounding. So yes, there is a cave in Loch Ness. Where it goes, if anywhere, nobody knows. The loch has very steep and smooth sides. At one point the loch drops to 500 feet just 60 feet from the shore. This is because the loch is actually part of an ancient fault that divides northern Scotland from the south. The lochs of the Great Glen were created during the last ice age due to glaciation and the geology of the floor is metamorphic schist. Most interestingly, Lochend, the end closest to Inverness (and the North Sea), is made of glacial sediment and thus the true basin of Loch Ness may extend beyond Loch Dochfour (actually an extension of Loch Ness separated by glacial deposits) to the entrance of the North Sea. Could there be caves or passages to the North Sea below the Caledonian Canal? That has not been answered.

Parts of the loch are over 600 feet below sea level! The floor is mostly peat sediment which averages a depth of at least 25 feet though the actual rock floor could be much deeper.

The loch is notoriously opaque. Due to run off from the surrounding countryside the loch is nearly pitch-black with peat making visibility very poor and thus submerged visual range is no more than a few feet. This has been the single biggest factor in submerged visual identification of Nessie.

Though some photographs taken by submerged vessels have shown something looking like a flipper and something like a long-necked creature, since 1959 there have been much more interesting sonar readings tracking anomalous objects of size traveling against the current of the loch. You can read about Operation Deepscan, the most comprehensive scan of the loch up to the BBC scan, here. I will not go so far as to say that ODS observed Nessies but they did find something as yet inexplicable.

I would say it is hubris to summarily dismiss the possibilities of lake creatures. To say they are surviving dinosaurs is also hubris. Until what is being measured and observed is known, they will remain a mystery.

 

[Cam S]

Jason, thanks for all the info, that was an interesting read. I've always been fascinated by the possibility of Sea creatures such as Ogopogo and Loch Ness existing in our waters, especially the one I swim in everyday!

 

[Steve_Tk]

Hopefully he will get put in Sea World.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

If there is a nessie I'd love to know what they're feeding on...there's not a lot of food material in loch ness to support such large besties...at least not that I remember (its been a very long time since I was last there)

 

[Cam S]

Andrew, I read that there is alot of Char and other big fish in there, so I'm guessing it would be ok as far as food goes.

 

[MarkHastings]

If there is a nessie I'd love to know what they're feeding on...

Drunken Scotts??

or Prostitutes (obscure 'Amazon Women on the Moon" reference)

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Hopefully he will get put in Sea World.

And then they'll make a Free Ogopogo movie with Edward Furlong and Michael Ironside.

 

[Max Leung]

I kinda like the idea of Frankenpogo myself...a mad scientist finds the rotting (but somewhat fresh) carcass of ogopogo and brings it back to life. Much hilarity ensues, but not until after thousands of tax-paying BC citizens get involuntarily eaten. It'll be so cool!

Jason: Cool info, BTW. I remember reading about the underwater tunnel system in Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminati novel, but for obvious reasons thought it was bunk.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Max: remember that this is HTF. If you make a reference to a film that does not yet exist, you are obligated to post your dream cast.

 

[Danny Tse]

Come on!! You guys missed the whole story??

The Loch Ness Monster is vacationing in China this summer. Click here.

Shame on you, BBC!

 

[Kevin M]

Mature? Since when does believing that the possibility of a dino-type of sea creature can exist make one immature?

When said "sea creature" is in a land locked lake that, thanks to years & years of publicity, is scrutinized & photographed 24 hours a day....if not immature then I would call holding on to said belief in the face of facts to be at the very least foolhardy & illogical.

I never said a thing about what might exist in the open sea.

 

[Max Leung]

you are obligated to post your dream cast.

Hmmm. How about Gary Oldman as the Mad Scientist, Vin Diesel as the voice of Frankenpogo (and Ogopogo in flashback sequences), and Christina Ricci as the mutual love interest (and perhaps star in the sequel, Frankenpogo's Bride)?

Oh and we need Anthony Hopkins as the leader of the mob that loads up the fleet of harpoon-equipped boats that hunts Frankenpogo in the Loch (after the dramatic relocation of Frankenpogo into Loch Ness, in the hopes of mating with the Lock Ness Monster, who is actually a female).

It would have to be directed by David Fincher. Or maybe Tim Burton. Hmmm.

Actually maybe Johnny Depp would make a good mad scientist too.

 

[Jason_Els]

It took sixty seven years from the time of the discovery of the Giant Panda by Westerners to the first capture of one.

And that was a large land animal.

The Vu Quang wasn't discoverd by scientists until 1993 and then only by hunters' trophies brought back from the Vu Quang Nature Reserve in Vietnam.

The Vu Quang is estimated to stand about 3 feet high at the shoulder and weigh up to 200 pounds. A few have been captured but died shortly thereafter due to unknown intestinal problems likely caused by a captive diet deficiency.

A living Vu Quang has still never been seen by western scientists.

The prehistoric Riwoche horse, standing 4 feet tall and looking remarkably like horses depicted in ancient cave paintings has been semi-domesticated by the local inhabitants of the Riwoche valley of Tibet since time immemorial. Western scientists only found it in 1995.

“there is more under heaven and earth Horatio than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

 

[Glenn Overholt]

First thought - This is, in any event, a great way to generate local revenue.

Second thought - Any other fish in the loch won't do any good if Nessie is a Veggie.

As for the movie, I already have the ending. It sneaks out when the credits start and appears in the ocean.... When the credits end, it surfaces again, in Lake Ontario, and you can see the skyline of Toronto in the background!

Stay tuned for part 2.

Glenn

 

[Lew Crippen]

Speculation about a natural, underwater cave system linking Loch Ness to the ocean has been around forever. Loch Ness is big. 24 miles long, 1 mile at its widest point and possibly up to 1000 feet deep in places.

That should be easy to prove or disprove. An underground river to the sea would result in the level of Loch Ness being exactly that of the sea.

If it is, then there is strong evidence that an underground connection exists; but if the levels are different, perhaps someone would need to explain why the levels are different.

 

[MarkHastings]

Maybe Nessy is invisble

 

[Kevin M]

The prehistoric Riwoche horse, standing 4 feet tall and looking remarkably like horses depicted in ancient cave paintings has been semi-domesticated by the local inhabitants of the Riwoche valley of Tibet since time immemorial. Western scientists only found it in 1995.

Once again this is a rather isolated area and....you get the point...if nessie existed the law of averages would have had it photographed or captured years ago, I mean we weren't actually looking for the Riwoche horse and we found the damn thing, we in fact are looking for nessie and after more than a century, nothing..not a thing.

IMO it clearly doesn't exist...not in Lock Ness anyway.