Anyone with an interest in the Loch Ness Monster will know that 1975 was a pretty manic year. Much has been written since about those murky underwater pictures taken by Robert Rines and his AAS team back then and the furore they caused. The Times newspaper recently published an article on Nicholas Witchell's exuberant part in that media frenzy. The article is shown below.
What we learn in this article is how Nicholas Witchell laid upon the experts at the Natural History Museum the duty to classify the creature and take the necessary steps to back up the government in protecting it. Leaked excerpts from his then forthcoming book led to the doors of the museum being assailed by the media for more news.
Witchell later apologised to them for his over-enthusiasm. Years later he made the leap from enthusiast par excellence to complete unbeliever when he replied with the words "Absolutely not." to the question as to whether he believed there were unknown animals in Loch Ness. He then replies in a paradoxical way by saying he was still puzzled as to what those "many decent people" had seen. Can you believe there are no unknown animals in the loch yet not offer an explanation as to what they saw?
Adrian Shine is quoted and he is in less doubt than Witchell and even warned him of his doubts concerning the pictures. They only showed silt clouds and a tree stump and this was "blindingly obvious" to boot. We can agree with Adrian over the "gargoyle head" and the tree stump found, but it is a non-sequitur to conclude the rest are therefore misidentification.
The above picture still stands in my opinion. Was it a tree stump or a cloud of silt? I don't think so. Was it a pattern of debris on the loch bed? So where is the rest of the loch bed when it is more logical to conclude it is out there in the water which surrounds it? Attempts will then be made to say it is smaller than one may presume. Those calculations were done at the time and concluded it was no small object.
This for me means that nearly fifty years on, this segment of the Loch Ness mystery is not over until the sceptics offer more than simplistic explanations.
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