New species of large animals do turn up unexpectedly every now and then. The Coelacanth, a fish thought to be extinct for millions of years, was caught off the coast of South Africa in 1938, and the megamouth shark is another living fossil discovered only about 40 years ago. As a biologist I would say if we're looking for an animal and we haven't seen it in approximately 50 years or we haven't got conclusive proof it's there, it's extinct.'

Secrets of Loch Ness. Produced & Directed by Christopher Jeans ( ITN/ Channel 4/ A&E Network, 1995). His interactions with Loch Ness enthusiasts has led him to conclude that "there are people who genuinely, fervently believe" in the monster, "and there's others who exploit it". So I sat there and thought to myself, 'You know, they don't get excited about my other work. Maybe, I could take a few people - and myself - on a bit of an adventure'." Scientist wonders if Nessie-like monster in Alaska lake is a sleeper shark". Alaska Dispatch News. 3 May 2012. Archived from the original on 23 January 2015 . Retrieved 5 March 2015. Loch Ness monster: The Ultimate Experiment". Crawley-creatures.com. Archived from the original on 3 May 2008 . Retrieved 28 May 2009.Gemmell, Neil; Rowley, Ellie (28 June 2018). "First phase of hunt for Loch Ness monster complete". University of Otago. Archived from the original on 21 April 2019 . Retrieved 21 April 2019. In September 2021, it was reported that a 20-feet creature was captured on a live-stream near the loch. [84] [85] Searches Edward Mountain expedition (1934) Loch Ness, reported home of the monster Tim Dinsdale (1975) Project Water Horse. The true story of the monster quest at Loch Ness (Routledge & Kegan Paul) ISBN 0-7100-8030-1 In July 2015 three news outlets reported that Steve Feltham, after a vigil at the loch that was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records, theorised that the monster is an unusually large specimen of Wels catfish ( Silurus glanis), which may have been released during the late 19th century. [129] [130] [131] Other resident animals Fairbairn, Nicholas (18 December 1975). "Loch Ness monster". Letters to the Editor. The Times. No.59,581. London. p.13.

In 1980 Swedish naturalist and author Bengt Sjögren wrote that present beliefs in lake monsters such as the Loch Ness Monster are associated with kelpie legends. According to Sjögren, accounts of loch monsters have changed over time; originally describing horse-like creatures, they were intended to keep children away from the loch. Sjögren wrote that the kelpie legends have developed into descriptions reflecting a modern awareness of plesiosaurs. [145] Image: Steve Challice is another member of the public who claims to have spotted the monster while on holiday in 2020. Pic: Steve Challice/Cover Images/APWhat we have here is the marketplace of ideas on the Internet and like a real marketplace the worst ideas don't sell much, are ignored and fade away. Of course, some bad ideas still get bought like cheap pairs of shoes, nothing is perfect where people are involved. But driftwood will eventually sink and sturgeon will eventually stink. Will this winnowing of ideas eventually leave us with the true explanation? The answer to that is no, but I would hope that if and when we see more data, an awful lot of dross would have been cleared out by then. Tony Harmsworth. "Loch Ness Monster Surface Photographs. Pictures of Nessie taken by Monster Hunters and Loch Ness Researchers". loch-ness.com. Archived from the original on 13 February 2015 . Retrieved 3 January 2015.

Naish, Darren. "Books on the Loch Ness Monster 3: The Man Who Filmed Nessie: Tim Dinsdale and the Enigma of Loch Ness". Tetrapod Zoology. Archived from the original on 6 November 2023 . Retrieved 6 November 2023. River Monsters' Finale: Hunt For Loch Ness Monster And Greenland Shark (Video)". The Huffington Post. 28 May 2013. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015 . Retrieved 28 December 2014. Considering how much attention has been devoted to exploring the waters of Loch Ness in the past few decades, with sonars, submersibles and the like, I would be very surprised if a creature the size of a plesiosaur was actually living down there.

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However, I feel that every person who does go there deep inside them believes that they truly could capture a glimpse of the Loch Ness monster. This article may lend undue weight to fringe sources and hypotheses. Please help improve it by rewriting it in a balanced fashion that contextualizes different points of view. ( July 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Look" he said "I've known all along there was a monster in the loch. I've even got pictures four times before - but - this time they're the best yet." Lehn, W. H.; Schroeder, I. (1981). "The Norse merman as an optical phenomenon". Nature. 289 (5796): 362. Bibcode: 1981Natur.289..362L. doi: 10.1038/289362a0. S2CID 4280555.