If I had a nickel for every story we’ve done here about some blurry photograph of some blob that the photographer was claiming was proof of some as-of-yet undiscovered monster, I’d have…well, maybe a dollar or so. A nickel doesn’t go as far as it used to. But you get the idea. Anyways, here is another story of someone pushing a photograph of a monster, and in this case it’s of the Loch Ness variety. (Thanks to Jessica for using our Submit a Story page to let us know about this story!)
The clearest photo yet of the Loch Ness…something.
A man who has hunted the Loch Ness Monster for nearly three decades believes he has snagged the best photograph of – and some important new information on – the legendary creature.
George Edwards, a devoted Nessie hunter who leads searches for the monster with his Loch Ness Cruise business in Drumnadrochit, Scotland, just publically released a photograph of a gray creature with a mysterious hump schlepping toward Urquhart Castle.
“I’m convinced I was seeing Nessie as I believe in these creatures. Far too many people have being seeing them for far too long,” he told the Inverness Courier.
After watching what he says was the monster for 5 to 10 minutes from his boat, the Nessie Hunter IV, Edwards says the animal descended beneath the loch’s famously deep, dark waters.
“I hung around for a good half an hour and used the deep scanning sonar to try and pick it up, but I’m afraid I had no luck at all,” he told the paper.
The Courier reports the man took the photograph in November of last year but felt that he should wait to go public with the picture.
“I did not want to mention my sighting until I was sure that I had not photographed a log or something inanimate in the water,” he said. “I have friends in the U.S.A. who have friends in the military.”
Those friends analyzed Edwards’ picture, and, according to him, “have no doubt” that he photographed an “animate” object in the water.
“I was really excited as I am sure that some strange creatures are lurking in the depths of Loch Ness,” he told the local paper.
Although he says this doesn’t necessarily prove the monster’s existence, it does give hunters some ammunition against naysayers.
The photograph “does prove what Nessie isn’t — a sturgeon, which is a fish that has been put forward as one of the main explanations as to what Nessie could be but this hasn’t got a serrated spine like the sturgeon,” he said.
I do appreciate Mr. Edwards stating that he does not believe that this photo proves the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. But it really does nothing to help the search, either. At the end of the day, it’s just a dark blob that could be anything. The resolution is not nearly good enough to see if there are spines on its back, like a sturgeon, or if they are absent. There is also no sense of scale here, and this photo looks like it was taken at a fairly high elevation. Lastly, and while this doesn’t prove that it’s a hoax, I’m always supsicious of people who miraculously catch photos of monsters when they themselves run a for-profit monster hunting business. I blogged back in 2011 about some competing Loch Ness Monster hunting business in Scotland, and publicity like this is sure to drum up business.
