Nessie: Supposed Plesiosaur of Loch Ness

An artist's depiction of a plesiosaur

Typical Nessie shape

Nessie. One of the most famous cryptids in the world, probably the most famous sea monster, rivaled only by the gigantic kraken. Thought to be enormous to seal-sized, this creature is supposedly an ancient survivor of the plesiosaurs, prehistoric large marine reptiles with extremely long necks, small heads with long teeth well adapted for catching fish, on a bulbous body with four horizontally flattened flippers, and sometimes a laterally flattened tail, with sizes ranging from 40 feet to about 8 feet, most of which is neck. This cryptid inhabits the gigantic Loch Ness, the fourth largest lake in the U.K., 48 kilometers (about 23 miles) long, and a maximum guaranteed recorded depth of 755 feet. It holds more water than all the lakes and ponds in Britain and Wales, and water visibility is extremely low, due to high amounts of peat in the surrounding soil.

To start, even before we get to explanations and hoaxes, or how such a creature could exist, we have to ask ourselves if it could support itself. There are several large fish species found in Loch Ness, the most common being Atlantic salmon, but brown and sea trout (sea trout are simply marine versions, like steelhead) are also common. The legendary Forex trout (an very large subspecies of brown trout) are deep-dwelling trout very famous for fighting extremely hard, in many ways it is the counterpart for lake trout in North America, to name a few ways in ecological niche, size, and status with fishermen. Also found in the lake are Arctic char, northern pike, yellow perch, European eels, common carp, and several different species of minnows and suckers. There are estimates of fish densities that vary from 1-27 tons, although none consider the large eel populations. So maybe there is enough food for the monster, but we really need a certainly correct estimate. Some sightings have apparently been of Nessie chasing schools of adult salmon or trout that flee to the surface, supporting evidence that it eats trout and salmon, suggesting that the creature is a well-adapted predator.  Also trout and salmon normally do not have any predators in freshwater besides other related species, large pike, lampreys, and humans, none of which would cause adult fish to flee in a school as they are normally solitary and almost invulnerable. So that much is possible. 

However, there are three big problems with the "surviving plesiosaur" theory: Loch Ness is too cold for a cold-blooded reptile, like the plesiosaurs, so they would die quickly. Also, Loch Ness was frozen solid for thousands of years until the end of the last Ice Age about ten thousand years ago. So therefore the only way any exclusively marine animal could enter Loch Ness was from the sea, through the River Ness. So the plesiosaur theory is basically shot down at this point, although that doesn't mean (a) landlocked marine mammal(s) (possibly a juvenile pack or a rapidly evolving species) could have evolved a plesiosaur-like shape through convergent evolution (which is where two unrelated species evolve distinctly similar shapes and/or adaptions due to very similar environments and ecological niches, sometimes examples being millions of years apart-a good example are ichthyosaurs and dolphins). But the last problem deals blows to both the witness' reports and photographs, if Nessie can only be a plesiosaur: New scientific research apparently says plesiosaurs could not lift their heads and necks out of the water swan like. In almost all of the more reliable and clear reports this is how they spotted the cryptid. However, there is still a small chance of the creature and its descriptions being entirely real, even though it is not a plesiosaur.

The famous "Surgeon's Photo" hoax

But there are many easily explained sightings.  For example it has recently been discovered that gray seals enter the lake several times a year, so if they do, perhaps other sea animals can and do as well. Sturgeon are one example. One of the largest freshwater fish in the world, they can grow up to 12 feet long and weigh almost 500 pounds. If they wander into Loch Ness, well, a ten-foot fish is, ah, going to make quite a splash (Sorry. Really bad pun.). The seals were not known to be in the loch, and this would explain some of the sightings. Also, eels may possibly grow to gigantic proportions if left to live long enough. There are large eel populations in Loch Ness, at every depth, so very old and large eels could account for many sightings and even mysterious large radar contacts. But believers ask about photographs. This is relatively questionable, given the famous "Surgeon's Photo" hoax, where famous big-game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell, angry at being hoaxed himself by a hippopotamus-foot umbrella stand (fake tracks) in 1933, connived a very, very convincing hoax with his son and step-son the next year. He used a sculpted wood putty head and neck attached to a toy submarine, with a photo taken by a visiting friend who happened to be a doctor. His friend  did not want his name in the papers, so the photograph was listed as the "Surgeon's Photo". It was finally uncovered 60 years later, when his step-son confessed on his deathbed at age 93 that it had all been a hoax. This was stunning, as it had long been considered the most certain evidence for Nessie's existence. Even today, believers repulse the step-son's confession. But it still remains that there are large, mobile objects, probably animals, in Loch Ness. What do you think? Argue in the comments below.