Nessie Sonar Controversy Goes Commercial

The Nessie Sonar case gets more complicated each time something pops up on the media or someone else adds their opinion on the matter. However, I have been in email contact with the witness himself, Marcus Atkinson, to clarify and answer some points. I will come to those at the end of the post.

First off is a piece by Loren Coleman on the Cryptomundo website where he refers to Dick Raynor's website addressing some sonar questions. Dick Raynor skippers one of the boats run by another cruise company called Castle Cruises Loch Ness.

Straight after that, there is speculation about the man who got the sonar hit, Marcus Atkinson, who works for a competitor cruise company called Cruise Loch Ness. To quote Cryptomundo:

But perhaps truly damning, this year “Cruise Loch Ness” are running special monster hunting trips with underwater cameras on the boat skippered by…Marcus Atkinson – the man behind all the publicity of this new “discovery.” Therefore, some locals are questioning Atkinson’s big splash in the media this week. Is it a marketing move?

The cruiser website carries information on this monster hunting variant of their trips here. One wonders who the concerned "locals" are in this instance.

Now as regards so called marketing moves, what is this meant to tell us about anything? If I refer you again to Scepticism's Seven Deadly Sins, Mr. Atkinson had committed "sins" number two and six. That is, you are not a credible witness if you are involved in a commercial outlet near the loch or have gained financially from the sighting. The second point is answered as the William Hill £1000 prize that Mr. Atkinson won was not announced till months after his sonar story.

The first point is not relevant in my opinion as the original sonar hit story was on the 15th September 2011, way past the peak of the tourist season and only a few weeks before the whole industry slowed down significantly for the Autumn and Winter. Hardly a judicious time to stage such an event and rather more likely to add to the sincerity of the testimony. As for the current story, the newspapers I consulted (The Daily Mail and The Sun) don't even mention these new monster hunting trips.

However, the fact that Cruise Loch Ness sees an opportunity here needs to be looked at from both sides. The ramp up to the new season began only two weeks ago at Easter time (though things tend to dip again until the school holidays begin) and this rerun of the story is only a week old so any talk of "cashing in" would be premature. Moreover, if the company has upgraded their "monster hunting trip" variant with underwater cameras then that looks to me like a cash investment which means a degree of risk is being taken on. That's how capitalism and free enterprise works. If people (and competitors) don't like it, they could petition the Scottish Government to nationalise the entire fleet of all Loch Ness tour operators (okay, that's a bit tongue in cheek).

For completeness, it looks like there are five cruise companies operating in Loch Ness:

Castle Cruises Loch Ness (http://www.lochnesscruises.com/home.htm)

Cruise Loch Ness (http://www.cruiselochness.com)

Jacobite Cruises (http://www.jacobite.co.uk)
Loch Ness Cruises (http://www.lochness-cruises.com)
Deepscan Cruises (http://www.lochness.com/loch-ness-cruises.htm)

They operate at various points around Loch Ness near Inverness, Abriachan, Drumnadrochit and Fort Augustus. But essentially they are competing against each other since tourists tend to only pick one cruise when they visit the loch. In other words, one cruise company's gain is another's loss.

Such is the world of business at Loch Ness, but going back to the sonar trace itself, what it shows is still the subject of continued controversy. The Dick Raynor link above talks about sonar seeing debris and plankton along the thermocline though he does not explicitly state that this is what Marcus Atkinson saw that day. My own take on that interpretation is what does a sonar hit on the thermocline look like on these cruise boat sonars? Mr. Raynor has been using such devices for a long time and has been collecting various images for years of things that can fool witnesses. Since the thermocline plus debris/plankton/etc is not exactly a rare event, perhaps a picture of his own would help his theory?

It is one thing to theorise, it's another to prove it. I'll admit Nessie cryptozoologists such as myself will not be forthcoming with evidence that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the phenomenon is a particular exotic species but this is also a problem with sceptical interpretations of Loch Ness Monster reports. A theory is proposed but too often no follow through to prove it is undertaken. It is just assumed people will accept it because it is plausible. This is clearly not scientific and leaves things in a suspended state. Understandably, some theories will not be testable due to their nature and people have other priorities and lives to lead. But at the same time the "trust me I am an expert" line is not the way forward.

Proposing makes it plausible, testing makes it probable (or improbable). In general, if it can't be tested, it's not fully scientific.

In contrast, Tony Harmsworth, another seasoned Loch Ness Researcher, is doubtful of the thermocline as a cause if the boat was moored somewhere in Urquhart Bay since the combination of shallow waters and the rush of water from the rivers would disrupt it too much. He goes for a different interpretation such as a layer of fish.

Again, a typical cruise boat image of a shoal of fish for comparison should not be beyond the wit of man. Also, I am not sure fish are known for shoaling in Loch Ness which makes me wonder how diffuse such an image would be in comparison to our strong sonar image here? My other observation is that you will see the presence of crescent-like images around the larger trace in the above sonar image. These shapes are normally indicative of fish, so what is the larger object if those are fish? Admittedly, a clearer image would have helped in this assessment.

However, what the experts are both agreed on are the vagaries of sonar interpretation in Loch Ness and this would seem to be exemplified by their differing views on this image. This has implications for both sides of the Nessie debate.

To wit, if people cannot agree on what they think are common objects, how are they going to fare with uncommon objects? Let me put this another way; if the monster exists, what would its sonar trace look like? I don't know and I bet none of the experts do either. We can guess, but we can never be sure. Though some don't think they need to be sure - they don't believe there can ever be a Loch Ness Monster!

Now getting back to Mr. Atkinson, it's good to get things from the source and so his input is helpful in clarifying matters.

Firstly, he (or his company) did not stir the thing up again. In fact, he says it's "a bit weird that the whole thing has blown up again". He points out that the original story in September 2011 was not given to the papers by him but by monster hunter Steve Feltham. But (in accord with my above bit on business), now that the publicity has come to them, they are not going to turn it away. I don't blame him for that, don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

As regards the sonar trace itself, Marcus says:

"I have always said I don't know what the picture is, and I would like to know."

Something mysterious? Yes. What exactly? That's what everyone has been discussing to no firm conclusion.

Marcus admits he is not an expert but he told me that he has had seven years experience of using the sonar hardware and that means he is no novice either. And with 17,500 miles on the loch clocked up after just three years, he says it is going to be people like him that are more likely to get the unusual sonar hits. In that light, he says he has never seen a trace like it in his time there.

One final point he makes is concerning the thermocline explanation. His colleague went back to the same spot an hour or so later but the contact had gone. I can see his point there. Even if the thermocline varied in intensity, one would still expect to see something there.

But we are not convinced it is the thermocline and so the debate continues.



PREVIOUS BLOGS
More on Nessie Sonar Contact
A Story About Ted Holiday

On This Day

Tim Dinsdale got his famous film of the Loch Ness Monster all those 52 years ago. A lot has happened at Loch Ness due to that one singular event and many lives today would have been completely different if Tim had never made that auspicious trip north. How many would be living near the loch today without that film or would we even have the various Nessie-oriented facilities that are used by so many today?


It also happens by some strange coincidence to be St. George's Day because the patron saint of England also famously pursued and killed his dragon. The story of this brave feat was brought back from the Crusades and some think the story took place in the town of Lydda near modern Tel Aviv. A dragon there had to be offered animal and human sacrifice to allow access to the local water supply. But when the lot fell on the king's daughter, George took up the challenge and after protecting himself with the Sign of the Cross, slew the beast.
Like Tim Dinsdale, this monster hunter's actions also had a significant effect on the local community as they converted to Christianity en masse.
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The area around Loch Ness was also reputed to be the haunt of the last dragon in Scotland, slain by a Fraser of Glenvackie. Apparently, this dragon was not the same beast as the Each Uisge which haunted the nearby loch, so scope for dragon hunting continues to this day!

More on the Recent Sonar Sighting

The Daily Mail reprises Marcus Atkinson's sonar hit from last year (see link). The interesting piece is a claim by a Simon Boxall of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton that the trace shows a bloom of algae and zooplankton on the thermocline (the boundary between cold and warmer water layers).

However, I find that explanation a bit unconvincing due to the peaty nature of the loch. Algae need sunlight to photosynthesize and at a depth of 75 feet the loch has essentially become dark. Dick Raynor, who has dived at the loch says at his website that at about 70 feet all light would be lost from the surface when diving.

So, basically, no algae at 75 feet, certainly not enough "in bloom" to register on sonar. Mr. Boxall should think "Loch Ness" and not "English Channel"!

The Sun is also running the story here. Not sure why this is being rerun - it was all publicised back in  September.

A Story about Ted Holiday

Ted (F.W.) Holiday was one of the best known Nessie Hunters but his views on a paranormal Nessie may have earned him a few odd glances. However, he is to me a figure to be respected and I did hold similar views to him once upon a time.

I found this amusing anecdote about him as related by the late Ronnie Bremner, owner of the Loch Ness Monster Exhibition Centre. I would note I never employed the Nessie hunting technique described. How true is the story? Perhaps someone can enlighten us!

Original story is here.

Some years ago I spent an afternoon with the late Mr. Ronnie Bremner, founder and then curator of the Loch Ness Monster Exhibit and Museum in Drumnadrochit, Scotland. He'd overheard me mentioning to another tourist in the museum's gift shop that I had a copy of a book on Nessie written by the equally late Mr. F.W. Holiday. When I was a kid I had a fascination with the Loch Ness Monster and at one point I systematically had gone through the local bookstore's book catalog and had bought a copy of every book then in print on the subject as I could raise the cash.

That book never sold well and by the time I was old enough to finance my own trip to Scotland, it was out of print and considered quite rare. Mr. Bremner took from the fact that I should have a copy of what he called, "the Holiday book" that I must have had a serious interest in the mysteries of Loch Ness so he graced me with the nickel tour of his private collection.

One of the stories he told me was about this Mr. Holiday, who just recently had died. Mr. Bremner said Mr. Holiday was a touch eccentric and completely obsessed with finding Nessie. He apparently believed that the creature had a sort telepathy and could sense when anyone was watching for it. So when he went Nessie-watching, he'd set up his camera and tripod with the lens trained on the loch, then he'd sit down next to it with his back to the water. At irregular intervals, he would snap his head around, hoping to catch a glimpse of Nessie in a moment of inattention.

And if he took the notion to drive around the loch for a while, searching as he drove, he would stand and shout toward the loch, [Scottish Brogue] "Right, I'm giving up the searching now. I'm getting into my car and driving straight away from the loch, so if Nessie should come out now, I'd be far away and have no chance atall to see her." [/Scottish brogue] Then he'd get into his car and spend the rest of the afternoon driving the roads that circle the loch, with one eye on the road and the other trained on the water.

So maybe Mr. F.W. Holiday was just ahead of his time. Maybe he should have been a chupacabra hunter instead.

Loch Ness Trip Report April 2012

I loaded up the car and headed north to Loch Ness on the 6th April with my son in tow as well as various pieces of equipment (which were described in a previous post). The five day weather forecast was pretty variable and so the feeling was that each day had to be taken individually depending on conditions. Nevertheless, the drive up from Edinburgh was pleasant enough and took three and a half hours to Fort Augustus at the southern extremity of the loch.

We turned into the Cumberlands Camp Site and pitched the tent by late afternoon under thankfully a dry sky. We then tucked into a healthy portion of monster hunting food (mince and rice) before going into Fort Augustus to check out the town. It was a strange feeling passing by the old Fort Augustus Abbey which is now residential flats. I remember going into the Abbey in the 1980s when it was still a monastery and looking down the cold, dark corridors that spoke of frugal and devoted lives. The monks were long gone and I wondered if there were new witnesses to the Loch Ness Monster in those rooms or whether their fast, consumer lives precluded such activities?

The town was its usual tourist self as Easter visitors from Britain and the wider world arrived in their cars and coaches. That is one aspect of Loch Ness that won't be changing anytime soon. A visit to a local shop betrayed the new Nessie-speak as two sceptical books by Adrian Shine and Tony Harmsworth lay side by side on the shelf competing with one another for the tourist pound. One other book took a more mysterious approach to the loch and I wondered which of the three was more likely to be bought by tourists to aid their journey.

At this point, we then headed off to the loch via a quieter route past the camping site and on to the bridge overlooking the River Tarff. The word "Tarff" is Gaelic for "Bull" and I have mused in the past whether there is a reference there to the old water-bull legends that once held the locals in awe of the place. However, the modern soon overtook the ancient as a powerful odor assailed our nostrils as we walked along the river to Loch Ness. But it was not the sulfurous stench of aquatic demons, but the unappealing whiff of the local sewage works.

Holding our noses we pressed onto Borlum Bay and walked along its shingle beaches. The loch was now before us and opened up into a grand vista that stretched northwards to the distant horizon. The hunt was now on but what were the chances of anything presenting itself to view over the next few days? Statistically, some have suggested an average of 300+ hours of quality surveillance but in reality people have sighted the beast on their first visit while others continue to wait after decades of watching. By the very nature of the mystery I knew the odds were stacked against us, but if you don't go and look, the probability of seeing anything is exactly zero.

Presently, we came upon a fire fuelled by various pieces of driftwood and engaged some anglers in conversation. They were there to hopefully catch some trout but also get ahead of the various fishing clubs that would soon descend upon the loch. Apparently, the catch is not so good once these clubs have had their way with the loch. I asked one man whether he had seen anything bigger in the loch (i.e. the Monster), but he said he didn't believe there was anything in the loch. At this point he told me that he had watched a documentary on TV which stated that only 24 tonnes of fish were in it - not enough for Loch Ness Monsters. I was tempted to correct him on a few matters related to fish stocks and predators but decided to just leave on amicable terms. As we walked along the beach and past some very Nessie-like pieces of driftwood the sky began to darken and the only long necked creatures on display were the slow moving white swans standing out against the dark waters.

We soon arrived at the spot on the beach where in 1934 Margaret Munro claimed to have seen the Loch Ness Monster lying on the beach from her employers' house. I took some footage and pictures and will use those for a future posting but again there was that sense of standing on Loch Ness History. Had a long necked creature of thirty feet or more really lounged 78 years before on the very spot I now stood on? If it had happened yesterday, I would be looking for anything that looked like a DNA sample. Back then, her employers could only visit the beach and note the unusually large depression in the shingle.

Trudging back to camp, I settled down to read a book perfectly suited to the Monster Hunt, "The Great Orm of Loch Ness" by Ted Holiday. In my opinion, no book better captures the romanticism and mystique of the Loch and its legendary inhabitant. As I considered my own current trip in a cold tent on a dark evening, I empathised with Holiday as he took us through his own expeditions of the early 1960s with their cold nights on the beach and the lonely vigils during the long Scottish Summer evenings. His first visit in 1962 ended with a hump sighting at Foyers, I wondered if I would have such a stroke of luck or be forced again to admit the loch does not give up its secrets so easily.

With day dawning on Saturday, the first task was to install the trap camera at a suitably quiet spot. This time I was more minded to place it near river mouths where the creature is reputed to chase its food but nothing suitable was forthcoming in the short time available, so I left it strapped to a tree at a previous spot to be picked up again in two days. Having armed the camera to snap anything that moved within 50 feet of it, I stopped off at the shop run by the Hargreaves who had a sighting of the creature last Summer. One of the witnesses gave some details and she also drew what she saw (which I shall post in due time). Apparently, since the sighting got such large publicity, they regularly get lots of enquires about it, more than they can handle!

In the afternoon, we headed to the village of Bunloit near Drumnadrochit to ascend Meall Fuar-mhonaidh, the highest point around Loch Ness at about 2100 feet. It was a battle between us and snow, bog and rocks but we got to the summit two hours later and were rewarded with a superb view of Loch Ness from Fort Augustus in the south up to the north end and beyond to the Moray Firth. Legend has it that a small loch near the summit is unfathomable (perhaps Loch Nam Breac Dearga) and that once a stick thrown into it appeared some days later in the River Ness. Such were the local tales of underground caverns and channels, but this was not some ultimate water funnel ride we were about to test so we pressed on back downhill while the weather was still dry and on our side. Modern technology intruded again as I managed to make a mobile phone call back home from this most barren of landscapes!

When we got back nearer to sea level, food was more on our minds than monsters and after such ardour I was not particularly minded to cook and so we drifted over to the restaurant run by the Drumnadrochit Hotel. This is just beside the Loch Ness Centre which runs an exhibition designed by Adrian Shine and emphasises the complete story of the loch rather than just its famous resident. I often wonder what tourists expect to see when they go in - a 100% Nessie presentation or something more balanced? I found out just before this that almost 300,000 visitors went through its doors in one recent year. I reckoned that was a turnover of nearly £1.5 million, who said cryptozoology didn't make money? But then again, how much has that exhibition got to do with cryptozoology? But thanks to the vagaries of free enterprise and competition, there is the Nessieland Castle Monster Centre just down the road which proclaims that "We believe in the Monster!". So you can check up on food chains and plankton at one exhibition and then check out the plesiosaurs in the other. Personally, I think I prefer something in between - but they were both closed anyway.

After battling Meall Fuar-mhonaidh, I woke up on Sunday feeling the worse for wear but we got moving eventually and headed for a gentler walk by Alltsigh Burn (just north of Invermoriston). This river has some odd stories attached to it (as I outline in my book) and so I was keen to take a closer look as its torrents plunged down in spate towards the loch. There have been some good sightings of the monster at this river mouth and perhaps it is worthy of closer attention in the future. The Youth Hostel beside it also brought back memories as the place I stayed at during my cycling visits of the 1980s.

Moving south, it was famous Nessie places again as I stopped first opposite the Horseshoe Scree where Torquil MacLeod had his well known sighting of the monster in 1960. As I trained my binoculars on that feature one mile away (pictured below), I tried to put myself in the place of Torquil and what he described that day. As I sized up the scale of the trees and the various boats that passed near its shore, I realised how inadequate the various goats and boats explanations were that attempted to discredit this event, but that is for another day and another posting.

After some more watching of the loch and its whipped surface, we headed back for pasta carbonara via the small burn where Jean MacDonald and Patricia Harvey claimed to have seen a large creature hastening past them on a brilliant moonlit night in 1934. With the food finished, we headed out on the evening road back to Drumnadrochit to attend the evening worship at the local presbyterian church. Afterwards, the minister confessed he had not seen any monster in sixteen years to which I half-seriously suggested that sixteen years was not long enough. We then discussed other incredible subjects such as the Edinburgh Trams project finishing on time and under budget, but even I have my limits of credulity and suggested that to err was human, but to forgive was divine.

It was again darkening nicely over Loch Ness, so it was time to deploy the night vision equipment. We pulled in at the same layby that was opposite the Horseshoe Scree and brought out the tripod, IR binoculars, cables and recording devices. The rain was gently falling so I used the opened tailgate of my car as a shelter for the equipment and trained it on the loch. I connected the laptop to the video out port of the binoculars and used the video capture software to set the correct focus. I could have done this looking through the eyepiece but there is a greater latitude for error here as the brightness of the eyepiece can dazzle the eyes which are now accustomed to the night light levels. By using the laptop, one is assured that the device is recording the correct scene.

As I surveyed the darkening loch, I recalled Ted Holiday's words about how the loch was a place best left alone at night and wondered what use he and other famous monster hunters would have made of the technology that is now available to modern Nessie hunters. In olden times, this was the hour of the Water Kelpie, but I pressed on regardless of any supposed demons out there. The loch was dark and it was now difficult to make out features on its surface with the naked eye but the night scope was relaying a good picture to the laptop and anything which broke surface would have registered nicely. I put the IR illuminating laser on but I did not notice a discernable difference on the display which I put down to the large distances involved.

At the start of the watch, I tried out the mini-DVR with its motion detection capability and left it to run for a bit. A walk in front of the binoculars and the record LED lit up on the DVR and I knew it was active. A clip is shown below which I felt was a better quality to the experiment I tried at Dores last October, but the light levels may have been different. I also think the recorded feed to the laptop was of a better yet quality.



However, I had a slight problem. If a black hump or head and neck broke the surface, would the mini-DVR go into record mode? It was correctly remaining inactive in response to the numerous waves rippling across the loch but there was a bit of a chicken and egg issue here since I required Nessie to surface in order to calibrate the device in order to record her in the first place! I could not even rely on a similar sized boat passing by since there is no boat traffic at night time on Loch Ness. I was beginning to think the mini-DVR was more a device to be combined with a daytime camcorder or settle for continuous record at night time. With some more recording on the devices done, we headed back to camp along the now lonely stretches of dark roads.

Monday came and it was time to pack up the tent. I don't know how fitfully the intrepid monster hunters of old slept in the wild, but I don't think I will ever get used to this less than superior form of sleeping. We then headed up along the south side of the loch to retrieve the trap camera and take it home. It was still there after two days but I had the feeling that a more secure way of setting up these cameras was necessary as, given enough time, it would surely be spotted and stolen. On the way back, I stopped off at the spot where Lachlan Stuart took his famous photograph of three triangular humps in 1951. This is another Nessie picture that has been dissed by the critics from day one but I shall put something out on the blog in due course.

By now rare sunshine had given way to rain as we approached Fort Augustus for one final time. The car tank was topped up and we headed back south to the big city. Unlike Ted Holiday and 1962, we did not spot the "Orm" as he called it. The images from the trap camera and night vision may yet show something but the assumption is they will not and the hunt will resume again for myself and others as a hopefully hot summer unfolds before us in the months ahead.

Defunct Nessie Websites

Hopefully this is a "Links" page with a difference. Ever had that frustrating feeling when you click on an interesting Nessie link only to find the page or entire website is gone? Having talked about past researchers and their works, I soon realised there was a number of old Nessie related websites out there which are below the radar and yet should be part of the historic record on the search for the Loch Ness Monster. These websites are now defunct and typing in their URLs merely results in HTTP "not found" errors or the parking pages of those annoying cybersquatters.

But just as visits to libraries to dig up old newspaper clippings and the like is an established method, the Internet is now old enough to have its own digital version. In that light, the Internet Archive WayBackMachine is valuable in digging up these old resources for us to research today. Their archive now stands at 2 petabytes (2 million gigabytes) with information on websites going back to 1996. Their work will prove to be an increasingly valuable resource to all researchers as time goes by and the lifetime of relevant websites continues to be linked to a person's health or commitment.

So below find links to the websites of Loch Ness researchers which for whatever reason are no longer maintained. Needless to say, you may not agree with everything they say, but they are part of the Loch Ness Story. Note also that current live websites are also part of the Internet archive and so you can type in URLs to see how these sites have changed over the years (i.e. websites may persist but not necessarily every page subsume under that URL). The one limitation is that higher memory usages items such as images will not be included, but I noticed that more recent webpage archives did include such items.

If you know of other inactive Nessie websites or pages, send me a comment/email and I will update this page.

Richard Carter's website from 2003: link.

Richard Carter was an active Nessie hunter back in the 1990s and contributed various Internet articles which are still live. His own website lapsed nearly 10 years ago and his own whereabouts and Nessie status continues to be a bit of a mystery.

The website of the Loch Ness Monster Research Society (LNMRS) run by Paul Harrison from 2001: link.

Paul Harrison continues to be active in Nessie research as his recent books demonstrate. However, his own LNMRS in the sense of a website is offline.

Jan Sundberg's website from 2007: link.

A thorn in the side to not a few Loch Ness researchers, Jan Sundberg ran his GUST expeditions to Loch Ness and various other cryptid lakes in years past but it seems he is on a prolonged sabbatical for some reason. His GUST website says he will be back but for now we link to his old website.

Jon Erik Beckjord's Nessie page from 2008: link.

A paranormal cryptozoologist who claimed to have filmed Nessie in 1983. He died in 2008 from prostate cancer and his website followed soon after. My main question here is who now owns his film?

Dan Taylor's mini-submarine "Nessa Expedition" from 2006: link.

A well known figure with his mini-sub plumbing the depths of Loch Ness in 1969. He was working on a return trip but died in 2005.

The Academy of Applied Science pages on their Loch Ness hunts from 2007: link.

Robert Rines and his AAS expeditions are well documented and the AAS website ran some stuff on this which no longer seems available. An alternative version of this site can be viewed at this link under the old monsterhunters.org.

Lieve Petin's Nessie pages from 2009: link

Lieve lived with Frank Searle during the 1970s as his assistant monster hunter. She admitted though in a 2005 documentary that the relationship went a bit further than watching the loch.  Alternate link here.

The Statistics of Nessie

Dr. Charles Paxton is giving a talk on the Loch Ness Monster entitled "A Statistical Look at Nessie" as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival. A bit short notice this as it is tonight at 8pm, but if you are in the area, check it out.

Details can be found at this link.

Charles gave a similar talk last year at the Edinburgh Fortean Society but that was related to his main interest of Sea Serpents. I am a bit of a graphs and stats man so have always been interested in what patterns may (or may not) emerge from such studies.

POSTSCRIPT: Just back from the talk and have to say that it was very good. Charles takes the line that even though he doesn't think there is an exotic beast in Loch Ness, that does not mean the anecdotal "data" is not amenable to the scientific discipline of statistical analysis.

Charles has probably the biggest database of sea serpent sightings (for which he does think the door is open for exotic species in the wide and deep oceans) and has applied various studies to them. For this talk he outlined his preliminary observations for a study of the Nessie database.

His work is not complete and to this point he has subjected only about 250 sightings to analysis. But what he found turned out to be counter-intuitive and contrary to the studies by such people as Richard Wiseman and their work on eyewitness testimony and reliability. What that actually means he was not sure and the study has yet to be completed with less than half the database being processed.

Once he completes the study, it will go out as a scientific paper which I wait for with interest.

Forthcoming Book on Frank Searle?

I am just back from a rather damp visit to Loch Ness, but I will post more on that later. When I got back I powered up my daughter's Kindle and it downloaded the new e-version of Paul Harrison's "The Encyclopaedia of the Loch Ness Monster". Well done, Paul, on another good job. I posted a review on amazon.co.uk which I reproduce here.

I already have the hardback version but when I heard Paul had revised and updated his book for Kindle, I borrowed my daughter's kindle and purchased it. It was not a disappointment and as I flicked thru the pages, I was again finding stuff new to me despite being someone who researches and blogs on the monster myself. Some indeed was quite revelatory and I wonder if Paul has a website or newsletter as I have failed to find any mention of him at all on the Internet?

There were a couple of errors in the text but this is to be expected of such a vast subject. Firstly, Rip Hepple still publishes his newsletter and I am sure the land sighting of Nessie at a place called "Sandy Point" actually occured at Loch Shiel. Also, some sightings are not recorded in the book which are visible on the Internet. I think particularly of Ala MacGruer's head and neck sighting last year.

All in all, a worthy book.

I would also like to flag up what Paul said in this book about his next work. It is to be a book on the notorious monster hunter, Frank Searle. I had checked Paul's entry in the encyclopedia about Frank and was astounded to learn that he had tracked down Frank to his home in Fleetwood in 2003 and had a long conversation with him about his life at Loch Ness. I say "astounded" because Andrew Tullis had tried to find him for his TV documentary ("The Man who Captured Nessie") but was too late as Frank had died some weeks before. Now it seems we will get a chance to hear what Frank Searle's last words to the Loch Ness Monster "community" were. I put the word "community" in quotes because as far as Frank and the other Loch Ness researchers were concerned, it was anything but a community and more like a battlezone.

Some of what Frank said to Paul is already known from his unpublished book, but Paul goes deeper in that he claims that somebody from over the other side of the loch sent some people round to Frank's caravan and threatened to kill him if he did not leave. It seems they also beat him up by way of proof of intent and after Frank had left, they tipped the caravan into the loch to make sure he never came back. Make of that what you will but I am sure Paul's book will make for fascinating reading. As a result of this conversation, Paul's attitude to Searle mellowed, I wonder if any of our attitudes will change? My own opinion on this has already been posted, there is more to this story than meets the eye and if the old adage "History is written by the Victors" is anything to go by, there will be more to come.

As an aside, Paul Harrison seems to be one of those Internet-invisible Loch Ness researchers. He says in the e-book that his Loch Ness Monster Research Society is still active but I know of no regular publications or web presence. If he is reading this, send me an email to lochnesskelpie@gmail.com and tell us about your current work and new book.

In fact, there is a group of 1990s researchers such as Richard Carter, Alastair Boyd, Paul Harrison and others who do not post to the Internet in any open way that I can see. It would be great if they could engage with other Loch Ness researchers in a more visible way and share their undoubted wisdom and knowledge. Books are one thing but these people are in a sense living books with a limited time span stamped upon them. The generation of monster hunters such as Holiday and Dinsdale were gone by the 1980s. The generation of leading skeptics who followed them will be gone in the next 10 to 20 years. Who will that leave for the next crop of enquiring minds? In that light, the Carters, Boyds and Harrisons of this world who were believers in a large creature in Loch Ness need to make their presence more visible in this Internet age.

First Nessie Sighting of 2012?

Has Nessie come out of hibernation at last? From Gary Campbell:

A local man travelling south on the A82 road at 5.15pm on Wednesday 4th April reported seeing a circular whirlpool like disturbance on the otherwise flat calm loch. The disturbance was near the middle of the loch just south of Urquhart Castle. He said it was similar to the disturbance that is caused at sea by bait fish being forced to the surface by larger predators. There was no boat traffic in the area at all.

Just in time for Monster Hunting Season! I await further information on this particular event.

This reminds me of another strange vortex like sighting back in 1979 - link.

UPDATE: Dick Raynor offers an interesting explanation in that the whirlpool may have been one of those fast moving boats that run from Fort Augustus to the castle where they do a U-turn to head back south. These boats are particularly noisy and throw up quite a bit of water due to their fast movement. I was watching them myself this weekend at Loch Ness.

I would say that this would produce a semi circle rather than a full circle followed by an obvious and clear boat wake to indicate its origin. It seems somebody needs to photograph one of these U-turns and ask the witness if it bears any resemblance to what they saw. Over to Gary Campbell?

Nessie Hunting Season Approaches!

Monster hunting season approaches and it is time to load up and head to the Highlands. So, is it time to douse the inflatable plesiosaur in fish oil, erect the 30 foot steel cage and practise some extremely convincing Nessie mating calls? And if Nessie tarries in surfacing, perhaps I should pack away some bottles of single malt whisky to speed up her appearance?

Not quite, not quite. In fact, when I head north to Loch Ness in the weeks ahead, none of the above will be in the packing (though the whisky is tempting and the cage won't fit in the car).

To be truthful, the equipment of the modern day Nessie hunter has a bit more technical savvy and complexity to it. I still pack the camcorder, binoculars and camera but as I pointed out in my previous hunting update, the armoury now includes, amongst other things, infra-red trap cameras. These devices are much beloved of Bigfoot hunters and that aforementioned update tells how I got on back in July.

In fact, I didn't tell all of what I did last year. I strapped the game camera round the old tree again in October and left it for about a month before I came back for it. Thankfully, no thieves had found and nicked it and so I plugged the SD memory card into my PC at home to see what advance I had on the 18 pictures over 10 days in July. The answer was 674 pictures over 25 days!

Why the great leap in images? The answer was the difference between July and October. The weather was rougher and every time a half decent wave broke on the rocks near the camera, the motion detect firmware kicked in to take a picture (example below). So, it was basically taking a picture on average every hour and this was not quite what I had planned for it. It was meant to trigger when something a bit bigger passed by. Anyway, I plodded through all these photos basically showing the same thing - a rough loch. Nothing I could see that was Nessie-like. I don't think this type of time lapse photography has much use at Loch Ness - when the creature surfaces, it is usually for a brief time and at inconclusive distances. The point of a trap camera is to trigger when something with motion and/or heat draws near. Clearly, July is better than October for camera conditions. However, for the next trip, the camera will be placed in what I think will be a better position and I will update you accordingly.




I also have a second and better camera trap from Reconyx (pictured below). It is the HC500 model and offers 1080p Hi-Def resolution images and more importantly rapid repeat image taking. They retail for about $450 but will cost more in the UK due to the mark up imposed by importers. The slower Wildgame Innovations camera can only do one image per minute whereas the HC500 can do up to two images per second onto a 32Gb SD card. Clearly, if an uncertain object comes into view, a lot more of its nature can be ascertained from a sequence of rapid multiple images rather than just one snapshot. The only problem for me is that it cost a lot more than the Wildgame and so I am less inclined to leave it at Loch Ness at the mercy of anyone who finds it! But I will use it during my short stay and leave the Wildgame model longer term.

The other aspect of last year's hunt was night vision binoculars. I own a Yukon Ranger Pro 5x42 Digital Night Vision Binocular (below) and they retail brand new for £600 or so (I got mine second hand). The "5" refers to the magnification and the "42" to the size of the objective lens in mm. This item is not like an ordinary pair of binoculars as it uses CCD technology to capture and boost the image to the eyepiece. Now night vision scopes are nothing new and indeed have been used at Loch Ness before. However, they are becoming cheaper and come with more features.

The range of viewing is up to 600m with a pixel resolution of 510x492 but the image quality very much depends on ambient conditions. The one feature that mainly motivated me to buy this was the composite video output port. In other words, what you see through the eyepiece is also sent to this port and a simple cable allows this to be attached to a recording device. That device can be a laptop with a composite to USB converter or a mini-DVR (which is more portable in the field).



Now the reason for the night vision scope is due to my belief that the Loch Ness Monster is mainly a nocturnal creature. This stands to reason as the beast lives practically all its life in dark, cold conditions. Therefore, excursions to the surface (and land) are IMO more likely at night time. This idea has indeed led to some night time experiments in the past. I think particularly of the searchlight experiments of the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau in the 1960s.

However, my main aspiration lies in the ultimate target - a photograph of the Loch Ness Monster on land. That kind of picture would be more decisive than something taken in the water - if the right equipment and conditions are fulfilled. It is my own belief that the creature comes onto the shore (and beyond) more frequently that we think. I say this because of the creature's sensitivity to light and sound. It is nocturnal and it also retreats at overt levels of noise. When it comes to terrestrial sightings, that means it prefers night time and quiet roads. That may still make land visitations very infrequent and so I am planning a strategy that maximises the chances of getting that "ultimate" shot.

It may takes years to get that picture, but then again I might get lucky. On the other hand, surface water and underwater surveillance have proved useless due to the murkiness of the water, the huge size of the loch and the fact that the creature unsurprisingly does not show enough of itself for proper study and identification. These techniques have had a go for almost 80 years, time for some lateral thinking and a new approach.

But going back to the night vision binoculars, I did a trial run back in October at a quiet spot near Dores Bay at about 7pm when it was pretty dark. I must admit it was a bit creepy walking about a dark beach alone in the belief that the loch holds one or more 40 foot carnivores that have been known to go on land. Obviously I survived to tell the tale!

I set up the binoculars on a tripod and fed the video output to a laptop which was running some video capture software. I then camouflaged it, pointed it at the loch and went away for a few hours. A short clip of the video capture is show below.

The first point is that it is dark and that leads to a loss of clarity if something did pass by. There was however a main source of infrared/light across the loch at the Clansman Hotel whose presence made me somewhat ambivalent. The advantage was that any object passing in front of the lights would have a more discernible outline. The disadvantage was my concern that dark objects would appear darker with these lights behind them. However, if something had come on shore in front of my setup, I am sure (based on me standing in front of the binoculars) it would have some reasonable clarity.

But light levels are a problem compared to daylight. In mitigation of this, Yukon add what they call an IR laser illuminator to the binoculars. This is essentially a high powered infra-red laser that helps light up the field of view in the infra-red spectrum. The advantage is obvious as IR light reflected back to the binoculars makes for a clearer scene. It does have two drawbacks. The first is that the illuminator consumes more power and eats into the batteries (battery lifetime reduces from 10 to 3 hours). The second is that its range is limited which is not much use further out on the loch.

In that respect, I invested in a separate and more powerful 45mW IR scope (below) which can fit neatly onto the top of the binoculars and gives a claimed 12 battery lifetime. The stated range is 450 meters with a light spot size of 10-70 minutes of arc. If one looks through the binocular eyepiece, the laser beam appears as a diffuse spot illuminating a certain area (as does the inbuilt illuminator). But we must remember all devices will give a diminishing return proportional to the inverse square of an object's distance. So like daylight sightings, one is still dependent on the creature putting in a relatively close appearance for better results.




The second issue was battery life as connections to the National Grid were not exactly in abundance on the shoreline. I had the binoculars, its IR illuminator and the recording device all on rechargeable batteries and the binoculars proved to be the weakest link as they ran out first. The binoculars lasted a maximum of three to four hours while the laptop could last up to eight hours. So it looks like the illuminator indeed limits binocular life. One help is to attach the aforementioned laser scope and turn off the binocular's internal one to save battery time. Secondly, use the longest life batteries available (I would note the trap cameras have no problem with battery life as the Wildgame Innovations was still active after 25 days and 674 snaps).

As it happens, I am still working through the three hours or so of binocular video, it is pretty boring and hard on the eyes. The video capture file for this length of recording comes in at about 8Gb because it was a continuous recording.

What I hope to use for the first time on this trip is my Secumate mini-DVR. Laptops are fine but a bit cumbersome and fragile for this kind of work. The mini-DVR is compact, rugged and can fit into your pocket. Our Bigfoot hunters love these things as you can plug it into the video out port, put it in your pocket and start roaming around the forest on foot. That is a night time scenario I might have a go at but the whole point of the exercise just now is to set something up and let it run automatically while you sleep.

The unit can auto-detect PAL or NTSC video formats and can record on schedule, manual or motion detect. The latter mode is the important one for me as it soaks up less SD memory and battery time. The motion detect record mode has three settings. The first is the area to monitor for motion. This is achieved in configuration mode by blocking out the parts of the area not to be analysed. This is a useful feature for possibly a fixed station video where false signals such as moving branches and breaking waves are known. But for one off placements, I will just set it to maximum coverage but make sure moving objects are kept to a minimum.

The second setting is motion detect sensitivity. In other words, does the mini-DVR trigger when a midge flies past or something a bit bigger (as it is seen in the field of view)? A bit tricky this one, so for now I will just use the default setting.

Finally, there is the setting for how long to record on a motion trigger. I set this to the maximum of 30 seconds which may seem not a lot but if the object continues to move then the DVR will just keep adding 30 seconds to the overall recording.

I plugged the mini-DVR into the video component output of my standard analogue camcorder and all looks well but the final experiment will involve the night scope on a tripod.

So the game is afoot once more as I plan for the first of hopefully several trips this year. Wish me luck as I go in pursuit of the Loch Ness Monster!

Other Lake Monsters

This is a general post linking to past postings which dealt with lake and sea monsters beyond Loch Ness. As time progresses more relevant articles will be cross referenced here.

This mainly deals with modern sightings of alleged strange creatures. For folklore and older stories click through to the Water Horses and Kelpies article.

Lagarflot, Iceland - here

Loch Oich, Scotland - here

Loch Morar, Scotland - here  and here and here.

Loch Awe, Scotland - here

Loch Duich, Scotland - here

Loch Ulladale, Scotland - here

Derwentwater, England - here

Lake Windermere, England - here

Cadborosaurus, British Columbia - here

Sea Serpent Carcasses in Spain and France - here

Long Necked Seals - here

Lake Labynkyr, Russia - here

Mokele-mbembe - here

The Beast of the Beauly Firth - here

Lake Okanagan - here 

The Creature of Findhorn Bay - here

Sandra Mansi's Painting of Champ - here

The Loch Leven Monster - here

Whales in Scottish lochs - here

The Corrie Creature - here

Loch Ness One Hundred Years Ago

I saw this century old postcard on eBay and wondered if Loch Ness was really such a quiet place before the Nessie craze started twenty years later. Mind you, if anyone saw a strange, triangular hump back then, this photo would no doubt provide a ready explanation. As an aside, there are three references to strange things being seen in (and out of) Loch Ness in 1912.

The ebay listing said: "Published by W. Fraser, Photographer, Lochend, Inverness. Postally used 1912". First to reach Fort Augustus wins the prize?

The Rip Hepple Nessletter Archive

In the 1970s, long before the Internet, there were mainly four ways of finding information on a subject. Three of these were books, magazines and newspapers. The fourth was newsletters. The problem was simple enough, once a book was published it was immediately out of date. New information would be published at irregular intervals in magazines and newspapers but the problem was finding out when and where such items were put on the newsstand. Some got round this by subscribing to newspaper clipping services but others subscribed to newsletters.

The newsletter was a popular publication back then and still is now being a tried and tested concept. An individual qualified in a certain subject would collate and analyse information for a group of like minded individuals. The newsletter would be sent by post usually monthly or quarterly to keep the subscriber base up to date on what was happening in the chosen field.

So it was no surprise that in the 1970s the popular subject of the Loch Ness Monster also had its share of newsletters. Well, I actually only know of two such newsletters. The first was by Frank Searle and if anyone can send me paper/scanned copies that would be appreciated. The second and best however was written and published by Rip Hepple.

Rip had been visiting the loch since the early 1960s and was a member of the Loch Ness Phenomenon Investigation Bureau throughout that time. When that group disbanded, he had established a network of contacts which stood him in good stead to start a newsletter in 1974 which he appropriately called the "Nessletter".

Encouraged by such people as Tim Dinsdale (who also proofread draft copies), the first issue came out on February 1974 under the umbrella of his "Ness Information Service". As of today, it has now reached issue number 158 and continues to be published at irregular intervals.

The advantages were obvious. Subscribers would be kept up to date on sightings, personalities, expeditions, Nessie theories and other lake cryptids. Rip's network of colleagues and subscribers would also inform him of items that could be disseminated to the whole group.

There was also the social networking element as subscribers advertised their forthcoming trips to Loch Ness and later reported back their experiences. Finally, anything relevant to the Loch in a broader sense would also make its way to print.

With that rich seam of information in mind, I phoned Rip and suggested the idea of a digital archive for his past newsletters. To my great pleasure, he was agreeable to the idea and has kindly given his consent for a number of issues to be digitised and made available to other Loch Ness Monster enthusiasts.

The process of digitisation is simple enough (albeit time consuming). The paper copy is scanned to a JPEG file, it is then uploaded to Google Documents in a structured way and then the Internet link to each issue is created and published here below.

The work is ongoing as I think only half of what Rip has consented to be digitised was in my hands. Also, an index needs to be added to guide readers to specific topics. Nevertheless, what is currently available adds up to over 200 pages in 53 issues (I think the content easily exceeds that of my own blog).

In some ways, the Nessletter is THE most important document available on Loch Ness and its Monster for its chronicles a phenomenon, its abode, followers and critics in a continuous manner for nearly 40 years now. Quite simply, a unique publication such as this should not be allowed to disappear from view. If you want a full perspective on the phenomenon that is the Loch Ness Monster, then Nessletter is a requirement.

The current archive extends from 1975 to 1985 with the aim of stopping at 1994. To subscribe to the latest issues, send a letter to Rip at the following address.

Subscription rates are: £3 (UK) or $10 (USA)

R.R.Hepple
7 Huntshieldford
St John's Chapel
Weardale
Co Durham
DL13 1RQ
United Kingdom

Note that the newsletters remain under Rip's copyright. Enjoy the archive, let me know of any issues and I will post updates as and when they are added. Also note that since Google moved to Google Drive that you are likely to be greeted by a thumbnail of the JPEG and not a readable image. In that case, right click on the image and select "View Image" which should give you what you want.

No.1 January 1974 (Added 5th May 2012) - link

No.2 March 1974 (Added 5th May 2012) - link

No.3 May 1974 (Added 5th May 2012) - link

No.4 July 1974 (Added 5th May 2012) - link

No.5 October 1974 (Added 5th May 2012) - link

No.6 December 1974 (Added 5th May 2012) - link

No.7 February 1975 (Added 5th May 2012) - link

No.8 April 1975 - link

No.9 June 1975 - link

No.10 August 1975 - link

No.11 October 1975 - link

No.12 December 1975 (Added 5th May 2012) - link 

No.14 February 1976 (Added 5th May 2012) - link 

No.15 April 1976 - link

No.16 June 1976 (Added 5th May 2012) - link

No.17 August 1976 (Added 5th May 2012) - link
 

No.18 October 1976 - link

No.19 December 1976 - link

No.20 February 1977 (Added 5th May 2012) - link

No.21 April 1977 (Added 5th May 2012) - link

No.22 June 1977 - link

No.23 August 1977 - link

No.24 November 1977 (Added 5th May 2012) - link 

No.25 December 1977 - link

No.26 February 1978 - link

No.27 April 1978 - link

No.28 June 1978 - link

No.29 August 1978 - link

No.30 October 1978 - link

No.31 December 1978 - link

No.32 February 1979 - link

No.33 April 1979 - link

No.34 June 1979 - link

No.35 August 1979 - link

No.36 October 1979 - link

No.37 December 1979 - link

No.38 February 1980 - link

No.39 April 1980 - link

No.40 June 1980 - link

No.41 August 1980 - link

No.42 October 1980 - link

No.43 December 1980 - link

No.44 February 1981 - link

No.45 April 1981 - link

No.46 June 1981 - link

No.47 August 1981 - link

No.48 October 1981 - link

No.49 December 1981 - link

No.50 February 1982 - link

No.51 April 1982 - link

No.52 June 1982 - link

No.53 August 1982 - link

No.54 October 1982 - link

No.55 December 1982 - link

No.56 February 1983 - link

No.57 April 1983 - link

No.58 June 1983 - link

No.59 August 1983 - link

No.60 October 1983 - link

No.61 December 1983 - link

No.62 February 1984 - link

No.63 April 1984 - link

No.64 June 1984 - link

No.65 August 1984 - link

No.66 October 1984 (Added 5th May 2012) - link 

No.67 December 1984 - link

No.68 February 1985 - link

No.70 June 1985 - link

No.71 August 1985 - link

No.72 October 1985 - link

No.73 December 1985 - link

No.74 February 1986 - link

No.75 April 1986 - link

No.76 June 1986 - link

No.77 August 1986 - link

No.78 October 1986 - link

No.79 December 1986 - link

No.80 February 1987 - link

No.81 April 1987 - link

No.82 July 1987 - link

No.83 August 1987 - link

No.84 October 1987 - link

No.85  December 1987 - link

No.86 February 1988 - link

No.87 April 1988 - link

No.88 June 1988 - link

No.89 August 1988 - link

No.90 October 1988 - link

No.91 December 1988 - link

No.92 February 1989 - link

No.93 April 1989 - link

No.94 June 1989 - link

No.95 August 1989 - link

No.96 February 1990 - link

No.97 April 1990 - link

No.98 July 1990 - link

No.99 August 1990 - link

No.100 November 1990 - link

No.101 March 1991 - link

No.102 June 1991 - link

No.103 August 1991 -  link

No.104 October 1991 - link

No.105 December 1991 - link

No.106 January 1992 - link

No.107 March 1992 - link

No.108 May 1992 - link

No.109 July 1992 - link

No.110 September 1992 - link

No.111 January 1993 - link

No.112 March 1993 - link

No.113 June 1993 - link

No.114 August 1993 - link

No.115 November 1993 - link

No.116 January 1994 - link

No.117 April 1994 - link

No.118 - TBD

No.119 October 1994 - link

No.120 January 1995 - link

Some Stories from Readers

It's time to let the readers of this blog speak of stories they have heard or experienced for themselves in the realm of lake mysteries. Comments will be posted on this blog as something an article says may strike a chord. However, these may not be noticed by even regular readers of this blog, but since I am notified of every comment requiring moderation, I can pick some choice items for occasional postings such as this. So here we go.

SIGHTING AT LOCH NESS

Commenting on an article on the Gordon Powell sighting from 1936, one reader had this to say.

I visited Dores recently to see some friends. They told me they had seen something but didn't feel easy talking about it in fear of being mocked. There are loads of people all the same who have seen it and kept quiet for fear of been labelled an idiot or whatever, I trust my friends and I know they don't lie and wouldn't make up a story like that, there is something wonderful there, and I'm not on about the pub in Dores.

The report was seeing a very large tail like thing only 20 to 30 feet off shore swishing from side to side but no fish like tail. The length of what they saw of the creature must have been about 10 to 12 feet (a very long Sturgeon?) the whole sequence only lasted about 15-20 seconds and froze everyone who saw it fixed looking at this amazing thing.

Our reader then speaks of a strange follow up. Make of it what you will.

But the really weird thing was the the follow up to this. Almost as soon as the strange thing disappeared into the dark unknown depths of the Loch everyone heard a very deep humming sound getting closer and closer and only to see a swarm of bees flying by, really odd and so loud they could have been on motorbikes.

Finally, the reader finishes with his own speculation on whatever may inhabit the loch.

It has been know that the energy given off from the Loch itself and those creatures who reside there are exceptional as they absorb the energy through the 750ft deep fault line. Go and visit Dores. I don't work for any tourist board or have a guest house but I do have friends there and its all true.

SONAR AND OTHER WATERS

Two people have something to say about sonar and strange readings. The first is about Loch Shiel which has its own monster reputation. One reader made this comment on a recent Loch Morar article:

Seen a few strange things on a sonar on Loch Shiel, between Glen Aladale and Eilean Mhic Dhomhnuill Dhuibh. Sonar was little more than a depth sensor, and had a very poor display, so difficult to say with any certainty what it was, could of course be false echos. Bottom was about 95 meters, which ties in with OS data and at about half depth there was a constant large echo for a good 10 minutes, boat was moving at a fast walking pace.

Another person who communicated with me by email talks of strange goings on as boats ply their way up and down the Great Glen waterway:

A friend of mine ran a barge on the canal and lochs for years (and I worked on it too several times) and he spoke with passing fishing boats several of whose skippers admitted to getting really odd sonar pings from big animate objects deep down. These guys do this for a living and know the difference between a cold spot and a shoal of fish and a large single object. They don't say much because they can't be bothered.

Sonar is doubtless a bit of a blunt instrument. It may point to the presence of large objects, but it is not of sufficient accuracy to identify them (though the technology is continuously improving).

LOCH NESS AGAIN

From the article on the Fort Augustus Abbey School, a former schoolboy had this to say:

I lived and went to school in 1943 to 1945 at the Abbey Hoose of Vaughn. I saw Nessie about 1000 yards from the General Wade's road side (Corrie Cave's side). NESSIE had 2 humps and it was not a boat. It's a plesiosaur type of herbivore animal and we students had the idea at the time that since it hung around Corries Cave there would be under water connections for "IT" to reside in.

The belief in caverns and underwater passageways seems to have been a common belief with local inhabitants. He finishes off on a personal note and with what I presume is a motto related to the Abbey.

Well, some time ago I was supposed to show up for a party before the Abbey was up for sale, sorry, never made it but any hoo PAX Dominus Vobiscum Et tu Spiritus Sanctus Amen.

Another piece I hope to put up in the future is a lady's story of how her great-great-great-great-grandmother had a disturbing experience at Loch Ness (at the time of George III by my reckoning). More to follow as I await further feedback.

So, readers, if you have something worthy to say, just comment or send me an email.