Annual Nessie hunt begins

Press, 21 August 1984, Page 12

Annual Nessie hunt begins

By

GRAHAM HEATHCOTE

of the Associated Press through NZPA Edinburgh The annual monster-hunt-ing season is in full swing at Loch Ness, and a glass-fibre tube baited with live fish is the latest trap being laid for the legendary “Nessie.” “I am convinced-there is something down there, but the only way to prove it to the world is to catch it,” said Stephen Whittle, a Civil Service clerk, aged 25, who is spending his summer holiday monster-hunting. Undaunted by mounting scepticism that Nessie exists, Mr Whittle starts his quest soon, his £20,000 (about $53,200) expedition funded by a vodka distiller. Records dating back to the sixth century report hundreds of sightings of large, strange creatures in the 38km, 232 m-deep loch between Inverness and Fort William. Scientific investigation has brought no decisive results. Theories have ranged from otters, giant eels or birds taking flight to tricks of light on the dark loch waters or masses of decomposing vegetation blown to the surface by gas. If a monster exists, scientists have speculated, it could be descended from a dinosaur trapped in the loch since the Ice Age. Pranksters have used rubber models, photographed at night to resemble a huge beast plodding along the

loch shore. Fifty years ago a. London newspaper published “conclusive evidence” — a photograph of two large footprints by the loch. They turned out to have been formed with an umbrella stand fashioned from a hippo’s foot. The most celebrated monster photograph, taken in 1934 by Lieutenant-Colonel Kenneth Wilson, a London physician, showed a longnecked beast poking its head above water. Long taken seriously, the photograph has now been debunked by the researcher, Ronald Binns, who wrote in a book published this year that the picture had been reproduced using a piece of cardboard and a half-empty Perrier bottle. Many of the people living alongside the loch profess to be firm believers in Nessie’s existence. While they are the butt of many a joke, they are not complaining. The monster myth brings 100,009 tourists a year to the remote lake. Mr Whittle and a dedicated band of about 30 helpers are building their 20m by 6m trap at the loch side. A helicopter will lower it into the water on August 28 and suspend it 10m below a floating platform. Live fish will be put inside the tube to tempt the monster and a four-man crew on the platform will monitor the tube through

cameras and electronic sensor?. If anything large and mysterious takes the bait, a trap door will seal the tube. Nessie will then be winched to the surface, filmed, examined and put back into the water. “We don’t want to harm it in any way,” Mr Whittle said. He is being helped by the Loch Ness and Morar Project, a scientific team under an engineer, Adrian Shine, aged 33, which has been studying the fauna of Loch Ness and the 313 m deep Loch Morar on the Scottish

west coast. Loch Morar is also the reputed home of monsters. , For three years, Mr Shine has driven a cabin cruiser up and down Loch Ness taking sonar readings. “We are the most sceptical investigators so far, but we are greatly impressed with some of the eye-wit-ness accounts and we also have some strong, deep sonar contacts with something moving in the loch,” Mr Shine said. “There is no scientific reason why there should not be a relatively large animal in the loch.”