SHOCK IN THE LOCH: NESSIE IS AN EEL!
Scientists say a finless fish may be famed monster
THE Loch Ness monster is a giant EEL! That’s the claim of scientists who have analyzed hundreds of DNA samples taken from the Scottish lake where the fabled creature lurks.
“Eels are very plentiful in Loch Ness,” says Prof. Neil Gemmell, a geneticist from the University of Otago in New Zealand.
“We can’t discount the possibility that what people see and believe is the Loch Ness Monster might be a giant eel.”
His team took more than 250 samples of water at different depths up and down the loch.
The scientists claimed to have identified 15 different species of fish in Loch Ness, but their analysis ruled out the presence of large animals long suspected to be the mythical “monster,” including a shark, a sturgeon, a catfish or even a prehistoric reptile called a plesiosaur.
“We can’t find any evidence of a creature that’s remotely related,” says Prof. Gemmell.
But “Nessie” experts poohpoohed the finding.
“This research has not told us anything we did not know. It has not proved anything,” insists Gary Campbell, keeper of the Official Loch Ness Sightings Register.
And Nessie hunter Steve Feltham, who’s spent 24 years watching the loch, snorts: “A 12-year-old boy could tell you there are eels in Loch Ness.”