Does the Loch Ness Monster really exist?

Here's the Loch Ness webcam. It doesn't look very exciting, does it?

http://www.camvista.com/scotland/highlands/ness01.php3

btw I love the views around Loch Ness. Keep looking at the webcam periodically and maybe the weather will improve and you will see how beautiful it is.

x-post:

C J, he was driving past saw ripples and something going underwater out from the shore near Urquhart Castle. My cousins were only wee at the time, so no-one else in the car can verify it, but he really isn't the kind of guy who could begin to imagine making this up. We have relatives the other end of Loch Ness so he drove down there a lot, and had never seen anything before or since, so I can't think why he would make it up that time. I would ask him the whole story but he's moved to Australia and we're not in touch any more. I'll maybe ask my mum for the details though - I was only about seven or eight at the time.

But that's what bugs me. People should go to the Highlands because it's the most beautiful region of Britain, not because of some stupid eel they're not even going to get to see.

Remind us again where you moved to?

Quite. The two times I've seen Loch Ness I just marvel at the beauty, not the monster crud. (And I read John Prindle to remember that the hills are starkly beautiful and empty because of the murdering Cumberland and the sheep lords and...)

Standard of journalism - they mocked up pulling out the plug and draining Loch Ness as conclusive proof that there are no caves for it to hide in...

Oh no, hang on, that thought amuses me.

The programme was still shit though, particularly where he imagined the drained loch ness filling back up and the presenters escape in a handy helicopter, the worst part was his thumbs-up afterwards and everyone at Casa Coastaltown complained BUT THAT DIDN'T ACTUALLY HAPPEN

I read a grebt theory about a secret underground river between the Jura mountains and Loch Ness, which has nessie as an impish little monster creating tourism in two countries. Marvellously mentalist.

Seriously, isn't Loch ness the Baikal of western europe in terms of being really really, deep?

I would be so disappointed if the Loch Ness Monster turned out to exist and be an eel.

A pedant writes: St. Columba is supposed to have thwacked a monster in the River Ness, not the loch. I would supply more details, but my copy of The Life Of Saint Columba is at home right now and I'm not.

(and it would have been in the 6th Century AD - he died in 597.)

I think they live in the ocean only.

which is all very nice, but is that part above the water actually an alleged sighting?

What makes them so great, I dunno.

and elephant swimmming
http://www.expert-eyes.org/images/swim.jpg

I do have a bit of the problem with the second line of this lyric from the last Judas Priest album. It just makes me laugh, and not in a good way. Other than that, I like the song. Anyway.

that indeed looks like an elephant swimming, but is this pic an actual alleged photo taken from loch ness?

-- StanM (Stan10...), March 8th, 2006.

Nessie's posting...from INSIDE THE HOUSE!

I think it's one of the Frank Searle ones that was later discredited. I got it from a GIS on "Nessie" and picked the one that looked most like an elephant swimming.

Warning: contains this sentence: Laotians prefer to savor Laonastes roasted whole and served on a skewer.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030701434.html

N. so funny upthread, about the tourist centre delaying his return to Scotland for a decade.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/17/world/loch-ness-monster-catfish-irpt/

some longtime obsessive is now saying the monster is likely a species of giant catfish native to spain and eastern europe but "caught all over the world" (allegedly). sounds like a false flag to me

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/aleister_crowley_how_the_great_beast_unleashed_the_loch_ness_monster

If the Loch Ness monster breathed air, it seems like it would need to emerge above water at least every 10 or 12 minutes, around the clock, and thus would be sighted fairly often. If it breathes through gills, then why on earth would it swim around with its head above the water, as it is often pictured?

Good question! You may have just busted this myth. Busted it wide open.

picturesque view?

http://shearings-cdn3.zolvtravel.com/DynamicImages/0095/0095c92fedca03b2fdd81fd9dca48edb_640_480-634873654874116578.jpg

This is pretty mindblowing, tbh:

Loch Ness is the second largest Scottish loch by surface area at 56 km2 (22 sq mi) after Loch Lomond, but due to its great depth, it is the largest by volume in the British Isles... It contains more fresh water than all the lakes in England and Wales combined

When global warming kicks in Drumnadrochit will be like the Yukon.

Was going to say wintering circus. But I see the elephant theory is already being talked about upthread.

the loch ness monster is a total asshole

It's the most stupid of all the pre-internet conspiracy theories imo and it says a lot that kits pretty much not survived in the steel beams era

The Loch Ness monster isn't a "conspiracy theory"

It's a dinosaur ghost get your shit right for fuck's sake