IS THIS NESSIE’S MONSTER WAKE?
Holiday couple stunned as they film creature in loch
EXPERTS have described it as the most compelling footage to emerge in 20 years of hunting Nessie.
A two-and-a-half minute video taken from the banks of Loch Ness appears to show a large creature moving through the water.
The clip – obtained by the Mail – shows what look to be humps breaking the surface of the water and something powerful swimming and turning underneath.
A strong wake of water can be seen behind the unknown creature as it swims along just below the surface, and only 150 yards from the shore.
Gary Campbell, who has spent 26 years logging every credible sighting of Nessie, said it was the best footage he had seen in decades.
He added: ‘This is a really, really good sighting of something that is unexplained in Loch Ness.’
The remarkable footage was taken by a couple who are professionals in their early 50s who were on holiday in the Highlands.
They said they had no strong views on Nessie other than having been amused by anecdotes about previous sightings.
The husband and wife, who we have agreed not to name, are keen for their footage to be analysed in the hope it may help provide definitive answers about the existence of the monster or what might be inhabiting the loch.
The woman said: ‘We’d definitely love for somebody to analyse the video. If it helps anybody work out what’s down there then it’d be our absolute pleasure.
‘Not for a minute did we ever think we’d see anything like this. It was just pure chance I got up at that time, pure chance I was taking a photograph and I think because it was so flat calm too.’ The woman had woken up just after 6am on Monday and decided to take some photographs as the loch was so still that its surface was like glass.
But after spotting something large moving in the water, she began filming on her iPhone and can be heard saying ‘What on earth is that?’ as her husband joined her to watch what was unfolding.
The couple filmed for two minutes and 37 seconds from 6.21am as the mysterious creature – they estimated at between 20 and 30 feet in length – swam beneath the water and gave them tantalising glimpses as it broke the surface.
It appeared to have at least one fin or limb which paddled under the water ‘like an oar’.
The clip opens with the man saying: ‘The tail’s moving behind it’, as his wife adds: ‘Now it’s going left again.’
After a pause while they both stare at the water, the woman adds: ‘What on earth is it? There was definitely two sections of it.
‘It’s really pushing forward again now.’ She then adds: ‘Oh my goodness, look. Oh my gosh, I would never have believed but now there’s something.’ The woman also took still photographs from the vantage point of their holiday cottage on a hillside near Urquhart Castle.
She added: ‘We don’t know what the creature was. It was propelling itself with something. It wasn’t how a fish would do it.
‘You could see it clearer than it’s come out in the photos. The lumps or humps kept disappearing under the water, but it was still pushing forward under the water.
‘You could see something under the water, then it rushed forward and turned round. From what we could gauge, it was between 20 and 30ft long. There was nothing else on the loch, no boats, nothing. It disappeared behind the castle.’
Her husband said: ‘There is something weird that went on out there on the loch. Somebody far more intelligent than us on a scientific basis can analyse it and if it helps contribute anything to the understanding of the phenomena then that can’t not be a good thing.’
The footage has now been handed to Mr Campbell, who keeps the Official Loch Ness Monster Register and only includes sightings which cannot be easily explained away.
Mr Campbell said: ‘In terms of video evidence, there’s been two or three really good videos in the past but this is up there with the best of them.
‘When something like this comes along which is genuinely inexplicable then it is great.’
But Dr Darren Naish, a zoologist and author of Hunting Monsters, said he was doubtful a monster would ever be found in Loch Ness. He said: ‘An important feature of the footage is that we can be sure that it was actually filmed at Loch Ness.
‘Also, the reaction of the people we can hear in the footage sounds genuine: they describe what they see and they seem honestly perplexed by it.
‘We see two tiny black objects, filmed at great distance. They’re nothing more than unidentifiable specks and there’s no indication we’re seeing something that’s especially large or unusual in shape.
‘Based on how boats look from the same approximate location and distance, the objects must be small – I estimate less than 50cm long. I see no reason why they can’t be birds – probably ducks.
‘After decades of searching we have no reason to think a big, unknown animal is awaiting discovery in the loch.’
Dr Jason Gilchrist, an ecologist at Edinburgh Napier University, studied the photos but said the quality of the images taken from a distance on a phone made it difficult to carry out an identification.
He said: ‘The double hump and general size and shape would be compatible with an otter, and on occasions, seals come into the loch.
‘Both of these mammal species commonly swim on the surface, and so the sighting of an animal swimming at the surface and leaving a large wake on a calm loch fits both these possibilities.
‘I don’t look at the photos and feel a sense of “monster” excitement.’
‘This is up there with the best’