Scotland's Loch Ness Monster caught on tape ?

[Spider]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/05/31/britain.lochness.ap/index.html
EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) -- Like tartan, bagpipes, and shortbread Scotland's Loch Ness Monster is as much an emblem as a tourist draw.

And now Nessie's back.

An amateur scientist has captured what Loch Ness Monster watchers say is among the finest footage ever taken of the elusive mythical creature reputed to swim beneath the waters of Scotland's most mysterious lake. (Watch the 'monster' footage Video)

"I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this jet black thing, about 45-feet (15 meters) long, moving fairly fast in the water," said Gordon Holmes, the 55-year-old a lab technician from Shipley, Yorkshire, who took the video this past Saturday.

He said it moved at about 6 mph (10 kph) and kept a fairly straight course.

"My initial thought is it could be a very big eel, they have serpent-like features and they may explain all the sightings in Loch Ness over the years."

Loch Ness is surrounded by myth and mystery, as it is the largest and deepest inland expanse of water in Britain. About 750 feet (230 meters) to the bottom, it's even deeper than the North Sea.

Nessie watcher and marine biologist Adrian Shine of the Loch Ness 2000 center in Drumnadrochit, on the shores of the lake, viewed the video and hopes to properly analyze it in the coming months.

"I see myself as a skeptical interpreter of what happens in the loch, but I do keep an open mind about these things and there is no doubt this is some of the best footage I have seen," Shine said.

He said the video is particularly useful because Holmes panned back to get the background shore into the shot. That means it was less likely to be a fake and provided geographical bearings allowing one to calculate how big the creature was and how fast it was traveling.

While many sightings can be attributed to a drop of the local whisky, legends of Scottish monsters date back to one of the founders of the Christian church in Scotland, St. Columba, who wrote of them in about 565 A.D.

More recently, there have been more than 4,000 purported Nessie sightings since she was first caught on camera by a surgeon on vacation in the 1930s.

Since then, the faithful have speculated whether it is a completely unknown species, a sturgeon -- even though they have not been native to Scotland's waters for many years -- or even a last surviving dinosaur.

Shine doubts that last explanation.

"There are a number of possible explanations to the sightings in the loch. It could be some biological creature, it could just be the waves of the loch or it could be some psychological phenomenon in as much as we see what we want to see," he said.

But Nessie isn't just an icon of the paranormal -- she's also an emblem of Scottish tourism. She has been the muse for cuddly toys and immortalized on T-shirts and posters showing her classic three-humped image.

The Scottish media is skeptical of Nessie stories but Holmes' footage is of such good quality that even the normally reticent BBC Scotland aired the video on its main news program on Tuesday.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[Malcontent]

I'm sure we all will see it on the tube soon, but I've always thought it was all BUNK!

[Spider]

I'm sure we all will see it on the tube soon, but I've always thought it was all BUNK!

I watched the little video , pretty good considering the distance ........ what ever is on that tape is huge ................

[Malcontent]

I watched the little video , pretty good considering the distance ........ what ever is on that tape is huge ................

Are you sure its not that Toyota commercial we see every 5 minutes? :D

[Spider]

Are you sure its not that Toyota commercial we see every 5 minutes? :D

LOL

[Billy Clyde Puckett]

I watched the little video , pretty good considering the distance ........ what ever is on that tape is huge ................

Someone just got a shot of Bob skinny dipping in the Galveston Harbor

[Northman]

Yea, not sure if its a dino but it is some sort of sea serpent and its big.

[Malcontent]

Seriously though...what if it is a real creature?...Does anyone have a clue as to what it COULD possibly be??

[Northman]

My first guess would be a sea snake or some kind of eel.

[Spider]

Someone just got a shot of Bob skinny dipping in the Galveston Harbor

now I need therapy . thanks alot ;D

[Spider]

Seriously though...what if it is a real creature?...Does anyone have a clue as to what it COULD possibly be??

Rosie O'Donnel would be my first guess

[Northman]

Rosie O'Donnel would be my first guess

No way. Rosie would eat that thing with one bite. Rumor has it Rosie is the reason the Megalodon went extinct. Ha!


http://www.oceansofkansas.com/Varner/varner11.jpg

[Spider]

LOL thats true

[Malcontent]

That could be one theory..O'donnels have been spotted in the vicinity in the past.

[Jana®]

Rosie O'Donnel would be my first guess

^5 LOL

[Atlas]

The U.S. has had a Lochness Monster for over 40 years.

http://www.nycdiet.com/nycdiet/images/rosie.jpg

[Malcontent]

The U.S. has had a Lochness Monster for over 40 years.

http://www.nycdiet.com/nycdiet/images/rosie.jpg


ROFL!

[Swedish Extrovert]

What happened to the nice Rosie that used to throw koosh balls at people?

[Broncobiv]

The U.S. has had a Lochness Monster for over 40 years.

http://www.nycdiet.com/nycdiet/images/rosie.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o20/speardog/Kyla%20Cole/KC.jpghttp://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o20/speardog/Kyla%20Cole/kc341.jpg
I hate to say it, but the instant I saw that picture of Rosie, and then the Kyla Cole pics underneath, I swore Rosie looked just like her (albeit with less makeup and at a bad/angry moment as the pciture was taken). Those are the last 2 pics of Kyla from the right of your sig...anyone else see the resemblance to that pic of Rosie?

Again, I'm sorry!

[Malcontent]

I hate to say it, but the instant I saw that picture of Rosie, and then the Kyla Cole pics underneath, I swore Rosie looked just like her (albeit with less makeup and at a bad/angry moment as the pciture was taken). Those are the last 2 pics of Kyla from the right of your sig...anyone else see the resemblance to that pic of Rosie?

Again, I'm sorry!

Run...right now. Atlas has sent his goons out to possibly kill you! I would not disagree with his decision.;D

[Broncobiv]

Run...right now. Atlas has sent his goons out to possibly kill you! I would not disagree with his decision.;D
Well, the important thing is, do you see the resemblance? I wasn't trying to make a bad joke or anything...I'm serious! Those 2 pics of Kyla and that one of Rosie...eerie.

[bronco610]

I hate to say it, but the instant I saw that picture of Rosie, and then the Kyla Cole pics underneath, I swore Rosie looked just like her (albeit with less makeup and at a bad/angry moment as the pciture was taken). Those are the last 2 pics of Kyla from the right of your sig...anyone else see the resemblance to that pic of Rosie?

Again, I'm sorry!

Somebody get this guy some glasses!!!!:giggle:

[ZONA]

I'm always amazed that with all the hi-def cameras and video recorders these days, and they can zoom forever, that the mysterious creates always seemed to be captured on the worst recorder ever. Just enough that you can't rule out somebody tampering with the footage and just believable enough to make you rule out that it's a hoax. I master editor could have easily taken an image of a sea snake, blew it up to make it just pixilated enough, matched the lighting and color scales and imposed it onto the lake footage. You would be surprised at what some of these people can do. The reason I never rule out Ness as a real possibility is the size of that lake. Go to google earth and look at that lake from satalite. It damn near is the width of scottland......well, you know what I mean. It's frickin a huge lake man. And as deep as they come. I don't care what kind of sonar they use, there is no way to tell how many underwater caverns there are in that lake.

[Arkansas Bronco]

For some reason this is the myth that i always thought may be true simpley because as smart as we think we are we still dont know all. And if the crocs can kick it from the stone age why cant something else? She gets a better score on my myth charts by far than big foot.

[Dr. Broncenstein]

My toilet drains into Loch Ness... and I ate 2 bowls of lentil soup. EVERYBODY PANIC.

[That One Guy]

I agree that there could definitely be something in a body of water that size but I don't buy this tape. This one looks like some sort of major eel looking thing yet it doesn't seem to do any swimming motions. I've been chased at the lake for about the last week by snakes. Every time I go, they're there waiting for me. This thing has the same body characteristics but no swimming motion whatsoever. I call poopoo.

[Dagmar]

Well, this will keep my homeland's tourism money flowing.

Thanks to you, gullible Americans!!

[bronco610]

I agree that there could definitely be something in a body of water that size but I don't buy this tape. This one looks like some sort of major eel looking thing yet it doesn't seem to do any swimming motions. I've been chased at the lake for about the last week by snakes. Every time I go, they're there waiting for me. This thing has the same body characteristics but no swimming motion whatsoever. I call poopoo.

Good Point !!!!

[Atlas]

Run...right now. Atlas has sent his goons out to possibly kill you! I would not disagree with his decision.;D


There is no sense in running. He can't hide!

[Los Broncos]

This doesn't make me believe for a min.

[Man-Goblin]

If it's not Scottish it's crap!!!!

[Rigs11]

Nessie is a plesiosaurus.

http://www.copyrightexpired.com/earlyimage/plesiosaurus_em_1892_smit_1929.gif

[Rock Chalk]

No food in the loch to support a large creature like that.

Very few fish, even less plant life.

[Swedish Extrovert]

Seriously though...what if it is a real creature?...Does anyone have a clue as to what it COULD possibly be??

Description of Nessie

Many explanations have been postulated over the years to describe what kind of animal the Loch Ness Monster might be:

Plesiosaur
Plesiosaurs, by Heinrich Harder, 1916.
Plesiosaurs, by Heinrich Harder, 1916.

The most common eyewitness description of Nessie, is that of a plesiosaur, a long-necked aquatic reptile that became extinct during the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. Supporters of the plesiosaur theory cite the survival of a fish called the coelacanth, which supposedly went extinct along with the plesiosaur but was rediscovered off the coast of Madagascar in 1938.

On the other hand, mainstream science does offer plausible reasons why such an animal could not exist in Loch Ness. Apart from its apparent extinction, the plesiosaur was probably a cold-blooded reptile requiring warm tropical waters, while the average temperature of Loch Ness is only about 5.5°C (42°F). Even if the plesiosaurs were warm-blooded, they would require a food supply beyond that of Loch Ness to maintain the level of activity necessary for warm-blooded animals. [3]

Moreover, there is no substantive evidence in the bone structure of fossilised plesiosaurs that indicate sonar capability (similar to that possessed by dolphins and whales). Such a system would be necessary in the loch, as visibility is limited to less than 15 feet due to a high peat concentration in the loch. Consequently, sunlight does not deeply penetrate the water, limiting the amount of photosynthetic algae, thereby reducing the number of plankton and fish in the food chain. Fossil evidence indicates plesiosaurs were sight hunters; it is unlikely that the loch's peat-stained water would allow such animals to hunt the limited food supply at sufficient levels.

In October 2006, Leslie Noè of the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge pointed out that, "The osteology of the neck makes it absolutely certain that the plesiosaur could not lift its head up swan-like out of the water", precluding the possibility that Nessie is a plesiosaur. [4]

Kelpie

According to the Swedish naturalist and author Bengt Sjögren (1980), present day beliefs in lake monsters such as "Nessie" are associated with the old legends of kelpies. He claims that the accounts of lake monsters have changed over the ages, originally describing a horse appearance, they claimed that the "kelpie" would come out of the lake and turn into a horse. When a tired traveller would get on the back of the kelpie, it would gallop into the lake and devour its prey. This myth successfully kept children away from the loch, as was its purpose. Sjögren concludes that the kelpie legends have developed into more plausible descriptions of lake monsters, reflecting awareness of plesiosaurs. In other words, the kelpie of folklore has been transformed into a more "realistic" and "contemporary" notion of the creature. Believers counter that long-dead witnesses could only compare the creature to that which they were familiar -- and were not familiar with plesiosaurs.[5]

Long-necked seal

Peter Costello posed the theory that Nessie and other reputed lake monsters were actually an unknown species of long-necked seal. This theory is supported by several sightings of the monster on land, during which the creature supposedly waddled into the loch upon being startled, in the manner of seals and sea lions.[6] However, all known species of pinnipeds are usually visible on land during daylight hours to sunbathe [7], something that Nessie was never known to do.

Elephant

A theory presented by Neil Clark, the curator of paleontology at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow has suggested that Nessie could merely be a swimming elephant, as there was a travelling circus passing through the area during the heyday of the sightings.[8]

Eel

Some have theorized that "Nessie" could actually be a large eel. There are those who believe that an eel might have grossly enlarged in order to eat the bigger fish, or that a larger eel species inhabits the loch. But an eel could not protrude swanlike from the water as described in various sightings.[9] [10].

Other animals

Some theorists attribute the monster sightings to large pike (Esox lucius) [11], sturgeon, dolphins, a surviving Tullimonstrum,[12] dogs[13] (as in "The Spray Photograph"), otters, birds, and large molluscs (such as a large cephalopod or nematode).

[smalltowngrll]

I venture to think it would be some form of an eel. And, I'd also have to believe that there was more than one eel because I can't imagine a single creature living for close to 1500 years.

I watched a program a few weeks back on National Geographic about the underwater creatures that live in the waters of antarctica and I was amazed at the size of some of those creatures that had rarely ever been seen. Some of the Squid and octopus were GIGANTIC and I belive they showed a very large eel.

Anyway, it would be interesting to find out the truth of what is really down there...if anything.

[TheDave]

WOW... a shadow in/on the water. :tinfoilha

[Rigs11]

No food in the loch to support a large creature like that.

Very few fish, even less plant life.

So they say, however there are theories that there are underwater passages that lead out to the ocean.Which could also explain why it is so rarely spotted.