May 2 – Happy Birthday to the (Modern) Legend of the Loch Ness Monster

The local newspaper ran the story, not of the sighting of a huge animal, but of the sighting of a huge monster. A few months later, a London couple reported a similar sighting. They described the creature as being like a dragon or a pre-historic animal. Once again, the local newspaper printed their report, and soon more and more sightings flooded in. People were seeing “sea serpents” and “monster fish” and long-lost dinosaur relatives (plesiosaurs).

Eventually, the story got picked up by newspapers in London and elsewhere, and a full-on media “feeding frenzy” began. London newspapers sent reporters to Scotland, a circus offered 20 thousand pounds for the capture of the beast, and ordinary folk drove to the lake to see the monster for themselves.

Nessie is Good for Business!

(But when I stared at any one spot, I saw what looked like the hump of the creature’s back over and over and over again, as if the creature was swimming in a little loop in that one place forever, at the same rhythm as the wind.)

I wish I’d seen something like this. But…I didn’t!

The small town nearby (Drumnadrochit) had a different atmosphere. It was, in a word, kitsch.

Giant statues of Nessie provided photo ops with the kids, souvenirs of all sorts were imprinted with a friendly, cartoon version of the monster or with a more realistic plesiosaur, and there were “exhibits” of breathless wonder about all the so-called sightings.

Kitsch can be lots of fun, and we looked at all the color-changing Loch Ness Monster mugs and plastic Nessie rulers and “I survived the Loch Ness Monster” key bobs and so on and so forth, on and on…

The Loch Ness Monster is not classified as a reptile (as you might think because of the plesiosaur connection) or as a fish, or as a mammal. Instead, it is a cryptid. This is the name for the group on animals that are rumored to exist but whose existence is very much doubted by scientists because of a complete lack of reputable evidence. Some other examples of cryptids are Yeti, aka the Abominable Snowman, aka Bigfoot.

No Evidence? Wait a minute—what about all those eye-witness reports? And there are supposed to be photos and film, too!

Many sincere people claim to have spotted the monster, but they are apparently reporting non-monster things such as my water ripples, large eels (which do live in the lake), bird wakes, or even seals. (Loch Ness is quite close to the ocean.) Also, we can assume that some of the reports are hoaxes. (Whenever an opening for a hoax arises, somebody always gladly rushes forward to take advantage of the situation!)

Loch Ness has been searched for any signs of a “monster”—by fishermen and hunters, sonar and underwater cameras, and even by submersibles. Of course it’s impossible to PROVE that the creature does not exist, but in the almost 80 years since the first (modern) reports, there has never been an actual creature captured, nor a skeleton or body found. Because of this lack of reliable / verifiable evidence, the vast majority of scientists consider it very unlikely that plesiosaurs still live on in Loch Ness.

Nessie doesn’t exist anywhere, but exists as a story everywhere. The statue above is in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the one below is in Disney World, Florida.

Toyota Signed Nessie for Commercials!

Actually, since Nessie doesn’t exist, Toyota apparently hired someone who knows how to do cool special effects or CGI. Take a look.

Make Your Very Own Nessie!

Use clay or origami to create a sea serpent!

Another Bit of Fun…

…Read – and listen to – this poem, called “The Loch Ness Monster Song.”