The Loch Ness monster is back ... not

When CNN announces it has "what Loch Ness Monster watchers say is among the finest footage ever taken" it's hard not to bite. Never mind that what used to be the most famous photographic evidence turned out to be fake. Never mind that the very concept of megafauna surviving in a 24-square-mile lake without giving itself away long ago is absurd. But what a disappointment the video is.

I've been to Loch Ness. It's a hauntingly beautiful place. The ruins of Urquart Castle that overlook its waters are a worthy visit. If tourism is your concern, there are more honest ways to draw visitors than desperate attempts to keep this silly legend alive.

But if you're going to champion the new "proof," then at least make it worth our 30 seconds. This particular video footage isn't even interesting. I've seen stranger things on the surface of the half-acre pond on our family's property here in western North Carolina.

According to CNN, however, the video is of "such good quality that even the normally reticent BBC Scotland aired the video on its main news program on Tuesday." Right. Making things worse, the CNN makes on oblique reference to the notorious 1930 "surgeon's photo" (at right), but doesn't bother to note that that particular piece of proof turned out to be hoax.

Get over it, folks.

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I was wondering when someone would write about this story. I saw the video footage last week and laughed out loud. Is it just me, or does anyone else think it an odd coincidence that this story broke at exactly same time as an increased amout of Scottish tourism advertising? Or perhaps not so odd...

24 sq miles is pretty big, especially when you consider that its ridiculously deep. Up to 750 feet.

I'm not saying I believe in Nessie, but I am saying who knows what might live down there.

Ah, Paul. Sssh!
Let the people keep their excuse for an annual distillery tour! It's not like they're pourin' it down yer throat against your will!

Little known, and ignored by the skeptics, is the fact that the deep bank walls of Loch Ness contain underwater cavernss perhaps leading to the other lochs said to contain monsters.

Those undertaking expeditions to find the critter do so in motorized boats. Sounds emitted from such craft may be very audible (whale sounds are audible to other whales thousands of miles away) to Nessie serving only to warn it away from would-be siters.

The tulliemonstrum was (and in my opinion IS) a fine possibility as the real critter in Loch Ness. A much smaller version of the tulliemonstrum existed 300 million years ago. From a distance the tulliemonstrum does resemble Nessie. This critter had the habit of darting into the mud on the bottom of bodies of water when danger threatened. No one knows about its breathing mechanism. Nessie may be, if it is a descendant of the tulliemonstrum,
hiding out in the mud at the bottom of the Loch. As for the difference in sizes, the coelecanth was a six inch long critter during prehistory and NOW attains lengths of over 3 feet. Same could apply to the small prehistoric tullie and modern Nessie.

By hypostasis_of_… (not verified) on 13 Jun 2007 #permalink

okay all i want to know if it's real........cause i'm starting to think that it's fake.......people here in utah are saying that that loch ness monster ate 1 cop.......is everything about this loch ness monster true of is it just a myth.......

If the author takes time to call it fake, he should give some reasons to make it worth the readers time to evaluate; he says nothing at all and gives no reasons except that he's seen stranger things!