Is the Loch Ness Monster a Hoax?

I’ve always been scared of lakes because, in 1997, I watched a movie called Magic in the Water that was loosely based on the legend of the Loch Ness monster. For years, I believed the mythical creature in this movie, Orky, was real. I would even leave him cookies at my grandma’s pond. Regrettably, the thought of an elephant-sized lake monster had me in tears before I even put one toe in the water. On the plus-side, it recently sparked a curiosity of the Loch Ness monster. Is the monster real? Is it fake? Unfortunately, I haven’t decided, but this curiosity led me to a boat-load of research. What has been done to find the monster, what the monster really might be, and the latest sighting are only some facts uncovered when delving into Nessie’s world.

Since 1901, there have been 11 expeditions to find the Loch Ness monster (loch-ness.org). Some were to uncover a hoax, and others were to search for Nessie; however, only one was set forward to sweep the entire loch where Nessie supposedly lives. Operation Deepscan took place in 1987, and it was “a sonar exploration of Loch Ness, an operation which would sweep the unfathomable depths of the loch from shore to shore and end to end with a curtain through which nothing could escape” (nessie.co.uk). They did have some success for monster-lovers; three sonar contacts were made, and they were said to be much larger than a shark, but definitely not larger than a whale. Sorry to crush your hopes and dreams, but many researchers said that these three contacts could have also been just big fish living in the loch (nessie.co.uk). Just recently, in 2001, Operation Cleansweep took place. This consisted of taking a large net to loch to see if they could catch Nessie. Fortunately, they did catch something: two very large eels. But you haven’t heard of anybody catching the Loch Ness monster, so you must know that these eels were planted. They were obviously salt-water creatures, planted by a human hand that was playing a joke. Otherwise, the Operation turned up zilch (http://www.lochnessproject.org).

Those eels do have significance, however. It is a common theory that the Loch Ness monster is, in fact, a super-sized eel. Many people believe that Nessie is not one actual eel, but a plethora of occasional giant eels that happen to be sighted in the loch from time to time. As implausible as it sounds, there have been sightings of giant eels elsewhere, so why not the loch? Nessie has also been considered to be a plesiosaur or a “prehistoric aquatic reptile” (loch-ness.org). These animals are said to be extinct, but you never know in the depths of the loch. Of the mass amount of life out there Nessie is also considered to be any type of invertebrate, amphibian, mammal, or fish. (Not to be vague or anything.) Although nobody can actually prove what Nessie is, you just can’t ignore those sightings that have been popping up for hundreds of years.

The first reported sighting was in 1933 when a woman named Mrs. Mackay saw a whale-like creature in the loch. A reporter got a hold of this information, and a legend was born (loch-ness.org). Since then, there have been plenty of sightings, varying from one-hump to a whole body. Some people say they saw Nessie on land, others in water. There have been times where people have been reported to almost hitting Nessie with their cars as she walked across the street. People have truly taken that moment in 1933 and turned it into an obsession. The truly mysterious part about Nessie is that nobody will ever know which sightings are real, and which are invalid. Even today, people are seeing things that look like the monster in places that aren’t even near the loch. Recently there was a couple reported by yahoo.com that had “taken their watercraft out on the foggy waters of Lake Windermere, only to encounter what appeared to be ‘an enormous snake’ swimming by.” The unnerving thing is that we may never know if Nessie actually exists.

Nessie is a metaphor for everything that is mysterious in the world. She represents obsession, fear, and mystery. We may never know if she exists or not. The evidence goes both ways, and sightings are getting discredited every year. But there’s always somebody who will step up and take the initiative to decide for themselves: does Nessie exist?

What do you think? Leave a comment!


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