Dozens of volunteers, equipped with the latest technology, set off in search of Nessie this weekend. The alleged sea monster in Loch Ness should finally be tracked down. The tourism industry is happy.
Donald MacKinnon saw the monster. In 1979, while fishing, Nessie showed herself to the Loch Ness resident for a few minutes. “About four feet long with a hump on the neck. It was definitely some kind of monster,” MacKinnon said. “It reminded me of a dinosaur.”
For centuries there have been reports of sightings of an alleged sea monster in Loch Ness. Nessie tourism then emerged a good 90 years ago after the local newspaper “Inverness Courier” reported on a hotel manager’s encounter with a “water monster”.
Search operation in 1987 for a million pounds
Grainy photographs with indefinable shadows, snake necks and humps appear again and again in the inky black water. But it could just be three seals swimming one behind the other. And every now and then Nessie is researched with great effort. In 1987, for example, a million pounds was invested and searched for using the latest sonar technology. But the news headline at the end was sobering. The researchers still don’t know what’s down there in the lake.
Local residents keep reporting sightings of Nessie – mostly the evidence is sparse.
This weekend, experts and around 100 registered volunteers want to try again. Drones with infrared cameras fly over the lake and produce thermal images. Below the surface, a hydrophone, a type of underwater microphone, will record acoustic signals. Alistair Matheson from the Loch Ness Centre, which is coordinating the search, has also seen large objects in the water on several occasions. They then disappeared, says Matheson.
Nessie big economic factor for the region
Of course, the unshakable belief of the locals in the monster also impresses tourists who have come to the search operation. “If so many people have already seen the monster, then it must be real,” says one onlooker. And especially among the youngest Nessie hunters, there are experts who advise moving the search into the night: “The thing only comes out at night. It doesn’t like the sun.”
It has been observed over the years that it is mostly tourism workers who see Nessie popping up anywhere on a regular basis. The sea monster is said to be worth £40m a year to the Scottish economy.
The myth will probably live on
Louise Scott, a reporter for ITV News who, along with dozens of other journalists from around the world, is following the Nessie hunt at the scene is fairly certain that the myth can live on even after the current search operation.
The loch has more water than all the English and Welsh lochs combined, and 230 meters deep gives the monster plenty of room to hide.