Loch Ness Film Online

An alleged 1936 Loch Ness monster filmed sighting is now available online, as part of a film collection by the National Library of Scotland. Pertinent clip is at 8.42 minutes. (News source.)

Mr. Loch Ness

A general article on a Loch Ness monster eyewitness, here.

Bookies Not Too Smart

Bookies have paid the Natural History Museum in London an annual fee (£22,000 so far in total) since 1987 for the museum to "provide positive identification" if the Loch Ness Monster or Yeti should be discovered. In such a case, the museum would also have the rights to exhibit the animals' remains. (News source.)

Of course, as it is unlikely the bookies themselves will secure the evidence, and I doubt that they are going to pay out any money to the discoverers themselves (if they don't actually place a bet), nor is there any reason for said discoverers to allow the bookmakers or museum to have anything to do with any remains, looks to me like the bookmakers have paid out a great deal of money for nothing. Seriously, if someone actually discovers a yeti or lake monster (with full remains) there are far better ways to make it available to the scientific community while retaining remunerative financial benefits. (One way would be to provide the specimen on permanent loan to an institution while retaining commercial rights to reproduction of skeletal remains...)

Loch Ness Sonar Event

Sonar images caught a large unidentified object in Loch Ness during a cruise by a UK sitcom cast. (News source.)

Nessie (or Not)

Details on an alleged Nessie sighting and photo here.

James Colvin

From a Chicago-area paper:

"Former Arlington Heights resident James E. Colvin, a scholar who helped create the Great Books Foundation, has died.
"Colvin, 96, died on Jan. 4 in Greenville, S.C., where he moved from the Northwest suburbs after retirement." ...
"Colvin served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, after which he worked for Encyclopaedia Britannica in Chicago as director of public relations, taking the train in from the Arlington Heights station. He later moved to World Book Encyclopedia, directing two unsuccessful expeditions to find the Loch Ness Monster. He retired in 1972 and moved to North Carolina and later to South Carolina."

Loch Ness

I don't normally post on the various television pseudo-documentaries on cryptids, but here's one on Loch Ness that might be interesting.

Nessie Video?

Two vacationers to Loch Ness caught what they think might be Nessie on video. (News source.)

Swiss Steal Nessie

A Swiss tourism brochure has added a pic of Nessie to Lake Lucerne. The UK is not amused. (News source.)

Loch Ness

Gordon Holmes is back on Loch Ness with sonar and video equipment. (News source.)

Robert Rines

The Boston Globe has a profile piece on Robert Rines, the Loch Ness investigator.

Beyond Loch Ness

Yep, it's another SciFi Saturday night flick, this one on the Loch Ness Monster. (Emphasis on Monster, of course.) Airs Saturday, January 5, 2008. Website. Only a brief plot note is mentioned, so hard to say if it'll be better than average. (And, apparently, "beyond" means the hunt is now on Lake Superior.)

Big Salmon Near Loch Ness

What might be the largest salmon ever hooked in the UK was caught (and released) on the River Ness. Initial measurements were 50 inches in length, with a 40 inch girth. Images are being analyzed at a fisheries lab. (News source.)

More From Loch Ness

A television personality (the paper says "cult tv presenter," but I don't know how accurate that is) is taking advantage of the recent Nessie publicity. From the news:

"A cult American TV presenter arrived at Loch Ness this week pledging to woo a whole new generation of Nessie hunters.
"For glamorous former model Sonia Uribe is making a documentary on the mystery which will target younger audiences around the world." ...
"And US TV personality Sonia Uribe believes she can also introduce thousands of youngsters to the legend of Nessie in an hour-long programme and ensure the enduring mystery of the loch continues." ...
"'I firmly believe Nessie exists and I don't want the mystery to die out. So this is why my documentary, whilst appealing to every generation, will particularly appeal to the young.'
"To achieve that Sonia is going scuba diving in the loch, camping out over night on its shores, and flying over the loch in a bid to capture further evidence of the existence of the monster of the loch."

Doesn't want the mystery to die out? Same old, same old...

Loch Ness Sightings Scarce

Fewer sightings from Loch Ness are leading to speculation by researchers. From the Times:

"There have been only two reported sightings so far this year and there were only three in 2006. A decade ago the numbers were consistently in the high teens." ...
"In any other circumstances, such an outbreak of level-headedness would be applauded. But along the shores of Scotland’s most famous loch the apparent disappearance of the legendary monster has sparked frenzied speculation. Some Nessie fans claim that she has been driven into hiding by low-flying RAF fighter jets, while others blame increased pollution. Some have even dared to venture the unthinkable: that Nessie, God rest her soul, is dead.
"Steve Feltham, 44, who has spent 16 years watching the loch from a converted mobile library on its southern shore, believes that there were once as many as 30 mysterious creatures in the loch but that they are gradually dying off, because of old age. 'In the heyday of the sightings, back in the Sixties and Seventies, there were probably 20 or 30 of these animals but I believe that we’re now down to the last half a dozen,' he said." ...
"Of the two this year, one was in March when an English holidaymaker saw what he thought was a head and fin in the loch below Urquhart Castle, while the other was in May, when a Yorkshireman captured video footage of what looked like a jet-black shape moving slowly beneath the surface. Although initially viewed as promising, experts now believe it was the result of a sustained draft of wind blowing down from the surrounding hills.
"Adrian Shine, 58, a naturalist who has investigated the mystery of Loch Ness for 20 years, believes that one reason for the decline in sightings is that people are more sceptical about what they see."

Steve Alten and Loch Ness

According to The Inverness Courier of June 19, 2007, popular cryptofiction author Steve Alten believes that his ideas on what the "Loch Ness Monster" is were supported by the recent Holmes footage.

Steve Alten is the author of a number of books, including four (4) with a distinct cryptozoological overtone. These cryptofiction entries are MEG, Loch Ness, MEG: Primal Waters and The Trench. Alten's 2005 novel Loch Ness was published by Tsunami Books.

As part of the publicity for the book the publisher offered a bounty for any fisherman who could produce an eel whose teeth appeared like the tooth found on Loch Ness in 2005. From this bounty a replica skull was commissioned showing what the skull of the "Loch Ness Monster" could look like based on the tooth.

Culture, fiction and the undeniable intrigue of Loch Ness.

See http://www.theloch.com/links.htm for images tied to the "tooth" mentioned above.

1 Million Pounds for Nessie

Bookmaker William Hill (gambling bookmaker that is) has put up a Nessie Reward of 1 Million Pounds to anyone who can provide conclusive proof of Nessie's existence.

As part of the June 9-10th ROCK NESS festival at Loch Ness, attendees will will have the opportunity to obtain cameras and the chance for some Nessie hunting.

The rules are simple:

All evidence must be collected over the weekend of June 9-10, 2007 and submitted to William Hill by Noon of June 18th, 2007.

Loch Ness Video

Yorkshire Post states that a science enthusiast, Gordon Holmes, was testing some hydrophone equipment in Loch Ness when he had opportunity to videotape what may be an animal in the water. From the news:

"He said: 'I was sat in a lay-by about 70ft above the loch – it was 10pm but the sun was still shining on the mountains on the other side.
"'I was minutes from going home and I had only gone up there to relax and enjoy the view when I saw something moving on the surface of the water so I dashed to get the camera.
"'It wasn't a wave because it was going in the opposite direction to the waves that I could see and the top half of it seemed to be black.
"'My camcorder was on a black and white setting and it took me a while to find it again in the water, but I've got two-and-half-minutes of footage which I have shown to experts and they think it is definitely a living creature.'" ...
"Mr Holmes arranged for the footage to be played on a TV at a shop in Inverness and he has also shown it to biologist Adrian Shine and Dick Raynor, of the Loch Ness Exhibition Centre.
"He said: 'I originally thought it looked about 4 ft to 6ft long but I think it may have been larger than that, one onlooker in the shop said he thought he could see a fin.'"

Loch Ness Toad

Here's one of the oddest amphibian encounters ever. MIT scientists have been surveying the bottom of Loch Ness, and ran across this critter. From BBC News:

"US researchers carrying out a sonar survey of Loch Ness have been amazed to find a common toad crawling in the mud 324ft (98m) down.
"The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been attempting to unravel the mysteries of the loch.
"However, MIT said it did not expect to come across the amphibian so far down.
"MIT president Bob Rines will tell the Oceans 07 engineering conference in Aberdeen about the toad and the survey next month." ...
"MIT said it had completed a side-scan sonar map of the entire length of the loch - which is about 750ft (228m) at its deepest point.
"The data has been compared with a geological map of the bottom made by Sir Edward Murray using plumb lines 100 years ago.
"The institute said the scan was part of its continuing efforts to find animal remains preserved at the low temperatures at the loch bottom that might explain unusual sightings on the surface.
"Professor Watson's presentation to the conference will cover details of how the loch has changed over the past century."