Photographs deemed ‘most exciting’ images of Loch Ness monster ever captured are ‘most likely’ a sturgeon, claims paranormal investigator
- Hayley Stevens claims the ‘time of year and location’ point to it being a sturgeon
Photographs that Loch Ness monsters hunters believe could be of the famed sea creature are ‘most likely’ a sturgeon, a paranormal investigator has claimed.
Chie Kelly captured starting images of an unidentified large creature slowly spinning on the surface of the legendary loch in August five years ago.
Mrs Kelly, 51, who works as a translator, was so shocked by what she saw that she feared public ridicule and did not share the images.
But after reading about the biggest search for Nessie in over 50 years that took place last month, she was inspired to share the images – which were quickly hailed as the ‘most exciting’ pictures taken of Nessie in decades.
However, paranormal researcher Hayley Stevens, who regularly contributes to the BBC Radio 4 podcast Uncanny, doubts Mrs Kelly actually captured Nessie and claims that due to the ‘time of year and location’ the photo is probably of a sturgeon.
Photographs that Loch Ness monsters hunters believe could be of the famed sea creature are ‘most likely’ a sturgeon, a paranormal investigator has claimed. Pictured is an image captured by Chie Kelly in August 2018
Chie Kelly captured starting images of an unidentified large creature slowly spinning on the surface of the legendary loch in August five years ago. The photos recently resurfaced and were quickly hailed as the ‘most exciting’ pictures taken of Nessie in decades
Thousands of people have taken to social media and message boards in a bid to debunk what Mrs Kelly’s camera actually captured.
Theories have ranged from the Loch Ness monster, to otters playing, bin bags, a deflated dinghy and everything in between.
‘I personally think it is most likely that they saw a large sturgeon in the Loch,’ Ms Stevens wrote today on her award-winning science blog, Hayley is a Ghost.
‘The photos were taken in August 2018 and sturgeon migrate into fresh water in late summer and early autumn to mate, before heading back out to coastal waters.
‘Sturgeon can grow very large – the Atlantic and European sturgeon, which are native to the UK, can grow up to five metres in length.
‘Most importantly though, we have to acknowledge the fact that we’ll probably not know for sure what the photo shows but something being currently unexplained does not mean it is unexplainable.’
Chie Kelly, 51,(pictured) was taking photographs from the village of Dores when she and her businessman husband Scott, 68, saw a strange ‘serpent-like’ creature moving over a distance of around 100 metres before disappearing
A second photograph taken by Charlotte Robinson, of Leeds, just four days after Mrs Kelly’s images were captured has also recently emerged. The young girl said she was staying at Loch Ness Highland Lodges at Invermoriston when she said she saw the beast pop up about 50 feet away from her on the first day of her holiday
Charlotte Robinson from Leeds in Yorkshire was staying at Loch Ness Highland Lodges at Invermoriston when she said she saw the beast
While many viewers claim they see Nessie’s face when zooming in on Mrs Kelly’s pictures, the paranormal researcher warns that zooming actually distorts the image.
Ms Stevens said: ‘The photos are a part of the mystery as they do not clearly show what’s in the water.
‘This does not stop people from zooming in on the photo – to the point that the photo quality is distorted, in the hope that they’ll find a pixel that tells them the answer.
READ MORE: Hunt for Nessie begins! Hundreds of volunteers join the biggest search for elusive Loch Ness Monster in 50 years – days after holidaymaker ‘spotted’ the famed beast during family boat trip
‘In reality, any further detail that emerges from zooming in on a photo to the point that it is pixelated is likely to come from the pareidolia effect.’
The so-called pareidolia effect refers to a process in which the brain interprets images, light patterns or shadows as faces.
Mrs Kelly’s photos, taken on August 13, 2018, show an eel-like creature slowly spinning on the surface of Loch Ness, in the village of Dores, shortly before it disappeared underwater.
She quickly started taking pictures after she and her businessman husband Scott, 68, saw a strange ‘serpent-like’ creature moving across a distance of around 100m at a ‘steady speed’ from right to left about 200m from the shore.
‘We had lunch in the Dores Inn and then started walking around. I was just taking pictures with my Cannon camera of Scott and our daughter Alisa, who was then five, when about 200 metres from the shore, moving right to left at a steady speed was this creature,’ Ms Kelly, 51, said.
‘It was spinning and rolling at times. We never saw a head or neck. After a couple of minutes it just disappeared and we never saw it again,’ she added.
‘At first I wondered if it was an otter or a pair of otters or a seal, but we never saw a head and it never came up again for air.
‘It was making this strange movement on the surface. We did not hear any sound. There were these strange shapes below the surface. I could not make out any colours – the water was dark.’
In 1994, before his death at the age of 90, Christian Spurling confessed to his involvement in a plot to create the famous Surgeon’s Photo
‘I could not accurately assess its length, but the two parts that were visible were less then two metres long together.
‘I don’t know what it was but it was definitely a creature – an animal. At the time I did not want to face public ridicule by making the photographs public.’
Loch Ness Monster expert Steve Feltham described Mrs Kelly’s photos as ‘the most exciting surface pictures (of Nessie) I have seen’.
They are exactly the type of pictures I have been wanting to take for three decades. It is rare to see something so clear on the surface.
‘They are vindication for all the people who believe there is something unexplained in Loch Ness. They are remarkable. I have studied them and still do not know what it is.
‘We are lucky the Kellys have decided to go public at last. I have met the Kellys twice and they are absolutely genuine.
‘I persuaded them that these pictures were so important they should make them public. They warrant further investigation. It is not driftwood – it is a moving creature and totally unexplained,’ Mr Feltham said.
Organiser Alan McKenna (left) joins Nessie hunters on board a boat on Loch Ness for what was described as the biggest search for the Loch Ness Monster since the early 1970s
The Loch Ness Centre teamed up with a voluntary group called Loch Ness Exploration last month in order to gather up as many Nessie enthusiasts as possible for the largest search in 50 years. Pictured: A metal sign warning that Nessie lurks in the water
People aboard the vessel ‘Nessie Hunter’ react as it arrives back at the moorings in Drumnadrochit on Loch Ness last month
A second photograph taken by a young girl just four days after Mrs Kelly’s images were captured has also recently emerged.
Charlotte Robinson from Leeds in Yorkshire was staying at Loch Ness Highland Lodges at Invermoriston when she said she saw the beast pop up about 50 feet away from her on the first day of her holiday.
Charlotte, 12, said a strange creature surfaced in front of her for about a minute before re-surfacing approximately ten feet away seven minutes later.
Charlotte was on holiday with her mum Kat, a business intelligence data analyst, and her father Dave, a factory worker.
Mr and Mrs Robinson had stayed at the same holiday centre 16 years earlier.
Charlotte saw the creature and captured it on her phone.
‘There was something in the water about 50 feet from the shore. I took a photo. It had a neck and head was in the shape of a hook,’ Charlotte said.
‘I just took what I saw. It was black – I just don’t know how far it was out of the water. I’m not good at judging distances.
Charlotte, 12, said a strange creature surfaced in front of her for about a minute before re-surfacing approximately ten feet away seven minutes later. She is pictured at Loch Ness where she took a photo of what she thinks is Nessie in August 2018
‘But after about a minute it disappeared and then came back up again in a different place. It was up for less than a minute the second time. I kinda believed in Nessie, but I wanted to see the proof. I always imagined her as having a long neck and flippers.
‘I have seen something but I’m not sure what.’
Her mum added: ‘Charlotte said she had taken a photo of a creature in the loch and I said, “Right, sure you have!” For weeks she’s been going on about seeing the Loch Ness Monster.
‘But when I saw the picture, I couldn’t believe it. Something’s there. With all the sightings over the years there must be something in the loch.’
What IS the Loch Ness Monster?
Rumours of a strange creature living in the waters of Loch Ness have abounded over the decades, yet scant evidence has been found to back up these claims.
One of the first sightings, believed to have fuelled modern Nessie fever, came in May 2, 1933.
On this date the Inverness Courier carried a story about a local couple who claim to have seen ‘an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface’.
Another famous claimed sighting is a photograph taken in 1934 by Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson.
It was later exposed as a hoax by one of the participants, Chris Spurling, who, on his deathbed, revealed that the pictures were staged.
Other sightings James Gray’s picture from 2001 when he and friend Peter Levings were out fishing on the Loch, while namesake Hugh Gray’s blurred photo of what appears to be a large sea creature was published in the Daily Express in 1933.
Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London physician, captured arguably the most famous image of the Loch Ness Monster. The surgeon’s photograph was published in the Daily Mail on April 21, 1934 – however it was later proven to be a fake
The first reported sighting of the monster is said to have been made in AD565 by the Irish missionary St Columba when he came across a giant beast in the River Ness.
But no one has ever come up with a satisfactory explanation for the sightings – although in 2019, ‘Nessie expert’ Steve Feltham, who has spent 24 years watching the Loch, said he thought it was actually a giant Wels Catfish, native to waters near the Baltic and Caspian seas in Europe.
An online register lists more than 1,000 total Nessie sightings, created by Mr Campbell, the man behind the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club and is available at www.lochnesssightings.com.
So what could explain these mysterious sightings?
Many Nessie witnesses have mentioned large, crocodile-like scutes sitting atop the spine of the creature, leading some to believe an escaped amphibian may be to blame.
Native fish sturgeons can also weigh several hundred pounds and have ridged backs, which make them look almost reptilian.
Some believe Nessie is a long-necked plesiosaur – like an elasmosaur – that survived somehow when all the other dinosaurs were wiped out.
Others say the sightings are down to Scottish pines dying and flopping into the loch, before quickly becoming water-logged and sinking.
While submerged, botanical chemicals start trapping tiny bubbles of air.
Eventually, enough of these are gathered to propel the log upward as deep pressures begin altering its shape, giving the appearance of an animal coming up for air.
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