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The largest search for the elusive Loch Ness Monster in over 50 years went off as planned this past weekend.
Organized by a group of volunteer researchers calling themselves Loch Ness Exploration, the massive search ended up yielding some interesting results, but no actual sightings of the legendary creature.
Despite using surveying equipment that has never been used on Loch Ness, thermal drones with infrared cameras, a hydrophone capable of detecting acoustic signals from the deep, and around 100 volunteer Nessie hunters on hand, finding proof of the existence of the Loch Ness Monster continued to be difficult.
What they discovered were some unique sounds emanating from the mysterious water.
“When we were testing the equipment, we did hear four distinctive noises that we didn’t know where it was coming from,” Alan McKenna from Loch Ness Exploration said.
“We didn’t know the origin of it was, which is quite exciting.”
McKenna added, “It may well be gas escaping from the bottom of the loch. It could be an animal or, of course, it could be the elusive Loch Ness monster.”
Unfortunately, the sounds were not recorded during the testing of the equipment.
However, with the dozens of volunteers in attendance and a couple hundred more participating online, there was much footage recorded. Some of it reportedly showed “unexplained” movement in the loch.
Two such instances were captured by perhaps the most prolific Loch Ness Monster hunter in the world, Eoin O’Faodhagain, who wrote, “Object emerges from behind boat wake, looks like a singular event, with no connection to the wake. Part of an object appears first then a round black hump appears and disappears as a boat comes into view, moving in its direction. The object left a disturbance on the surface. It was more than a half a mile away from webcam, on the other side of the loch.”
McKenna also stated that the images from the thermal drones resulted in “a lot of data” that will require time to review.
Earlier in the week, Paige Daley, operator of the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club TikTok account, formed her own expedition and discovered an underground cave system in Loch Ness.
Sadly, her search also did not yield any definitive proof of the existence of the Loch Ness Monster so the search continues.