The Latest Video of Nessie?

After the anti-climax of the hump which turned out to be a rock which was not even at Loch Ness, we have a video of something on Loch Ness which requires more thought. The Daily Mail has printed one picture and a video of something low in the water which at first sight looks intriguing.

Three stills below from the video show the object's progression from left to right as it slowly dies away. The witness' own testimony is below but is it just a wave of water? I ran the video clip quite a few times to get a sense of what was going on and examine its progress and context.

The first thing to note is the orientation of the object, it runs from right to left but general boat traffic would move between top and bottom. The picture below shows no boat up loch which could have been a source but we cannot tell what may have passed in other directions. 

To give the context, there is an inlet to the left of the photograph called Inchnacardoch Bay at which various boats are moored. To the right is the former Fort Augustus Abbey which I believe has a small harbour. The aerial picture below shows this and our witness would likely have been at the head of the tongue of land between the River Ness and the Caledonian Canal (marked "A"). However, for a boat to cross from right to left is a bit risky as the Summer volume of traffic heading north-south is high. I am not sure if such a manoeuvre is forbidden by the local authorities. 

The other issue is that I cannot see the other arm of a proposed bow wave. There are ripples visible at the foreground of the video but they look unconnected to this phenomenon. So I do not get the overwhelming impression that this is connected to a boat now out of view (and the witness said no boats were near).

A freak wave as someone suggested or something just below the surface disturbing the water?

An amateur photographer has captured an eerie photo from the shore of Loch Ness which could encourage those who believe in tales of a monster living beneath the surface of the lake.

The image was taken by David Elder at Fort Augustus, at the south-west end of the 23-mile-long body of water in northern Scotland.

It shows a long bow wave apparently caused by some sort of disturbance on the surface of the loch.

The 50-year-old photography enthusiast insists the only thing that could have caused it is 'a solid black object under the water'.

Mr Elder, from East Kilbride in Lanarkshire, was able to take still photos as well as filming a video of the mysterious scene.

'We were at the pier head at Fort Augustus and I was taking a picture of a swan at the time,' he said.

'Out of the corner of my right eye I caught site of a black area of water about 15ft long which developed into a kind of bow wave.

'I'm convinced this was caused by a solid black object under the water. The water was very still at the time and there were no ripples coming off the wave and no other activity on the water.

'Water was definitely going over something solid and making the wave. It looks like the sort of wave perhaps created by a windsurfing board but there was nobody on the loch at the time, no boats, nothing.

'The disturbance in the water began moving up the Loch sideways. It is something I just can't explain.'

The extraordinary picture will doubtless fuel the imaginations of anyone who believes the story that there is a sea creature living in the lake, which is Britain's largest due to its 230m depth.

However, sceptics will ascribe the wave to a freak gust of wind or other natural phenomenon.

The story of the Loch Ness Monster goes back as far as the medieval period, but it first came to widespread public attention in 1933.

That year a couple named the Spicers claimed to have seen a creature with a large body and long neck jumped in to the loch, causing a national sensation.

The next year, the iconic 'surgeon's photograph' was published, purporting to show the creature swimming in Loch Ness with its head out of the water.

Although that image has been debunked as a hoax, the search for Nessie has continued, with true believers undeterred by the failure of repeated attempts by scientists to find the creature.