Loch Ness Monster

By Colin

The people who live around Loch Ness call Nessie a kelpie.  Nessie was first seen over 1500 years ago.  Saints and common people have seen her.  There have been some people who have just pretended to see her.  Still enough people have seen her that enough exposed hoaxes do not hurt the thought of Nessie being real. 

Most of the Nessie sightings say that it is something with two humps, a tail, a snake-like neck. As it swam a v-shaped wash sometimes occurred.  Sometimes such details as a gaping red mouth and horns on its head were seen.    

There are many theories to Nessie’s identity such as a primitive whale called a zeuglodon, a type of long-necked aquatic seal, giant eels, walruses, floating mats of plants, giant mollusks, otters, mirages, and diving birds,  but scientists are fond of the plesiosaur theory.  Most scientists think they have been dead for 60-70 million years but some believe that it is possible that after the last ice age the loch may have been connected to the sea and these creatures may have been stranded.

Rumor says that Nessie ate one human sometime around the year 700 A.D.  Perhaps he tasted terrible.  Perhaps Nessie gained respect for humans.  Maybe the local people praying had an affect on Nessie,  whatever the reason is,  Nessie has never eaten another human since.

 Nessie has plenty to eat in Loch Ness.  Estimates of the fish population are as high as 27 tons.  They include: salmon, sea trout, brown trout, pike, eel, char, lamprey, minnow, stickleback, sturgeon, wells, and flounder.  That’s mainly in the top five feet of the loch.  Loch Ness is over 700 feet deep but the water is murky.  If Nessie is able to find food in the dark, she must be able to hunt with more than just eyesight alone.  Maybe she uses sonar.  Maybe she is a vegetarian.  Plenty of leaves fall into the loch.  Zooplankton is plentiful.

Nessie made a big splash in 1934 when another picture of her was taken, this time by Colonel Robert Wilson, a London doctor.  Wilson’s photo is rather clear and appeared to show a head and neck of a plesiosaur like creature sticking out of the water.  This picture is often used to illustrate articles of the Loch Ness Monster, and is probably the most often-published image of the Loch Ness Monster.  This photograph was not long ago exposed as a hoax using a small model.

Two saints are credited with bringing Christianity to Scotland.  Saint Ninian, who came about one thousand six hundred years ago, and Saint Columba who first came about one thousand five hundred years ago.  Saint Columba came when the first sightings of Nessie were recorded.  This was also the time Merlin came to Scotland.  Saint Columba restored a man after he was killed by Nessie.  A third Christian saint, saint Fillan, is also associated with Loch Ness.  One story says that the monster was threatening his congregation.  Saint Fillan held up his cross and told the monster to return to the deep.  Nessie obeyed.

The earliest known description of Nessie dates back from as early as A.D. 565.  Reported sightings increased during the nineteen-thirties, when a new highway made the loch more accessible to travelers.

In 1972 and 75 researchers from the Academy of Applied Science in Boston took underwater pictures of what they claimed was Nessie.  However, many scientists question the value of these photographs.

The world does not know what Nessie is or if it is real.  Maybe we never will.