Loch Ness Essay, Research Paper
Fish Are Not the Only Thing in Loch Ness Many people have been arguing about whether the Loch Ness Monster exists or not. The Lock Ness Monster (LNM) supposedly lives in Loch Ness. Loch Ness is a lake in northern Scotland that is twenty-four miles long and one mile wide. The word Loch in Gaelic translates into the English word lake. Loch Ness used to be part of the north sea before the ice age. Loch Ness is located on a fault line, which rose up to cut off Loch Ness from the North Sea. Then, during the ice age a glacier melted on Loch Ness and that is how the Loch Ness was created. Loch Ness is seven hundred and fifty feet deep in some parts of the lake. Loch Ness also possesses caves and caverns scattered all over the bottom of the lake. Loch Ness does not have very much vegetation. The Loch Ness Monster, however has seemed to be as much a part of the lake’s history as the lake itself. The Loch Ness Monster stories have been circulating from as far back as five hundred sixty-five A.D. Grandmothers and mothers used to scare their children to sleep by telling them stories of LNM. The highlanders of Scotland used to think LNM was a “water horse” or a “kelpie” that lulled travelers into lakes to drown them. Highlanders also thought the LNM might be an “Ogopogo,” a demon that possessed people, but highlanders also believed that monsters live in all lakes. Niseag was also another name that was bestowed to the LNM. Niseag is Gaelic for the English word Nessie, which is how the Loch Ness Monster obtained its present day name. The LNM was called a water horse and kelpie till 1930. The Loch Ness Monster itself is Havenhill IIsupposed to be thirty to forty-five feet long. The head and neck of the LNM are supposed to be ten feet long. The body of Nessie is twenty feet long and the tail is fifteen feet long. The LNM has a two to three humps, four flippers, and dark skin that lightens in the sun. The LNM resembles a whale with a long neck. Scientists do not know what the LNM is but they have many ideas of what it might be. The Loch Ness Monster might be a plesiosaurus that is a prehistoric creature that supposedly died out seventy million years ago. Nessie might also be an embolomeres a fifteen foot long amphibian that died out two hundred fifty years ago. The LNM might also be a huge squid, mollusk, snail or maybe even an eel. Nessie could be a Tully monster, a creature that died out three hundred and eighty million years ago. The controversy, however, with the Loch Ness Monster is no one knows if it truly exists or not. Many people believe in the LNM. Many people witness seeing the Loch Ness Monster every year, starting in the early 1930’s. Many pictures of the beast have been taken, and since 1950 many ships have seen the animal with sonar radar. The Loch Ness Investigation Bureau even has been created to search out and find the monster. One person has even supposedly died from the Loch Ness Monster. People of all kinds go to Loch Ness every year to get a glimpse at the monster, and scientists have spent millions of dollars trying to find the evasive beast. When science came to the conclusion that there was no Loch Ness Monster, monster hunters went to Loch Ness to try to find the beast, and more organizations were formed to find Loch Ness Monster. The reasons why the LNM is not usually seen is because the lake it lives in is twenty-four miles long, that is a lot of area to cover when searching for a thirty foot long monster, including that the lake is seven hundred and fifty feet deep. On the other hand, the LNM might not exist. This is because of the credibility of the evidence. The pictures of the Loch Ness Monster are fuzzy and distorted. The pictures of the Havenhill IIILoch Ness Monster might not be the Loch Ness Monster; for example, those pictures of Nessie might just be waves on a windy day, or a log or maybe some other kind of animal. The Loch Ness Monster sightings might not be completely accurate or even true. An example of this is Alex Campbell who spotted the beast in the 1930’s and he got a lot of publicity for his stories but no one ever thought to ask him if he ever saw the Loch Ness Monster. One of his friends asked him the question and he replied in a letter that it might have been a monster, but it looked more like a dead floating bird or a badger or some other woodland creature. One other interesting fact that dispels the theory of the Loch Ness Monster is that maybe the Scottish people use it for a tourist attraction. For example if someone was doing a thesis on whether the Loch Ness Monster existed or not he/she would find little information about the LNM, but would have much information to hotels and recreation areas around the Loch Ness. The Loch Ness Monster exists because of the evidence. The Lake is too large a containment area to see the Loch Ness Monster regularly. No one has been interested enough to spend enough money to pay workers and scientists to screen the entire lake for the monster. The sonar evidence displayed a large underwater biologic and whales do not live in lakes. Many pictures have been taken of the monster and they do not look fake just fuzzy and out of focus. One other fact is that 10,000 sightings have taken place over the last sixty years. That averages out to be one hundred and sixty-seven sightings each year. The Loch Ness Monster does exist because of all the sightings pictures and sonar. The first sighting of the Loch Ness Monster was on April 14, 1933 by John Mackay and his wife. They were driving on the new road that Scotland had built that went around parts of the lake and made traveling easier and faster. Mr. Mackay was the one who driving when all of the sudden what appeared to be the Loch Ness Monster. It was supposedly lolling and diving in the Havenhill IVwater. It did this for about a minute and then jumped into the lake and disappeared. Mr. and Mrs. Mackay went to The Inverness Courier and told the newspaper company the story. They wanted to know what the monster looked like and the Mackays stated that the monster looked like a three humped creature with a long neck and flippers. The Inverness Courier published the story and that is how the Loch Ness Monster became popular. Then after the first sighting the newspapers wanted to grab anything they could about the Loch Ness Monster. Fifty more people saw the Loch Ness Monster that year. June twenty fifth workmen working on a blast siting supposedly scare off monster, this is another valid siting. Then in November of 1933 someone obtained photos of the head and neck of the monster. After 1934 the Loch Ness Monster was only mentioned about half a dozen times. A valid reason for the Loch Ness Monster being real, the eye witness report of John Mackay and his wife. The other fact that fifty more people saw the Loch Ness Monster that year too, and that someone obtained a picture of the beast. In the 1950’s Jon Cobb was attempting to break the worlds fastest speed on a boat. He reached two hundred miles an hour when a wave or ripple in the water hit Cobb’s boat and it blew up. This could have been by the Loch Ness Monster 10,000 people have seen the Loch Ness Monster over the last 60 years and one third of those have been recorded. Many respected people like Alex Campbell have seen the creature. Campbell is a reliable source because he is credible and a highly respected person. He has seen the LNM on a number of occasions and has stated that Nessie looks to be thirty feet long. He is also a highly respected scholar. Constance White has also seen Nessie on a number of occasions. She even published a book called More Than A Legend which is about all the times that she has seen Nessie. She lived near Loch Ness for many years and is also a credible source. G.E. Taylor was the first man to take a color photo of the Loch Ness Monster. By 1939, 9 pictures were taken of the Loch Ness Havenhill VMonster. During 1960 scientist started to take The Loch Ness Monster seriously and they began investigating the lake. During 1960 Tim Dinsdale photographed what he thought was the Loch Ness Monster and that is when scientists took Nessie seriously. During 1968 the Morar Project captured sonar images of a huge biologic. Also during 1968 a team at the University of Birmingham took pictures of a big moving wave (LNM). During 1969 pictures of wave ripples were taken, that is not spectacular except that the ripples were 40 feet long. Another interesting piece of information is that a United States scientist tried to take a submarine in Loch Ness to try to find the monster, but the lake was to murky to see anything out of the port windows. The same year a crew on a boat was using sonar and a huge biologic swam parallel to the boat for a while the swam closer to the boat and disappeared. One other way they sighted Nessie was that the scientists used radar. Many interesting is numerous radar reports in Loch Ness are about Nessie. Scientists of the Morar Project and the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau and started taking sonar of the lake in the early 1960s. They found out that Loch Ness is seven hundred fifty feet deep and that the bottom of the lake was scattered with caves. This could mean that no one can ever find the Loch Ness Monster because possibly it lives in the caves of Loch Ness. The Loch Ness Investigation Bureau (LNI) has been looking for the LNM for the last thirty years. LNI was founded in the early 1960s and is still trying to find the Loch Ness Monster to this date. The LNI is a volunteer group that is trying to find the Loch Ness Monster. The LNI has grown over the years from 1,000 in 1965 to 54,000 in 1971. The LNI’s equipment covers over seventy percent of the lake. The equipment was cameras, video recorders, and audio recorders. Most of the LNI do not travel to Loch Ness, they make contributions to help find the beast. The LNI also set up underwater microphones to hear the LNM if it came within the listening range of the microphones. In 1970 American scientists brought underwater cameras. Havenhill VIThey were the Academy of Applied Science. They set up surveillance cameras and underwater cameras all over the shore of Loch Ness. Then, in 1972 the Academy tracked a large animal twenty to thirty feet long. They took pictures of the animal and captured a flipper neck and body of what appeared to be the supposed Loch Ness Monster. These pictures were taken by Charles W. Wyckoff. Many people have also tried to scare Nessie out of the water by using dynamite and other types of explosives. The evidence for the Loch Ness Monster is relevant, like the 10,000 sightings. Other valid reasons for the Loch Ness Monster are the number of pictures of the beast and the number of credible people who have worked on finding the Loch Ness Monster and obtaining pictures and sonar of the beast. On the other hand, many people do not believe in the Loch Ness Monster and many good reasons that keep them from believing are also valid. People all over the world believe that the Loch Ness Monster is a myth or a joke. Some people believe that the Loch Ness Monster may be an idea the Scots came up with to bring tourists into Scotland, and for profiteers to make money. This would be another valid reason because most of the people who have seen the Loch Ness Monster. Also, during 1933 when the Mackays gave their story to the Intervenes Courier, the other paper companies tried to top the Intervenes Courier’s story. This means that the other paper companies may have been lying to the public or people were lying to the paper companies to obtain publicity. Another reason to disprove the Loch Ness Monster is that only 251 of the 10,000 sightings are supposedly valid. That would mean that 9749 sightings are not valid or lies. That is a large number of incorrect information and sightings, which would go back to the Scottish money making profiteering funds. Another reason to disprove the theory of the Loch Ness Monster is the famous and credible Alex Campbell, who has supposedly seen the beast on many occasions. People asked him what the Loch Ness Monster looks like, if it was a beautiful Havenhill VIIbeast, and what it did, but they never asked him if it was the Loch Ness Monster. One of his friends asked him in a letter if he really saw the Loch Ness Monster and he replied that it looked like a beast but it could have been something else, like a reflection of the water or maybe an animal of some sort. Maybe Campbell did see the Loch Ness Monster on a number of occasions but if he told one of his friends who was not affiliated with the press that he might have saw something else, then he did not see the Loch Ness Monster and therefore is not a credible source.
One other fact that can disprove the Loch Ness Monster is the fact that all the pictures are fuzzy and never in focus. Some of the pictures are also fakes. A man named Rines supposedly took pictures of the Loch Ness Monster, and he created a craze that the Loch Ness Monster might be real. One problem that his picture had however was that the picture does not look real. The picture is of the Loch Ness Monster’s head and part of its neck. The pictures look fake because the shadow is not in the picture, either is the water displacement. The picture of the monster itself looks false because the lighting is in all the wrong spots and the monster is too shiny and perfect to be real. The picture was obviously a fake. He tried to sell the picture for 100,000 dollars but no one would buy it. He was another person who preyed of the stupidity and gullibility of other people. Another person Frank Searle supposedly took pictures of the LNM and they came out the same way but he did not ask for money. Other things the pictures might be are logs that reflected at the right light may look like a monster, or it might be a dead bird. Another anomaly that the LNM pictures might be are huge waves that appear to be humps. One of the many reasons why people think they see the Loch Ness Monster is because people were born with imaginations, the power to believe in the unexplainable and their imaginations take over their sense of practicality. Another reason that the Lock Ness Monster should be considered a myth is if the Loch Havenhill VIIINess Monster is real, then it should be seen at the surface more often than it usually is seen. An example of this is if the Loch Ness Monster is like a giant whale then it should come up for air at least every forty-five minutes. Then, the LNI and the Academy of Applied Science would have pictures of the Loch Ness Monster every forty-five to ninety minutes; If the LNM is amphibious however, tracks and footprints should be apparent around the shores of Loch Ness, but no one has ever seen any footprints of the Loch Ness Monster. At least people have supposedly found Bigfoot’s footprint. Another reason why it is impossible for the Loch Ness Monster to exist is because of the 11000 years worth of undisturbed plant sediment that is on the bottom of Loch Ness. This would prove that a marine biologic could not live there because it would have disturbed the plant sediment. One other reason the Loch Ness Monster can not exist because the definition of a monster is a imaginary animal composed of a mythological element such as fire or water, and that is just preposterous. Many other reasons that the Loch Ness Monster cannot exist is if the lake is so murky that if people cannot see in the water how can the Loch Ness Monster? Why cannot people hear the Loch Ness Monster. Also in 1962, 16 mistakes were made in gathering evidence the LNI were compiling for evidence to prove that Nessie really did exist. In short, the Loch Ness Monster is a myth taken too far that Scottish people use to make money. The Loch Ness Monster does exist for many valid and credible reasons; for example, many people do not believe in the Loch Ness Monster, but many people do still believe in the beast. Only thirteen percent of Americans believe in the Loch Ness Monster but if your think about it that might be the equivalent of New York and Chicago combined. Those people who do believe do not believe the LNM as a myth or legend but as a reality. Some of the Scots probably use the Loch Ness Monster as a fund-raiser but what about the people who have lived around Loch Ness and have really seen the monster, not just a log or a bird or an otter, to them that is real. Also, the Havenhill IXother papers were somewhat dishonest about obtaining their information and sightings from people, but what about the first people who went to the Intervenes Courier to tell them that they had seen a monster lolling around in the water. The Mackays had no goal or a motive to go to the papers, except to tell people their story that is valid and credible. Next, the people who went to the papers in 1933, all of those people could not have been lying to the press, that would have made 3,000 people liars. Out of the 10,000 sightings only 251 of them were valid, but who is to say what is valid and what is not? How could 10,000 different occurrences have taken place, yet only that small percentage was valid and credible. That is a preposterous notion to think that ninety-seven percent of all sightings are false. Another reason to believe in Nessie is if Alex Campbell is not what he says he is and he has not seen the Loch Ness Monster, then why is he respected as a credible and viable source? Yes, he did write his friend that he thought he might have seen something else, but he might not of seen a bird or waves. Many people will say things that conform with what other peoples’ opinions so that they will fit in or people will think them crazy. That might be what Alex Campbell did, he might have lied to his friend so he would not think of Campbell as crazy. Another reason to believe in the Loch Ness Monster is that the pictures are fuzzy for a reason. The people who took the pictures may not have been expert photographers, or the weather was bad. Nonbelievers say that all the pictures are fuzzy and nasty, that is because during 1930 through the late 1960s photographs were not that good, especially the underwater or infrared camera shots. Some of the pictures also look fake, the pictures almost look like computer generated photos, but computers could not do that at the time those pictures were taken. Rines’ and Searle’s pictures of the Loch Ness Monster have that computer generated images, but maybe that is what the Loch Ness Monster looks like. The underwater photos are Havenhill Xfuzzy and out of focus but it was 1960 and technology was not so great, and the pictures they did obtain are of large fins and a large body of a biologic. The pictures of the humps also might be real. Rines may have wanted 100,000 dollars but maybe he thought that the picture he had was valid and that was the only way he would have parted with it. Disbelievers of the Loch Ness Monster say that people who do believe in the pictures use their imagination to see the Loch Ness Monster in the picture. The disbelievers might be the people who are using their imagination to see a log or waves and not humps or the head of the impressive beast. Another reason that people do not believe in the Loch Ness Monster is because they let their practicality take over and do not let their imaginations let them believe in the unexplainable, like the Loch Ness Monster. Another reason that people should believe in the Loch Ness Monster is because it may not have to go out on land; therefore Loch Ness would not be overridden with Nessie footprints. Since no one knows what the Loch Ness Monster is then one would not know how the Loch Ness Monster lives. A scientist whose last name is Mackal thought Nessie was a long necked eel. This would mean that the Loch Ness Monster would not have to come of the lake to breathe. Another speculation is that Loch Ness is filled with underground caves at the very bottom of the lake, meaning that the Loch Ness Monster may live in those underground tunnels or may have found a way to get into the North Sea. This means that the Loch Ness Monster may also live in the North Sea and that may also be why sighting are not such a regular occurrence at Loch Ness. The reason that cannot be explained is how the 11,000 years of sediment on the bottom of the Lake was not disturbed. One of the reasons to disprove the Loch Ness Monster is somewhat comical. If the water is so murky that humans cannot how can the Loch Ness Monster? How can cats see in the dark if humans cannot. No one knows how advanced or well developed the Loch Ness Monster’s eyes are. Its eyes can probably see better than humans if it lives in Loch Ness. Havenhill XIThe last reason to prove that the Loch Ness Monster exists is that people make mistakes. Yes, 16 mistakes were made in 1962 but how many computer programs have glitches and still work, the mistakes are in the thousands and they still work. The mistakes do not disprove the Loch Ness Monster, it states that humans make errors. If people did not make errors some of the most scientific discoveries were made because of mistakes. One of the mistakes scientists make with the Loch Ness Monster may be the mistake that proves that it does exist. In contrast with the views of the nonbelievers, many things disprove the Loch Ness Monster but the answers they give have many different ways to be studied and reevaluated to become good qualities, not bad. In conclusion the Loch Ness Monster story has been around for 1433 years whether it is a myth or the monster is real, it is a part of Scottish heritage and should be respected as history. The Loch Ness Monster is real though because all of the sightings that have taken place. Even if only 251 of the sightings are valid, the other 9749 sightings cannot all be a ruse. Also, many credible people have seen the Loch Ness Monster; Jeff Campbell, for example, was a valid and credible person, so was Constance White. The Loch Ness Investigation Bureau also made many discoveries and used new equipment to try to find the Loch Ness Monster. The Academy of Applied Science also made a great contribution to the information about the Loch Ness Monster. Technology can also be attributed to the knowledge of the Loch Ness Monster, from cameras to sonar to underwater infrared cameras, technology has helped make the myth of Loch Ness into a reality. John Mackay and his wife were driving on the road to Intervenes on May 14, 1933 and stopped the car to see a forty-five foot creature play in the water. The Mackays probably never thought that by telling a small newspaper that they saw the Loch Ness Monster that they would start the greatest search for the unexplainable that has been going on the last sixty years. Alex Campbell also probably thought that the Loch Ness Monster would not cause such a controversy. Havenhill XII The Loch Ness Monster does exist though, because of the many pictures taken by scientists, tourists, and natives of the area. Even though the vegetation at the bottom of the sea is unexplainable, the underwater caves and the possibility of a tunnel to the North Sea may explain why the Loch Ness monster is not sighted regularly. Also, since no one knows what the Loch Ness Monster really is people could not argue that footprints need to be relevant in the search for it. The many things the Loch Ness Monster might be however is very interesting; for example, a plesiosaurus that supposedly died out seventy million years ago to a giant thirty foot eel. Many theories about what the LNM is date back to animals that died out over three hundred and eighty years ago. Many cultures have believed in the unnatural occurrences; for example, the Greeks and Romans believed in gods and hydras. The Norse believed in their gods also and they also believed in many sea serpents that impeded their sailing. The Scottish, however believed in “Kelpies” and “Water Horses”, that would be an amazing discovery if the Scottish people had a myth that actually came true. Many other facts show that the Loch Ness Monster does exist; for example, plant life around the Loch Ness is somewhat sparse, this would conclude to mean that the Loch Ness Monster might be a herbivore. A herbivore is a animal that only eats plants. The ongoing search of the Loch Ness Monster is called pure science. Pure science is a well thought out goal, but he/she does not know how to reach his/her goals. This explains the search for the Loch Ness Monster perfectly; for examlple, the scientists and other people know what they want to prove. What they want toprove is whether the Loch Ness Monster exists or not, they do not know enough about the Loch Ness Monster to obtains their goals. Many things about the Loch Ness Monster they do not know is what are Nessie’s eating habits, where does it sleep, what does it eat, is it a threat, or when does Nessie most likely appear. All these things are important in finding solid evidence to proving whether the Loch Ness Monster exists or not. To a certain Havenhill XIIIextent the Loch Ness Monster is a unsolved mystery, and will be unsolved untill scientists formulate an idea on how to reach their goal, to find the Loch Ness Monster. Maybe one day someone will find a way to solve the unsolved mystery of the Loch Ness Monster.