Nessie are you out there? French man claims to have seen the Loch Ness monster

Sightings of the mythical Loch Ness monster are becoming less frequent. Perhaps the massive presence of tourists scared away the iconic creature or... perhaps it never existed. But there is recent news about Nessie.

On June 16, 2023 (conveniently close to the peak holiday season) The Telegraph ran a headline claiming that a French tourist observed a "huge dark shape" in the waters of the lake. Something about 65 feet long that moved under the water.

The tourist who saw that strange shape in the water is called Etienne Camel and he is a pharmacist and, according to the Mirror, he said: "It was quite strange. I am a man of science so I never believed that the Loch Ness monster is a prehistoric animal. But when I was taking a picture I saw this long, long shadow."

The strange large shadow was witnessed by the French pharmacist and his wife. Both were amazed and the myth was resurrected for another summer.

Nessie has been a part of Scottish folklore for centuries. According to Wikipedia, a reference appears in the text 'Vita Columbae' (a saint saves someone from being devoured by a lake monster) in the 7th century, although it is in 1868 when an article in the Inverness Courier speaks of "a huge fish or other creature" in Loch Ness.

Over the years, numerous photographs were made public in which something that resembled a monster with prehistoric characteristics could be distinguished in a diffuse way.

Some of the snapshots that supposedly immortalize Nessi (like this photograph) may simply be shadows or logs floating on the surface of the lake.

Yet there is something beautiful and poetic about the legend of Loch Ness. And a real deal for the tabloid press that, in the 1930s, turned this story into a mass phenomenon. Photos like this were published in the London media and soon traveled the world.

In fact, it was in the 1930s when Bertram Mills, a circus owner, offered 100,000 dollars of the time (20,000 pounds in exchange) to whoever captured Nessie. The reward motivated the visit of adventurers, explorers and travelers of all kinds.

Beyond imagination and legend, there are those who have sought scientific (or pseudoscientific) explanations for the alleged sightings of a monster in Loch Ness. The most widespread is the one that speaks of the survival in this lake of an antediluvian creature.

Image: Steve Douglas/Unsplash

The prehistoric animal closest to the descriptions of the Loch Ness monster would be the plesiosaur, a type of aquatic dinosaur. But science believes it almost impossible for this species to survive in isolation in the waters of Loch Ness.

Image: From Dmitry Bogdanov - [email protected], CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3432089

It could also be that people had seen an elephant bathing in the waters of the lake in the 1930s. It would have been an elephant from a circus that was in the area, according to MSNBC, based on the thesis of paleontologist Neil Clarck, curator of the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow.

It has also been speculated that Nessie was a sturgeon, a giant fish with a monstrous appearance. It exists in nearby rivers but, in principle, this species would not inhabit the lake.

Image: From User:Cacophony - Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1027971

There has also been talk of a type of cold-water shark sighted off the Scottish coast: the so-called Greenland shark. But how would it have gotten to Loch Ness?

Image: From NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program - http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1304/dailyupdates/media/aug16.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php ?curid=28162084

However, a study by the New Zealand University of Otago (reported by The Guardian) pointed in another direction. A researcher collected biological samples from the lake and found no trace of prehistoric monsters, sharks, sturgeons... But they did find eels and, according to Professor Neil Gemmell, who led the study, the divers saw eels of enormous size (larger than normal) that would explain their confusion with a mythological creature.

The rational explanation doesn't matter. Nessie is a staple of popular culture and a tourist attraction for the Highlands of Scotland. And humans like mysteries so it is better to keep the enigma alive. And the sightings.