Biggest search for Loch Ness Monster begins in Scottish Highlands

The biggest search for the Loch Ness Monster started in the Scottish Highlands on Saturday (August 26). According to a report by the news agency AFP, the expedition would deploy drones with thermal scanners, boats with infrared cameras and an underwater hydrophone. The searchers believe that the thermal scanners could prove crucial in identifying any strange anomalies in the murky depths.

Alan McKenna from the Loch Ness Exploration said, "It's always been our goal to record, study and analyse all manner of natural behaviour and phenomena that may be more challenging to explain." 

The earliest written record of the monster dates back to AD 565 in a biography of the Irish monk, Saint Columba. As per the text, the monster attacked a swimmer and was about to strike again when Columba commanded it to retreat.

In May 1933, a report in the Inverness Courier newspaper said that a couple e driving along a newly constructed lochside road saw "a tremendous upheaval" in the water. "There, the creature disported itself, rolling and plunging for fully a minute, its body resembling that of a whale, and the water cascading and churning like a simmering cauldron," the report said.

In December same year, the Daily Mail recruited Marmaduke Wetherell, a big game hunter from South Africa to locate the sea serpent. 

Wetherell found large footprints that he believed belonged to "a very powerful soft-footed animal about 20 feet long". However, zoologists at London's Natural History Museum determined that the tracks were made with an umbrella stand or ashtray that had a hippopotamus leg as a base.

In 1934, English physician Robert Wilson captured a photograph that seemingly depicted Nessie's head and elongated neck emerging from the water. The photo, which was published in Daily Mail, was later revealed to be part of a hoax.

Over the years, scientists and amateur enthusiasts have tried to find evidence of a large fish living in the depths of the loch. Some have suggested the monster could be a prehistoric marine reptile like a plesiosaur.

Paul Nixon, the general manager of the Loch Ness Centre that this weekend gave "an opportunity to search the waters in a way that has never been done before, and we can't wait to see what we find."

(With inputs from agencies)

 

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