January 10, 2010
Time For Some Level-Headed Thinking On “Death at Loch Ness”
An Editorial
By Loren Coleman
In recent months, you have read here of Robert Rines’ media statements regarding the possible extinction of the Loch Ness Monsters, which got drummed up in the press, literally, as the “death of Nessie,” both in the UK newspapers and on an episode of “MonsterQuest.” That was recently picked up by Loch Ness Monster Fan Club president Gary Campbell in his yearend summary, which we published here at Cryptomundo. His statements are now being circulated around the United Kingdom over the weekend.
Unfortunately, it looks like the UK media has taken Campbelll’s overview and promoted it to headline status. The Scottish Daily Record came out with a story entitled “The end of Nessie: Researchers fear Loch Ness monster may be dead.” The story has turned up elsewhere, as well.
The Daily Record noted, in dramatic fashion:
Nessie fans fear their favourite monster may be dead, it emerged yesterday. There was only one decent sighting in Loch Ness last year and a recent documentary explored the possibility that the monster might be sleeping with the fishes. Now Nessie watchers have warned that there are “reasons to be fearful.”
Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club president Gary Campbell said sightings were becoming increasingly rare….
A 2009 episode of TV documentary series Monster Quest, titled “Death At Loch Ness,” examined the theory that Nessie’s carcass is lying at the bottom of the loch.
But Gary said: “If people start to believe this, it might affect tourist numbers.
Now this part of the story is being picked up anew throughout the blogosphere.
It is time for a definitive straight comment about this “death at Loch Ness” (read “extinction of Nessies”) business.
I shall be short and sweet, and to the point. The underlying reason behind all the talk about death came from Robert Rines, and it was a direct psychological and personal reflection of his own sense of the end of his own life and the end of his search for the Loch Ness Monsters. Mortality, naturally, influenced his view.
Robert Rines at Loch Ness, in his last television appearance before his death, during “MonsterQuest.”
Rines had done it all. Put his money, his mind, and his minutes and months into the search for the ultimate proof of the Loch Ness Monsters. Of course, at the end of his life, he proclaimed statements on the “death of Loch Ness.”
What is so clearly evident is that Rines’ statements were interwoven with his own sense of the end for himself. It is unfortunate that this reality for the origins of the “death of Loch Ness” comments have not been viewed in their actual context, and that they are now seriously being considered by thoughtful people involved in the Loch Ness Monsters’ quest.
I am not certain of the actual reality of the Loch Ness Monsters, any more than the next open-minded, skeptically-inclined cryptozoologist. But I see no less or more evidence for them during the 21st century than was available during the 20th century. Sightings at Loch Ness of the watery cryptids have routinely had good years and bad years.
Robert Rines, whom I met at Loch Ness, corresponded with before and after, and greatly admired, is no longer with us and is missed. He died November 1, 2009, at the age of 87. His sense of his own end, as projected psychologically from himself onto the Loch Ness Monsters, should not slow down the search for valid proof of whatever has been encountered in that Scottish lake for centuries.
Of all the people linked to Loch Ness, surely it would be Bob Rines who would say, in the final analysis, Onward! Continue the search at Loch Ness.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Filed under Breaking News, Cryptomundo Exclusive, Cryptotourism, CryptoZoo News, Loch Ness Monster, Media Appearances, Men in Cryptozoology, MonsterQuest, Obituaries