Loch Ness monster is more fact than fiction

[Still Waters]

The Loch Ness monster may be more fact than fiction, one of the UK's top dinosaur experts has claimed.

Paleontologist Dr Darren Naish reckons there have been too many sightings for 'Nessie' to be a hoax.

Boffin Dr Naish, who lectures at the University of Portsmouth, said: "The huge number of 'sea monster' sightings now on record cant all be explained away as mistakes, sightings of known animals or hoaxes.

"At least some of the better ones some of them made by trained naturalists and such probably are descriptions of encounters with real, unknown animals.

"Because large marine animals continue to be discovered various new whale and shark species have been named in recent years the idea that such species might await discovery is, at the very least, plausible."

Read more...

[Abramelin]

Well, I really don't think Nessie is a plesiosaur that ended up in a lake that came into existence after the end of the last ice age.

But maybe it's a sort of seal with an elongated neck??

And then - if that is so - why did no one ever catch one? Are they super-intelligent, like Bigfoot?? LOL.

Being a scientist doesn't exclude you of having crazy ideas.

[msmike1]

He speaks mostly about oceanic species that are newly discovered. There is a huge difference between finding a new undiscovered species in the vast expanses of the ocean and Loch Ness. It's apples and oranges. To many differences to even be thought of in the same context.

Mike

[The Silver Thong]

Now all the other Paleontologists are pointing and laughing at him

[Mike G]

Is The Telegraph a reputable source?

EDIT: I think I solved the mystery of why this scientist (Dr Darren Haish) is outwardly speculating about Nessie. From his own blog site in 2007:

In, as usual, a desperate effort to bring in the hits, I thought I'd go nuts and see what posting about the Loch Ness monster might do for my stats. Hey, maybe I could throw the word sex in there as well. There: sex, there, I said it again.

Source: http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2007/12/nessie_on_film.php

Obviously, just hyperbole designed to bring some surge of traffic to his site, methinks. Move along, nothing to see here...

Edited July 28, 2011 by Mike G

[scheming_dreaming]

Is The Telegraph a reputable source?

EDIT: I think I solved the mystery of why this scientist (Dr Darren Haish) is outwardly speculating about Nessie. From his own blog site in 2007:

Source: http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2007/12/nessie_on_film.php

Obviously, just hyperbole designed to bring some surge of traffic to his site, methinks. Move along, nothing to see here...

breaking news from four years ago...

and its a joke...

poor nessie deserves better

[Mike G]

The most ironic part is this portion of that very same 2007 blog of his I linked to in my last post. Continuing on, Haish talks about the evidence to support the existence of the Loch Ness Monster:

Just to get it out of the way, I shall begin with a bold proclamation: there is no good evidence supporting the existence of any large unknown animal in Loch Ness, and I am of the conclusion that sightings and photographic and sonar evidence can be satisfactorily explained as mistaken or embellished encounters with known animals (including swimming deer, water birds, seals, and small cetaceans), waves, or other phenomena. I say this, not because I'm a knee-jerk debunker who cannot accept the idea that a big unknown animal might exist in a big body of water, but because I am familiar with the evidence, such as it is, and find it wanting.

A far cry from what he is quoted as saying in that article in the OP.

Edited July 29, 2011 by Mike G

[Murrangurk]

This article was the equivalent of the thing I bought and ate from the petrol station. Wholly unsatisfying, slightly dodgy, but what did I expect?

this qualified paleontologist's argument is - it exists coz heaps of people like have done seen it and that.

[xXHellkittiesXx]

Get a huge net and dredge the lake, this end now! xD

[UFO_Monster]

If it did exist, and all of the claims are true, whatever it was must be dead.

[Clobhair-cean]

The fun thing is that the Torygraph managed to complete distort what Naish has said. Here's a part of his reaction

Here is why talking about cryptozoology is so often a bad idea: journalists are often looking to twist your words to make a more sensational story. No matter what it says in the article, while discussing cryptozoology at the ZSL I never said anything positive about the ‘Loch Ness monster’, nor do I think there is anything substantive to the Loch Ness monster legend, nor do I think that the eyewitness evidence for the Loch Ness monster stacks up to much.

Full text

[Mike G]

The fun thing is that the Torygraph managed to complete distort what Naish has said. Here's a part of his reaction

Full text

Did it distort the part on his own blog site where he admits to cheaply sensationalizing the myth of Nessie to draw page hits and traffic?

Edited July 29, 2011 by Mike G

[Imaginarynumber1]

http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/crypto-pinnipeds/

I'm not joining the argument one way or the other, just saying, is all....

[Clobhair-cean]

Did it distort the part on his own blog site where he admits to cheaply sensationalizing the myth of Nessie to draw page hits and traffic?

You do realise that he was joking when he wrote that (The Tet Zoo is the most popular zoology blog out there, and it doesn't need tricks to get visitors), and in no way was he ever sensationalising Nessie. That's the territory of the local tourism authority.

[DigitalDreamer]

I want to point out the obvious but i hope ya'll can see it.This is a sad man who wants attention

[Rafterman]

If that guy is the UK's leading dinosaur expert, perhaps they should send a few over the US for a refresher course.

[arglebargle]

While I'm not a nessie believer, I won't discount that it could be possible, though there would have to be more than just one such creature in that lake, or else it'd have died out a long time ago (if there are any at all, which as I said I kinda doubt)

Eye witnesses are unreliable. They might be right, but they're unreliable. I guess time will tell ... or not.

[fatalcharm]

Well I'm not sure about the Loch Ness Monster, I have never really had a fasination with it so never looked into it.

However, years and years ago people believed that the stories and sightings of the giant squid were fake, and the stories were just ledgends but now we know that the giant squid does exist.

We humans know more about space than we know about our oceans. There would still be many undiscovered species in our oceans that would resemble sea monsters.

[skookum]

Do I believe in something we haven't seen yet in these Lakes such as Loch Ness, and Lake Champlain. Definitely. Do I believe it is a Dinosaur? No way. Other interesting things have been observed at the lakes such as echo location. No lake creature is known to echo locate so there is something unusual down there.

[vitruvian12]

Well I'm not sure about the Loch Ness Monster, I have never really had a fasination with it so never looked into it.

However, years and years ago people believed that the stories and sightings of the giant squid were fake, and the stories were just ledgends but now we know that the giant squid does exist.

We humans know more about space than we know about our oceans. There would still be many undiscovered species in our oceans that would resemble sea monsters.

Thats not true about the giant squid. Evidence for its existence was there. It always seems to get brought up as a reason to believe in cryptids. Do a search and see what was known about it. All that was missing was a recorded sighting. And Loch Ness is not the ocean, its a confined volume of water with little to offer a large life form like nessie.

[bulldogzrep]

Has anyone read Roy Mackal's book: "Monsters of loch ness" ?

[Rat Girl]

I watched a show about 6 years ago where they, from what I can remember, did a proper investigation into loch ness, sent people down there, basically monitored the entire lake for anything odd, over a course of days, and found nothing.

The show had to conclude there was nothing odd down there.

Now, this was a long time ago so I might have some of the specifics wrong, but I definitely remember them saying that they were as certain as it were possible to be with our modern technology that nothing odd was down there.

[Reason101]

I have stood on the shores of Loch Ness and it is an unusual body of water with an interesting cast of light and atmosphere ,even on a summer day in the hight of tourist season..I saw a few strange dark shapes in the water myself and even managed to get excited for a moment or two..but they were ripples and a log..nothing more .I can easily see why in lower light on autumn and winter days..with maybe some mist around ,anyone might see anything out there .I will say this though..it's worth a visit..go ,wander around the shops in Fort Augustus while you are there..buy a toy Nessie..why not..and enjoy the strange atmospher and magnificent scenery...and if Nessie is in there..I hope some of the business owners who are making a good living from it remember to throw in the odd salmon ;-)

[Still Waters]

I have stood on the shores of Loch Ness and it is an unusual body of water with an interesting cast of light and atmosphere ,even on a summer day in the hight of tourist season..I saw a few strange dark shapes in the water myself and even managed to get excited for a moment or two..but they were ripples and a log..nothing more .I can easily see why in lower light on autumn and winter days..with maybe some mist around ,anyone might see anything out there .I will say this though..it's worth a visit..go ,wander around the shops in Fort Augustus while you are there..buy a toy Nessie..why not..and enjoy the strange atmospher and magnificent scenery...and if Nessie is in there..I hope some of the business owners who are making a good living from it remember to throw in the odd salmon ;-)

Interesting you should post this. I uploaded some pics in the gallery recently I took of Loch Ness. For anyone interested if you click on the green icon under my seahorse avatar pic, you'll see them. There's 12 pics in total

[Mike G]

Interesting you should post this. I uploaded some pics in the gallery recently I took of Loch Ness.

Synchronicity?