LOCH NESS MONSTER QUOTES II

quotations about the Loch Ness Monster

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As someone with scientific education (physics) I will not believe in anything I don't know for sure. But I was on Loch Ness for four days in 1996 during the first days of September with four relatives, we saw something we could not quite explain: We had rented a motor cruiser to travel on the Caledonian Canal for two weeks. We spent one night at the Foyers pier. The weather had been fine in the evening, and the loch was very quiet in the morning, practically no waves at all, clear weather. Around 8:45am, I noticed something like the trunk of a large tree, floating motionless just under the surface, about 100 meters in the direction of Urquhart Castle. My four fellow boaters saw it, too, after I asked them what it was. It did not move for at least 15 minutes (well, one of us thought it had moved slightly). We speculated what it could be, we watched it with binoculars (which revealed that it was not a single blob of darkness, but had limblike substructures, as if it really was a dead tree), but nobody took a single photo! I still can't believe it... Finally we took off to visit Urquhart Castle. I took a course that would take us close to the point the mysterious object was floating. Due to the position of the steering wheel, I could not see it during the beginning of the approach and relied on the others to take a close look. But when we got there, nothing was visible. Not only that, but nobody had actually seen it disappear. One moment it had been there, a moment later it was gone without a trace. It was obviously no tree. Was it one of the almost stationary zones of rippled water that can occur on lakes due to wind and current? It was so isolated - one dark spot in a wide totally quiet surrounding - and stayed unchanged for 15 minutes or more, and it was darker than the normal shadow - to me that explanation seems practically impossible. The same reasons exclude a cloud shadow. For a mirage it was not far enough, and one thing I am absolutely sure of: It was under the surface. The only thing I can think of as possible explanation is a thin floating layer of dark particles, slowly collected overnight by the currents of the Foyers bay and of the open loch, clearly visible only because of the flat viewing angle. But then, why didn't it disappear gradually when we approached the spot?

FRANK MEYER

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Every mushy mess found on the beach faces the same sad trajectory. There is the precipitous and glorious rise to the top, and then, soon after, what I can only imagine is the most humiliating thing that can happen to a dead sea creature: being discovered and described as just a whale, just an octopus.

KATIE HEANEY

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If there is a breeding colony of plesiosaurs in Loch Ness, some will die. Usually when a large animal dies, its carcass sinks to the bottom of the lake or sea. Bacteria in the guts of the animal generate gas, and after a while it floats back to the surface. After a while, the gasses escape and the carcass sinks to the bottom again, usually rather disintegrated. If there were plesiosaurs in Loch Ness, the floating carcasses would occasionally be seen, and would sometimes be washed up on the shore. On the other hand, it is claimed that the waters of the loch are so cold that this fermentation is delayed until the carcass has disintegrated. If this is the case, the loch is probably too cold for a colony of plesiosaurs. Carcasses decaying on the shore would leave bones behind, and if plesiosaurs have been living in Loch Ness for a long time, there should be plenty of bones to be found.

KATIE BOYD & BECKAH BOYD

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Should you ever come within range of the "monster" I hope you will not be deterred by humanitarian considerations from shooting him on the spot and sending the carcass to us in cold storage, carriage forward. Short of this, a flipper, a jaw or a tooth would be very welcome.

UNNAMED OFFICIAL FROM ENGLAND'S NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

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Known as the Surgeon's Photo, it's the most famous image of Nessie around. The grainy black and white image was taken as the Loch Ness monster craze began to take hold in 1934. It was taken by respected surgeon Colonel Robert Wilson, and stood for decades as the strongest "proof" of the monster's existence -- although most dismissed it as some other, already-known form of marine life such as an otter. It was not until 60 years later that the truth about the image was revealed, in a deathbed confession by one of the hoax's conspirators. Christian Spurling, then aged 90, admitted in 1994 that he had created the fake monster using a toy submarine at the request of his stepfather, Marmaduke Wetherell. Wetherell, a renowned big game hunter, had been humiliated when his discovery of the monster's footprints in December 1933 turned out to be hippopotamus prints made using a dried foot. The pair had enlisted Colonel Wilson the following year as a legitimate face for the scam.

STAFF WRITERS

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Skeptics would suggest there is likely no monster in the lake at all. But this news about the lack of sightings poses a big problem for those who believe in the creature's existence. The fact that no Nessie report has been registered in 18 months means that, even if it existed, it is likely no longer there.... But fear not, monster lovers and Inverness Tourism Board: If history is any indication, eventually there will be more sightings of Nessie, whether they exist or not. There are enough things in the lake that can be mistaken for a monster, including large fish, strange waves, and even the occasional hoax, to keep the sightings going and the tourist dollars coming.

BENJAMIN RADFORD

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We were standing looking out and saw something that looked bizarre. I said to my husband to come and have a look. We stand here all the time and look out and see boats and kayaks but it didn't look like anything we have seen here before.... It went under the water and disappeared for probably 30 to 40 seconds and then came back up again. It was around for a good four to five minutes. It was just so strange.

JAN HARGREAVES

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If Nessie is in fact nothing more than a legend, how can all the monster sightings be explained? Obviously, some have been hoaxes. Most, however, are probably honest cases of mistaken identity. Expectant attention and pareidolia have undoubtedly transformed sightings of birds, otters, logs, and waves into sightings of Nessie. Mirages have transformed more than one merganser into a monster.

RICK EMMER

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The most common speculation among believers is that the creature represents a line of long-surviving plesiosaurs. The scientific community regards the Loch Ness Monster as a modern-day myth, and explains sightings as including misidentifications of more mundane objects, outright hoaxes, and wishful thinking. Despite this, it remains one of the most famous examples of cryptozoology. The legendary monster has been affectionately referred to by the nickname Nessie since the 1940s.

ANONYMOUS

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In order for the Loch Ness Monster to move to London, it would have to swim northeast to the top of Loch Ness, 12 miles through the relatively small River Ness, through the Beauly and Moray Firths, into the North Sea, down the length of Great Britain, and many miles along the Thames. The trip--almost 600 miles by land, and considerably longer by sea--would move the Loch Ness Monster between freshwater and saltwater bodies, a dangerous environmental change that would also likely see the Loch Ness Monster run aground in some shallow inlets. The Loch Ness Monster would also have to be real.

KELLY WEILL

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Even if paddling pachyderms are no longer the likeliest explanation, other theories are plausible. Loch Ness is actually a sea lake, fed from the Moray Firth in the North Sea via the River Ness. Furthermore, the Moray Firth is one of the areas of British seawater most frequented by porpoises, dolphins, and whales. Indeed, seals and dolphins have been filmed in the loch many times. If the mind wants to see a monster, three partly submerged dolphins swimming in a row could easily provide the illusion of a thirty-foot, three-humped creature in the gathering gloom -- especially after a few drams of the local malt.

ALBERT JACK

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Contrary to popular belief, the Loch Ness Monster is not a dinosaur -- it's a huge mutant duck, a top researcher claims.... Most mainstream Nessie researchers consider Gluber's duck theory to be horse feathers and are trying to blast it out of the water.

MIKE FOSTER

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I had recently learned about the Loch Ness monster. So I asked my father a simple question. "Dad, is the Loch Ness monster real?" "I don't know." The words hung in the air, ringing in my ears. He didn't know. Suddenly, I was reeling, drowning in a Scottish lake of uncertainty. If my dad didn't know if the Loch Ness monster was real, how did he know that God was real? Were cartoons real? Oh God, Mickey Mouse's House of Mouse wasn't a real place! I would never see the Quack Street Boys live in concert. Who was I, if not a cryptid, floating in the loch of a nonexistent life. I was a speck, a nothing, my life was as much a hoax as all the alleged photos of Nessie. I started crying hysterically. Then a thought came into my mind. A moment of clarity, if you will. If I could find the Loch Ness monster, I could prove that God existed and cartoons were, in fact, real. So I set off on a mission to Scotland. The fact that I did not know where or what Scotland was didn't deter me.

JAKELOVESNESSIE

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The museum urges strongly that the RSM have the reversionary rights to the "Monster" if and when its corpse should become available.... We think the Monster should not be allowed to find its last resting place in England. Such a fate would surely outrage Scottish nationalism which at the moment is thriving greatly under the Monster's beneficent influence.

THE ROYAL SCOTTISH MUSEUM

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The BBC has used sonar and satellite imagery to scan every inch of the loch and found "no trace of any large animal living there." But, as has always been the case with myths, legends, and fables, while it is possible to prive the positive by producing irrefutable evidence, it is never possible to prove the opposite argument. We could dam Loch Ness and drain it. We would then be able to take everybody still perpetuating the myth down into this vast new dry valley and show them every nook, cave, and rock cluster, but still the hard-core believers would reply: "Ah, but Nessie may well be out in the North Sea at the moment just limbering up for another appearance."

ALBERT JACK

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If Nessie does exist, exactly who is she? A sole survivor from prehistoric times? A gigantic sea snake? It has even been suggested she's a cosmic wanderer through time. Chances are you won't see her on your visit, but you can see a fantasy replica of the sea beast at the official Loch Ness Monster Exhibition at Drumnadrochit.

DANFORTH PRINCE

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The Scottish government has long been interested in protecting Nessie. This just reinforces this whole notion (that) the officials in Scotland take this creature very seriously.

LOREN COLEMAN

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Two animal types are good candidates for the alleged monster: one, cetaceans (porpoises and whales) and two, plesiosaurs, a thought-to-be-extinct group of marine reptiles. The cetaceans can attain "monstrous" size and are known to have developed complex sonar systems. We must rule them out, unfortunately, since ... the noises in Loch Ness are unique. The plesiosaurs, on the other hand, are a fruitful avenue of investigation. First, they show no paleontological evidence of ever having developed sonar signals. Therefore, should they have done so it would be unique. They also have the additional advantage of being more naturally monstrous looking than the friendly cetaceans. The plesiosaurids were largely reptiles and, though not related to dinosaurs, were of comparable size and must have been the dragons of Jurassic-Cretaceous seas.

DONALD E. SIMANEK & JOHN C. HOLDEN

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The photograph taken by Hugh Gray has remained a mystery partly because it is a very poor picture, partly because the original negative was lost and was therefore not available for close re-examination. In 1963 I came into possession of two lantern slides, contact positives from this original negative. Gray estimated the animal in his photograph to be 40 feet long. When projected onto a screen the slides show an otter rolling at the surface in characteristic fashion.

MAURICE BURTON

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In 1933, two vacationing Londoners gave an intriguing account to a newspaper, describing a large, unidentifiable creature that slithered in front of their car before plunging into the loch. Later that year, a local man, Hugh Gray, took the first purported photograph of the monster--and Nessie fever was born.

FODOR

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