Whisky warehouse worker who claimed to have the most 'convincing evidence yet' of the Loch Ness monster flogged a pic of three seals

Daily Mail: A whisky warehouse worker has excited Nessie hunters after photographing something mysterious in Loch Ness - but it appears to be just three seals.

Ian Bremner, 58, was driving around the Highlands in search of red deer - but stumbled across what he claims could be the world's most famous monster swimming in calm waters.

His photographs show what appears to be a dark beast with a long winding body bobbing on the surface on Saturday between the villages of Dores and Inverfarigaig.

Some friends have said the beast's head could be a seal and his picture captures the extraordinary moment three of them were playing together in the water.

But he said: 'I suppose it could be seals - but I'm not so sure. The more I think about it, the more I think it could be Nessie.' ...read more>>>...

Is this the real Nessie? Skipper claims to have snapped 'best ever' picture of the Loch Ness Monster which 'proves the underwater beast exists'

As George Edwards peered into the thick mist that covered Loch Ness in eery silence, he glimpsed a dark hump slinking in and out of the grey waters. Was this the bashful beast he had hunted every day for 26 years and has outfoxed scores of investigators before him? He steered his boat, Nessie Hunter, towards the mysterious form - without a thought for his own safety - to take a photograph before it vanished back into the deep. He now claims the picture is the best ever taken of the Loch Ness Monster and - most importantly - proves once and for all that the elusive leviathan is definitely NOT a sturgeon. He says he has even had it independently verified by a team of US military monster experts as well as a Nessie sighting specialist. George spends his life on the loch - around 60 hours a week - taking tourists out on his boat Nessie Hunter IV, and has led numerous Nessie hunts over the years....read more>>>...

A Word on 'Nessie'

The Loch Ness Monster, also reffered to as "Nessie", is a creature or group of creatures said to live in Loch Ness, a deep freshwater lake (known in Scotland as a loch) near the city of Inverness. Nessie is generally considered a lake monster. Along with Bigfoot and Yeti, Nessie is perhaps the best-known mystery in cryptozoology. "Nessie" was born by a journalist in a newspaper article in 1933 after the first modern sighting of a monster in loch ness was reported.

The oldest sighting on record dates back to AD 565 when St Columba was said to have seen a large monster in the water. Since the first newspaper report thousands of sightings have been reported on the loch and on land, many report the long neck and head emerging from the loch, others see moving shapes and objects on the loch surface or a large beast crossing the road in front of them. Over 50 images have been recorded but only six of these have stood the test of time, the others are either fakes or mis-identifications. The most famous of these images is the 'surgeon' photo taken by gynacologist Kenneth Wilson in 1934. His photo showed what looked like a large neck and head emerging from the loch although with nothing visible in the background a scale could never be found. It is now pretty much agreed that the surgeon photo was faked by using a plastic-wood model attached to a toy submarine. In 1968 the first sonar investigation took place in an attempt to track large objects in the loch, this was unsuccessful. The second attempt Operation Deepscan in 1987 employed 20 sonar boats and made 3 possible contacts between 77 and 178 metres. The latest scan was made in 1992 to build up a picture of the bottom of the loch, no evidence of caves or anomolies were found. The picture reproduced here from the 1987 expedition may look impressive but questions have been raised about the high level of computer enhancement.

Many theories have been put forward to explain what is in the loch but it is a mystery to this day. The most popular of these was the plesiosaur theory. An extinct dinosaur that some believe has survived in the loch without detection for millions of years. It was only the 'surgeon' picture that held any real evidence for this theory which is now discounted by most serious researchers.

The ancient plesiosaur is also an air breather and a surface dweller which makes it a very unlikely candidate. Although lots of sightings have been made of a creature resembling a plesiosaur (or at least at long neck and small head) some if not all of these have been influenced or shaped by the media ... READ MORE

The day police tried to save the Loch Ness Monster from harpoon killers

Today, only the most trusting believe she exists. Not so 70 years ago, however, when the idea of the Loch Ness Monster was so beguiling that ministers considered setting a trap and a leading policeman appealed for Whitehall help to protect the creature.

Archive documents have revealed how William Fraser, then chief constable of Invernessshire, was so concerned for the mythical monster he wrote to the Scottish Office. In the 1938 letter, Mr Fraser revealed an influx of Nessie spotters had been drawn by a flurry of grainy photos purporting to show the creature's neck. And he warned of a hunting party, led by a Londoner called Peter Kent, intent on capturing the monster 'dead or alive'.

He said: 'Mr Peter Kent visited Fort Augustus on Friday, August 12, and was seen there by my officer... to whom he stated that he was having a special harpoon gun made and that he was to return with some 20 experienced men on August 22 for the purpose of hunting the monster down. I have, however, caused Mr Peter Kent to be warned of the desirability of having the creature left alone, but whether my warning will have the desired effect or not remains to be seen.' His typed letter concluded: 'That there is some strange creature in Loch Ness seems now beyond doubt, but that the police have any power to protect it is very doubtful.'

Five years earlier, a question was tabled in the House of Commons asking whether, in the interests of science, an investigation should be launched. Ministers were sceptical, but the documents, in the National Archives of Scotland, show that consideration was given to stationing observers round the loch to capture Nessie on camera and to whether it would be possible to trap the monster without injury.

Given that Loch Ness is 23 miles long and a mile wide - holding more water than any other loch - this would have been no mean feat.

A spokesman for the archives, which included the Nessie files in its An Open Secret exhibition, said: 'In the end it was felt that as the monster provided interest and amusement, it would be better to let it continue to do so than to kill it, or the tales told about it.'

Sadly, it seems the notoriously elusive creature is becoming even more withdrawn. Last year, there was only one 'credible' sighting. (Daily Mail)