Mystery of the Loch Ness Monster Finally Solved?

What “weird news” page would be complete without a story about everybody’s favorite cryptid creature – the Loch Ness Monster.

Dr. Henry Bauer has spent decades researching the Loch Ness Monster. He has recently put forth a fascinating new theory that argues that the elusive creature could be an ancient sea turtle.

Bauer is a retired chemistry professor from Virginia Tech who developed a personal interest in Scotland’s famed creature back in the 1980s and has written several papers as well as a book on the creature. In his latest work, he dismisses the popular notions that Nessie might be a plesiosaur or perhaps a giant eel and, instead, offers a rather fantastic alternative idea.

Bauer posits that the “rarity of surface sightings” as well as the “occasional sightings on land” would seem to preclude the possibility that the creature is a plesiosaur. On the contrary, he contends that “everything described for the Loch Ness Monster” would seem to match the description of “many living and extinct species of turtles.” Specifically, he notes that Nessie reports would appear to indicate that the mysterious creatures in Loch Ness are “air-breathing but spend very long periods in deep water.”

Additionally, Bauer observed that “they venture onto land, are very fast in the water, have the ability to be active in very cold water and have relatively long necks.” He also declared that “none of the evidence supports the idea that these are monstrously large eels.” As such, taken together, he believes that all of these factors indicate that the “monster” is some kind of turtle species that wound up trapped in Loch Ness when the Ice Age came to a close.

2020 was a bit of a banner year for Nessie sightings. The mysterious Monster was “seen” 12 times last year. In December, a couple visiting the Loch said they saw a creature repeatedly surfacing. The news came weeks after a boat’s sonar picked up a 33ft object 550ft down.

At the time, Gary Campbell of the Official Loch Ness Sightings Register said, “It all adds to the mystery. In many ways, it is a vintage year for sightings.”

And Professor Bauer backs the claims, saying he is sure the Monster was real, having once joined an investigation into the beast. Bauer told the Daily Mail, “Tim Dinsdale’s film taken in 1960 is the conclusive proof, but there are also innumerable contacts by sonar, some excellent underwater photographs, and a few plausible surface photographs.” Adding, “I became seriously interested after seeing Dinsdale’s film, and 26 years later was an observer at Loch Ness during Operation Deep Scan, when a whole fleet of boats did a sonar search for Nessie. Everything points to creatures that spend most of their time in the deepest parts of the Loch.”

While Bauer believes whole-heartedly that there is proof in the existence of something, or several somethings, large and unknown living in the Loch, he adamantly says that “None of the evidence supports the idea that these are monstrously large eels.”

Professor Bauer also revealed he is a big fan of Scotland’s more genuine attractions – especially a full Scottish breakfast.