Loch Ness Monster - Academy of Applied Science

The problem of proving the existence of an unidentified monster in Loch Ness-difficult because of the creature's own elusiveness and the need of disbelievers to explain it away by any farfetched means-is compounded by the characteristics of the lake itself. Because of the labyrinthine loch bottom, in places 700 to 975 feet deep (deeper than the North Sea in some places), underwater creatures can easily escape electronic detection. Added to that is the murkiness of the water, which is clotted and discolored with vast amounts of suspended peat particles. Even a short distance below the surface, maximum underwater visibility may extend only a few feet.

It was with these difficulties in mind that the 1972 expedition of the Academy of Applied Science, led by Dr. Robert H. Rines, arrived at the loch with advanced sonar equipment supplemented by a camera strobe light system developed by Dr. Harold E. Edgerton of MIT for photographing underwater life.

The system consisted of a 16mm-time-lapse motion-picture camera with a synchronized flash unit of some 50-watt-seconds power. The objective-the almost impossible dream-was to obtain a combination of sonar and photographic evidence of the Scottish "beastie" known as Nessie.

Luck would be as important as equipment, for, obviously, the investigators had no idea where their legendary target might be. They could only set up their equipment in areas where the creature had most often been seen, and hope it might come by again.

The loch's surface on the night of August 8 was unusually flat and calm. Members of the investigating team waited in boats anchored in Urquhart Bay a short distance from shore. A sonar transducer was lowered from one boat and gently settled on an underwater slope with its beam aimed out into the loch. The stroboscopic camera was placed slightly farther down the slope and aimed, the strobe flashing periodically, at the area encompassed by the sonar beam.

At about one in the morning the team began to see the heavy, dark traces of a large moving object on the sonar beam. The traces were similar to those obtained by the 1970 expedition. Excitement rose, and with it a sense of something ominous.

At 1:40 A.M. the sonar recorded the flight of some salmon (shown by lighter, discontinuous traces)- and the appearance of two large objects. At the same time the stroboscopic camera photographed the blobs picked up by the sonar beam.

Because of the cloudiness of the water the photographs were vague, but with computer enhancement several astounding images became apparent. Two frames of film showed a flipper. Taken 45 seconds apart, the flipper pictures showed what seemed to be the same appendage in two different positions, indicating movement.

A third picture revealed two objects that seemed to be large creatures. Correlation and analysis of the findings indicated that the flipper was about 4 to 6 feet long and that the two bodies were about 12 feet apart.

Here it was at last: simultaneous sonar and photographic evidence of a large, long, flippered creature-two of them-inhabiting Loch Ness. And yet, of course, there are still people who are not impressed. (Dennis L. Meredith, Search at Loch Ness, pp.25-28; Technology Review , 8:25-30, March-April 1976)

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