New Nessie Footage
Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 31st, 2007
New video footage, apparently somewhat compelling, from Loch Ness has been taken by a scientist, Gordon Holmes.
Cryptomundo has technically been unable to upload the video, but you can view it here.
[Update: The reported broken link, noted in early comments, has been corrected.]
Below is Holmes at the site of his filming.
Gordon Holmes told the Yorkshire Post
I was sat in a lay-by about 70ft above the loch – it was 10pm but the sun was still shining on the mountains on the other side. I was minutes from going home and I had only gone up there to relax and enjoy the view when I saw something moving on the surface of the water so I dashed to get the camera. It wasn’t a wave because it was going in the opposite direction to the waves that I could see and the top half of it seemed to be black. My camcorder was on a black and white setting and it took me a while to find it again in the water, but I’ve got two-and-half-minutes of footage which I have shown to experts and they think it is definitely a living creature.
I have always been interested in science, astronomy and the unknown. I have an open mind about the monster. I know they’re have been around 1,600 sightings over the years and people claim to have seen something which they can’t describe because they have never seen anything like it before.
I originally thought it looked about 4 ft to 6 ft long but I think it may have been larger than that, one onlooker in the shop said he thought he could see a fin. At its closest point it was about 100 yards away from me. It seemed to be travelling faster than a human could walk.Gordon Holmes
Dr. Henry Bauer, while wondering at first if it might be a wind-driven wave, noted the length of the footage (2.5 minutes) seems to indicate against such a theory.
Also, the darker coloring appears to show it is not being caused by the surface wind.
To some it suggests an otter, a sturgeon, an eel, or an unknown cryptid.
What do you see in the footage?
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.
I could not download the video, but the pictures are compelling. [Cryptomundo editors: The link has been fixed.]
What is it? I really cannot tell for sure, but perhaps an eel or something similar. Do they get that large there? Maybe a sturgeon, but it is still not that clear in the pics.
I don’t see the footage. Anyway, high ground is the most logical place to try to get good footage of these lake monsters. I’m suprised that someone doesn’t keep a vigil all the time in spots like this.
The link has been corrected. Click the link to watch the footage.
Well, intrigueing but inconclusive, as usual. Certainly not the ‘water horse’ type of sighting, but there’s something moving there.
Thanks for correcting the link. I wish they had shown the whole 2+ minutes of footage, hopefully that will be posted later. What was shown is pretty inconclusive, although one might expect a seal or otter to expose more of themselves on the surface. Its good to have a pretty solid, documented sighting in any case.
It could be a sturgeon or an eel thats tangled in some sort of debris like plastic. Or it could be ol Nessie, really hard to say. This thing moved liked a seal or a beaver. But like the video’s before this, it is up for debate.
The thing in the footage is most certainly not a sturegon or an eel.
In my yahoo cryptozoology group, we have been discussing reports of large otters along the line of the Irish master-otter, and one of our mebers forewarded a video from near Novgorod which seems to show exactly such an animal. This footage resembles the earlier Russian footage, and such a creature was reported as both entering the Loch by the River Ness and then leaving headed for Loch Oich in the 1930’s.
Which still of course does not make it “THE Loch Ness Monster”, although it is probably exactly Burton’s giant otter.
Woo — at least this isn’t immediately identifiable as something mundane and ordinary.
It will be very interesting to see the results of the analysis done on the video tape — estimated size, speed, etc. Still not conclusive, but if it is proven to be as big as it appears on the video link, it could be compelling support to do still more research.
What I find intriguing is that the creature progresses through water like a crack progresses on glass. At the end of the video it forks into two. This feat might be possible for creatures having long necks.
Obviously not a plastic pleiseosaur model…
The idea that some variety of creature couldnt live in the loch or we would have seen it is a very human kind of perspective. Reminds me of the image of the toad found alive at the bottom of the loch a few months ago, something never seen before nor ever imagined…and we think we know a lot about toads. The lochs natural history retains a lot of natural mystery.
thanks for fixing the link…Well it looks pretty big, but it still could be a large seal or (less likely)otter. There is an interesting movement at the area right around the head-neck connection. Maybe this will get some less “Amatuer Scientist’s” out there in the cold of the loch…
I’d like to see the whole footage. In the clips provided there is no sense of scale since the camera never pans out, which is something I would expect someone with a scientific background to do. But really, given how indistinctive it is, this could easily be an otter, seal, eel, sturgeon, fish, etc. Nothing very remarkable about it.
Personally, the more research I do on the Loch Ness Monster (including a trip to the loch a few years ago), the more skeptical I get that it’s anything remarkable. There are plenty of types of normal wildlife that frequent the loch that could lead to misidentifications plus the wave patterns in the loch are also very easily mistaken for animate objects. The water on the loch can go from glass calm to violent extremely quickly. The theory that there is a tunnel to the ocean is bunk since the loch is not at sea level, so you’d have to believe that there is a breeding colony of at least sixteen animals (bare minimum for a diverse enough gene pool to survive) confined to the loch of 15’+ (at least) aquatic monsters swimming in this 26 mile long lake that are spotted rarely, sometimes not for years at a time, and that have left no physical evidence whatsoever. This isn’t some isolated loch in the Highlands. There is a small highway running the south of the loch, hotels all over the shores, boats constantly out in the water, yet nothing. And that’s not even mentioning the numerous 24/7 webcams around the loch.
Really, the only compelling evidence are the Rines underwater pics/sonar contacts, but there is a lot of debate on those and the computer enhancements done to the pics. Personally, I still can’t see a face, let alone bilaterla symmetry, in that “gargoyle” photo no matter how long I stare at it.
I hate to be negative, because there might be something unknown in there, but I have to say I’m pretty much at the point that I believe the monster is most likely a combination of sightings of mundane animals and odd wave formations.
I still have my t-shirt bought at the UnConvention in London from the Loch Ness Monster Research Society that has a pic of Nessie and the phrase “I believe” on it. Unfortunately, I’m not sure it applies anymore. Doesn’t mean I won’t get back there some day, though. The area is marvelous with or without a monster in the loch.
turk
VERY intersting as far as the footage goes. Nothing really breaking the surface that I could see. He was using a super 8mm camcorder from sony, while not the best quality tape, not a jumpy, pixalated digital file from someones digital camera (at only 600×400 res, this is not a file size that would produce any good quailty footage). I would expect too see a surfacing at some point with either a seal or a otter. A giant eel might be the creature to look at, but why so close to the surface? It doesn’t look fish like, so I don’t think that a sturgon is likely. I can’t really seem to see the whole footage, maybe it will be posted on Youtube shortly and I can see it then. (The video freezes when watching it, but the story goes on. Maybe its my connection speed)
I think that the size of the image will tell us more as what too rule out of the canadiates of what it is.
daledrinnon-
If you’re referring to the Russian video from this past winter the animal in that video swims very un-otter-like. It moves its long tail from side to side. Otters mainly undulate up and down with some paddling. I’m not saying that an otter isn’t a possibility, but the coloring and swimming motion aren’t a very good match. That and the eyewitnesses described something very un-otter-like.
sasquatch-
Maybe this will get some less “Amatuer Scientist’s” out there in the cold of the loch…
Not to pick nits, but some very well credentialed and well qualified scientists have been involved in the various loch ness investigations.
Great footage. Not sure what it is, but its animate, anyway. You even have a nice sense of the size due to the waves being in fair focus!
I’ve enjoyed reading a bit on Nessie and I lean toward the eel hypothosis myself. My husband is sure the damn thing is a giant slug, citing the visual descriptions and habits – which frankly, gives me the heebie-jeebies.
Best I’ve seen in a long time.
Maybe it’s a baby Nessie….
Hmmm…I don’t know what it is but I don’t see anything in the video that makes me think it is anything other than a sturgeon, eel or water fowl.
Nessie is a real creature. And the UK government does know that it really exists.
Back in the early 1990s, if memory serves, there was a joint US/UK military testing series dealing with some what I can term “remote sensing” equipment at Loch Ness. I could get more specific, but the entire testing series is a very sensitive subject, as the remote sensing equipment was found to be able to do things not originally planned. It was potentially understood that they might get the results that they got, but not to the high-fidelity and other data-acquiring results that they did indeed ultimately get. (Sorry for the wordy–yet indistinct–description.)
Be that as it may, they used it at the Loch (because of the environmental factors there, if memory serves) and on a very regular basis, were able to track a number of large (and small, and medium sized) active, translaterally moving objects in the loch….through the entire body of water. I mean via breadth and length.
They also recorded times of the day that these incidents took place, the rising and falling depth-wise of the creatures, and so on. Basically, they were doing what a zoologist would be doing when observing animal behaviors. But this was for military purposes.
I happen to know one of the people who was involved in this testing. I also happen to know others who also know about this incident, who are independent of this particular person, who have confirmed that this did take place. This recollection was told to me in an off-the-record conversation. But I know about the project, and what took place there.
The UK government knows the creatures are real. That is the bottom line.
I can’t say for sure what it could be but I agree with pervious posters that it definately appears to be an animate creature of some kind. This could be the visual effect of the waves, but it seems to me to move in an almost serpentine way at times which suggests to me that it could be some sort of large eel. I also appreciate that the camera remains on the subject and that it isn’t a spot miles away. In my opinion, this is a decent piece of footage.
Check out the footage near the end. How is it possible for a creature to move like that? Notice how the cutting edge forks in two directions simultaneously? It’s as though it has two necks. This reminds me of the footage from Lake Champlain when two fisherman on a boat filmed what at times appears like an eel and others like tentacles.
Stray humpback whale.
All joking, aside, however, if you note the frames before the gentleman who looks like George Bernard Shaw appears, there’s something that’s rather sturgeon-like about its shape.
Just my two cents.
Woo woo. It looks like a head pops up right at the end, and the long dark length makes for a real mystery.
turk-
I agree that the sighting record is somewhat sparse for a significant population. But that doesn’t rule out a population that is transient – there have been land and river sightings close by.
greenmartian-
Without getting too specific, do you have a background in engineering involving naval or maritime projects?
Russian video–we may be talking about different videos because the one posted in our group has a definite vertical undulation that has been remarked upon by different group members.
About the size of the population needed to maintain Nessie sightings–I referred directly to recorded sightings of creatures actually observed as moving into and out of the Loch. Other observations say the same thing.
We are not talking about permanent populations, which raises the possibility of different types of creatures at different times.
OK– the “leading edge forking in two directions” near the end is probably just refraction through the waves.
Interesting but inconclusive, perhaps still useful, indeed measuring the speed and distance and estimating size could prove insightful.
I first thought “school of fish”– it reminded me of that scene from JAWS 2, where Chief Brody (Scheider) shoots what he thinks is a shark, only to realize it was just a large school of bluefish in close formation. Of course it sure does LOOK like one large object, so who knows.
I have watched, rewatched, and watched again using slow motion, stop action, pausing, etc. At first, I was very enthused that this was a species of Plesiosaur and could even make out what appears to be flippers in the right place at various times. I also thought that when the head appeared to split, it was the creature opening its jaws to catch a fish. Now, after viewing the better video stream here, I am of the believe that near the end when the head appears to split it actually indicates there are multiple smaller animals swimming in aggregate, most likely otters!
I don’t know why Scotland couldn’t commission either the British or US Navy to send in a submarine to scan the entire Loch? With their ultra sophisiticated tracking devices it would seem a simple matter to lay this to rest once and for all. Another method would seem to be to actually fish for the nessie using a tugboat with a crane and a tow hook. Now that would be interesting to watch. I would pay money to see that! LOL!