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ParaTracker - Fact vs. Phenomenon
Cameras and Sonar Probe for Nessie

If sighting reports are an indication, one of the largest classes of monsters inhabits neither the oceans nor the land. In a recent survey, British authors
Janet and Colin Bord found that aquatic monsters have been reported in no fewer than 265 of the world’s lakes and rivers. Of this total, Scotland claims
24 sites, one of which is probably the world’s single most famous monster habitat.
Loch Ness is a long, narrow (24 miles by 1 mile) lake that lies in the basin of a great geologic fault that cuts through northern Scotland’s Highlands.
Despite the cold, the lake never freezes and is exceptionally deep – 975 feet in at least one place. Its waters are so clotted with peat that underwater
visibility extends only a few feet, but the loch nevertheless sustains an abundance of aquatic life, notably salmon, trout, chars and eels (some of which
grow to great size).
No one knows when a monster may first have been sighted in Loch Ness, but as early as A.D. 565 the Irish missionary Saint Columba is said to have
narrowly saved the life of one of his retainers who was swimming in the lake when the monster suddenly attacked. Since then, according to one
estimate, 10,000 sightings have been reported, and the Loch Ness “beastie” has become a permanent fixture of Scottish folklore, attracting countless
visitors to the mysterious site.

The widespread modern fame of the monster may be said to date from May 1933, when a correspondent for the Inverness Courier wrote a story based
on the then-latest sighting report. The story provoked much local interest and prompted other people to come forward with tales of their own encounters
with the monster. Yet another sighting was reported in July, and by October there had been over 20 more. Suddenly Nessie, as the monster was now
called, was headline news throughout the world.
An inevitable negative reaction set in during the early months of 1934. Eminent scientists and academicians derided the sighting reports, and in at least
one case, circumstantial evidence of Nessie’s existence was found to have been faked. Perhaps worst of all, the press was beginning to lose interest in
the story. Ironically, it was at just this time – April 1934- That Lt. Col. R. K. Wilson, a London physician, took a photograph allegedly showing Nessie’s
head and neck. Although no evidence of tampering could be found, the picture was not taken seriously at the time. Yet it remains one of the best portraits
of Nessie to date.

The dark-colored creature shown in Wilson’s picture is consistent with most, though not all, of the eyewitness reports before and since. Protruding from
what appears to be a large oval body is a swan-like neck surmounted by a small, flat head. In fact, the Nessie of Wilson’s picture looks very much like a
plesiosaur – a family of large marine reptiles thought to have been extinct for more than 70 million years.
In the years that followed the publication of Wilson’s now-famous photograph, sighting reports continued to multiply, but it was not until 1960 that a
second equally impressive picture of the monster was taken. In April (apparently a good month for Nessie waters) of that year, Tim Dinsdale, an English
aeronautical engineer, took 50 feet of 16-mm. movie film showing a large black hum-shaped object moving across the loch at better than seven miles
per hour. Dinsdale’s film was later analyzed by the Royal Air Force’s Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Center, which concluded, “It probably is an
animate object.”
In 1972 the hunt for Nessie moved into a more sophisticated phase. In August a U.S. team of scientists from the Academy of Applied Science, using an
advanced for of underwater stroboscopic camera in conjunction with Raytheon sonar equipment, obtained visual and sonic images of something in the
loch. Upon subsequent enhancement by NASA computers, one image appeared to show a flipper attached to a larger object, perhaps a very large
animal. Encouraged, the academy sent another expedition to Loch Ness in 1975 and obtained further evidence. According to the lab technician who
performed the computer enhancement of the 1975 images, “One picture showed a body with a long neck and two stubby appendages…the second
frame appeared to show a neck and head…the neck was reticulated.” The academy’s conclusion: “There is a species of large aquatic creature in Loch
Ness.”

So great was the excitement about the academy’s findings, that in 1976 the staid New York Times contributed $25,000 in support of a new expedition to
the Highlands loch. Yet in spite of additional sonar evidence and photographs, Nessie eluded further detection. Undeterred, the academy explored the
possibility of training British dolphins to help extend the search.
Sensational as the 1972 and 1975 findings were; a majority of scientists remain unconvinced. Most reports, they say, are just plain unreliable, and even
the best photographs are too ambiguous to constitute proof. Thus the controversy continues, essentially unresolvable until Nessie is actually found. Until
that moment, one might do worse than to keep an open mind about the whole affair. As G.K. Chesterton once pointedly remarked, “Many a man has
been hanged on less evidence than there is for the Loch Ness Monster.”

Article source: Readers Digest: Into the Unknown