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Wed 30 Jul, 2003 09:06 am
Nessie Does Not Exist, British Broadcasting Corp. Says After Scanning Loch With Sonar
By Sue Leeman Associated Press Writer
Published: Jul 30, 2003
LONDON (AP) - The Loch Ness monster is a Loch Ness myth.
That's the conclusion of the British Broadcasting Corp., which says a research team that trawled the lake came up with no signs of the famous Nessie.
The team used 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation technology to sweep the entire loch, but found no trace of a monster or any other large creature, the BBC reported this week.
Over the centuries, reported sightings of a big beast in the gray waters of the lake have led many people to believe it holds some huge creature although a series of searches has found no evidence of one.
Some enthusiasts have even speculated Nessie might be a descendant of a plesiosaur, a marine reptile that died out with the dinosaurs.
The BBC researchers said they looked at the habits of modern marine reptiles, such as crocodiles and leatherback turtles, to try to work out how a plesiosaur might behave.
"We went from shoreline to shoreline, top to bottom on this one. We have covered everything in this loch and we saw no signs of any large living animal in the loch," said Ian Florence, one of the specialists who carried out the survey for the BBC.
The BBC team said the only explanation for the persistence of the monster myth - and its periodic "sightings" - is that people see what they want to see.
To test this, the researchers hid a fence post beneath the surface of the loch and raised it in view of bus full of tourists.
Interviewed afterward, most said they had observed a square object, but when asked to sketch what they saw, several drew monster-shaped heads, the BBC said in a program broadcast Sunday.
There have been reports of sightings of a "monster" in the loch since the time of St. Columba in the 6th century.
Many who have reported sightings have described a beast similar to a plesiosaur, but experts say the most recent fossil of one dates from 65 million years ago. Loch Ness is only 10,000 years old.
Ahh, they who believe will just cry 'cave'. Prolly won't help much.
C'mon - you don't live to be several million years in freezing loch without learning to imitate a hillock on the bottom!
She was just playing possum....
"The name Kelpie is the term for mythical creatures one of which lives in each loch of Scotland. The best know kelpie is the Loch Ness Monster."
I've driven around Loch Ness and never seen anything out of the ordinary. It is a very long, very deep, otherwise unremarkable freshwater lake which nearly splits Northern Scotland into an island.
I don't "believe" in the monster but I'm interested in the historical aspects. Inverness, which is at the outlet of Loch Ness on the eastern side, was the site of the original Pictish capital. The Picts made several representations in stone of this mythical critter. It's interesting that though the rest of their stone art representations are of real things -- stags, salmon, horses, bulls, dogs, eagles, people, etc. (in fact, that is what sets it apart from standard Celtic stone art)... their class I stones - pre-St.Columba and Christian images, included the kelpie in several different forms. Here are a couple of them:
Kelpie with Mirror
Sea Monster Eating A Man
I lived 30 miles from Loch Ness for a few years and we would pass it from time to time - I always watched it like a hawk in the hope .... nothing
But Dlowan has a point - IF there is something then it has only been seen rarely (and if you subtract the non-genuine sightingS, wrong or right, even rarer) so is obviously very wary and shy and would hide.
There was talk of there being underground caves that joined the sea so she may have been out at sea visiting relatives :wink:
Sonar is notoriously fickle in waters with abrupt thermoclines.
Nessie steaks are quite good with ginger beurre blanc, but you do have to go through some shady suppliers.
BBC: Nessie doesn't exist.
Nessie: I do, too!
BBC: No, you don't, it says so right here!
Nessie: Chomp!
Heehee.
[short digression: Hi Hobitbob -- Cool name and avatar. Do you really like Mr. Bean? I think he's hilarious... in small doses. ]
LOL! Next thing you know they'll be telling us that big foot doesn't exist.
Well, this news has bee on BBC-online a couple of days ago.
Quote:
The BBC team says the only explanation for the persistence of the myth of the monster is that people see what they want to see.
To prove this, the researchers hid a fence post beneath the surface of the loch and raised it in front of a coach party of tourists.
Interviewed afterwards, most said they had observed a square object but several drew monster-shaped heads when asked to sketch what they had seen.
Any time I've been at Loch Ness, it was either raining or foggy.
But I'm sure, Nessie is as real as Father Christmas (and I saw him frequently!)
Piffka wrote:Heehee.
[short digression: Hi Hobitbob -- Cool name and avatar. Do you really like Mr. Bean? I think he's hilarious... in small doses. ]
Erm, I'm actually more of a fan of the Blackadder series (...and stop calling me bladder!....) and of The Thin blue Line (I've always said...healthy bowels, healthy mind!) . Johnny English was surprisingly enjoyable as well!
BLACKADDER FAN!!! Hail, friend.
I luvv thin blue line, hobbitbob! I've only seen 2 blackadder shows...and they were classic!
Hail another friend!
(It's not the sheep that upsets me so much, Blackadder darling, it's the LIES!" Blackadder's mother.)
(Also Blackadder's mother: "What is he like in bed? He's like a sweet little cuddly furry bunny rabbit!")
I liked the series so much, I bought the book of the screenplays. Monger, where on earth did you get that avatar with the elephant? I am LMAO!
I started to write my Theory of Nessie yesterday, got sidetracked, Walter reminded me.
There was an interesting article in the Sunday NYT Mag called "A Bad Trip Down Memory Lane." A quote:
Quote:Many scientists have offered a simple explanation for the phenomenon: abduction experiences, they maintain, are all about the mind pumping for meaning after a bout of sleep paralysis -- a scary but fairly common experience in which the part of the brain that inhibits motor messages during REM sleep fails to disengage as the sleeper wakes up. The sensation is of being pinned to the bed, often accompanied by hallucinations of some spectral entity at the bedside.
Some three million Americans believe they have had some kind of encounter with space aliens. If everyone who experienced sleep paralysis came to that conclusion, the number would be a hundred or so times as high. What you have in an abductee, Clancy suspects, is someone who is predisposed to believe. ''Here's someone who reads science fiction. They watch 'The X-Files.' Then one night they have a sleep-paralysis experience. It's weird and it's scary, and it becomes one of a multitude of events that create that wonder.''
As the subject tries to remember what happened, ''source'' errors creep in. ''You think you're recovering your own memory, when in fact it's something you pulled out of a movie,'' Clancy said. ''Memory's tendency to be reconstructive, combined with the desire to believe, combined with a culturally available script, leads to a false memory. The content of that memory is dictated by the society you live in.'' The warnings that experiencers report receiving from aliens, the Australian sociologist Robert Bartholomew has pointed out, have changed over time -- from nuclear destruction during the cold war to, more recently, ecological doom. These are simply stories, he says, that give shape to our fears.
I think something similar is happening with Nessie, and all the other, sightings of Nessie-type creatures (China, the Congo, etc.) There is some actual physiological effect/ optical illusion that occurs in large lakes. A documentary I saw on Nessie suggested it had something to do with faulty perspective due to light refracting off of the waves, making a bird with a long neck (duck, cormorant) appear much larger than it really is. Maybe it just has to do with the waves themselves.
At any rate, this "real" trigger is then stretched into an experience of having seen Nessie or a Nessie-ish creature, by those who are suggestible and/ or are afraid of what lurks under the waves.
I don't know the Thin Blue Line but I liked Prince Edmund. Black Adder isn't very well distributed any more. It used to be on all the time -- guess I should have taped it then.
Deb -- Is that where you came up with your avatar? A sweet cuddly bed bunny?
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