Loch Ness Monster, Myth or Living Creature?

By: Shyan Burrell 12/01/1998

The giant beast of Loch Ness is not a myth. Dating back centuries people have reported seeing a strange, large creature swimming in the deep, murky waters of the Loch Ness. The Loch Ness is located in Northern Scotland. “ Loch Ness is more than 975 feet deep in places and never freezes,” (Akins pg.9) and it runs 27 miles in length. Loch Ness gets its murky waters from the peat moss from surrounding hills. The water in the Loch Ness is cold and dark and it has strong currents that have swept people away and their bodies have never been found. Billions of years ago Loch Ness used to be connected to the sea but then years ago it became land locked when the earth rose, cutting it off from the sea, forming what is now the Loch.

Scientists now believe that the Loch Ness Monster is a dinosaur called Plesiosaur that was thought to have become extinct 70,000,000 years ago. When comparing the Loch Ness with the Plesiosaurus, their physical features are nearly identical. They both have long necks, flippers, large bodies, long tails, and they are the same colors which are different shades of blues, greens, grays, blacks, and browns. Scientists believe that the Loch Ness Monster or “Nessie,” lives off of the thirty-pound salmon and the plankton that lives in the Loch.

“The first known record of a monster in the Loch dates back from around 565 A.D.” (Akins pg.21) An Irish Holy man named St. Columba was the first person to see the monster after it had attacked someone, then St. Columba ordered it back and the creature sank back down into the water. “The first published account of the sighting of the monster, which set off the great Loch Ness controversy, described the experience of a man named John McKoy, owner of a hotel on the Firth of Moray. On April 14, 1933, McKoy and his wife were driving along the newly built road on the North shore of the lake when they were startled to see, far below them, a huge dark animal swimming in the inky waters.” (Buehr pg.89) There have been numerous sightings of the monster that still continue to this present day.

There is even an American cousin of the Loch Ness Monster in British Columbia, in the lake Okanogan, which is 70 to 80 miles long and 2,000 feet deep in places, and it harbors a monster called by the Native Americans the “Ogopogo.” “ Even today Native Americans refuse to cross the lake in certain places in their canoes.” (Buehr pg.98) There is a lake in Iceland that is reportedly the home of the “Skrimsl,” a monster 46 feet long, Lake Victoria in Africa shelters two monsters named “Lau” and “Lukwata,” in Russia, in lake Khaiyr there is a monster called “Lochski Nesski Monsterovich,” in Scotland in Loch Morar there is a monster called “Morgan”, in Lake Manatoba there is a monster called “Manipogo,” in lake Simcoe, Ontario they have a monster called “Igopogo,” and there are many more.

Now that we are approaching the 21^st century technology is helping to assist in many of the studies. The day now may be fast approaching when the Loch Ness Monster is no longer myth but fact.

Works Cited Page:

Buehr, Walter. Sea monsters. New York: W.W. Norton Company, 1984.

Cohen, Daniel. The Greatest Monsters in the World. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1975.

Cohen, Daniel. A Modern Look at Monsters. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1970.

Cornel, James. The Monster of Loch Ness. New York: Scholastic Book Services, 1977.

Dinsdale, Tim. The Story of the Loch Ness Monster. Great Britain: Universal-Tandem Publishing Company, 1973.