First up is a new book by Rob Cornes entitled "The Loch Ness Sea Lion". Rob is the author of the larger work, "The Seal Serpent", but here he focuses on a more conventional theory in which he argues that an itinerant sea lion was responsible for some sightings since 1933. The cover showing the Arthur Grant episode shows you that this may well be involved in the book. I have a copy and will review it in the near future. The book can be purchased from amazon.com.
I would also like to draw readers' attention to a biography of the late Erik Beckjord written by Molly Squire and entitled "Beckjord: Biography of a Cryptozoologist". Some may be aware of Erik's involvement in the hunt for the Loch Ness Monster in the 1980s and his assertion that Tim Dinsdale was a Nessie paranormalist, just like him. Perhaps the book will also have something new to say about his film taken at the loch in 1983. I covered a few items on him in the past, which you can find here and here. The promotional text of the book says:
Biography of Bigfoot and anomaly researcher. Adventures of Jon Erik
Beckjord, MBA, in woods, on Indian Reservations, Area 51, in the United
Kingdom at sites of Crop Circles, at Loch Ness, with analysis of
material evidence and 35 photos in text.
The book can be purchased here.
The author can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com
I don't know...that theory sounds as far fetched as as all the aforementioned popular theories, including the big eel, or john the disinformation agent's elasmosaurous. The way in which Grant described the creature bounding across the road sure would suggest the movement of a seal. Also the flippers and webbed hind limbs reported. The Spicer's also described such a lunging movement across the road. The problem, as I see it, is in the size and long neck proposal. Could Grant and the Spicer's overestimated the size and the length of the neck in their sightings? If there is, or ever was such a thing as a Giant, long necked pinniped, they would be as common as the seals we see today and therefore, no mystery as far as the Big Seal goes and consequently, no LNM mystery.
ReplyDeletePinnipeds have an extraordinary ability to arch their neck and make it seem quite long. Not long/thin enough for the type of sightings we are talking about though. I suppose it is always a possibility. There is a good specimen of a Leopard Seal in the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow. Have looked at it many times and often thought how saurian it appears- and that's close up.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling we will never get to the bottom of all of this, and in some ways that's a beautiful thing...
This book is not expensive so I may go ahead and purchase.
Most people ken what a seal looks like and I'd guess most people in the 30s did too. I'd never seen a dolphin in real life but I saw one off Mailbu Beach a couple weeks ago and I was instantly like: "Oh, that's a dolphin." I suppose I've grown up with them on the telly but I dunno about mistaking a documented animal for a gigantic dinosaur (or a monstrous... whatever you believe). These days I'm mostly of the mindset that reports are either true (in that they describe the Loch Ness Monster - a thus far an unidentified creature) or they're fakes. I don't think misidentification counts for a significant proportion of the classic sightings. Okay, waves possibly do, but cormorants look like cormorants and seals tend to look like seals.
ReplyDeleteYes, your observation has merit. I suppose in some instances, it could have been misindentification, but the Giant Pinnipid Theory could not, in my opinion, account for the majority of strange sightings.
DeleteHope you do a review of the Beckjord book so we can delve into his mind and the weird paranormal theories... again. The eDNA provided no final solution, so onward we go!
ReplyDeleteAll good comments but a sea lion not only belongs to a different family (otariidae),than European pinnipeds which are all true seals (phocidae) but is morphologically very different. In addition there are no indigenous otariids in the North Atlantic region.
ReplyDelete