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There have now been at least two separate sightings of the Loch Ness Monster, the first of 2023, with one taking place, strangely enough, off the Somerset coast.
The first sighting took place in the Bristol Channel near Clevedon – far away from the Scottish Highlands.
“Myself and my six-year-old daughter Grace were walking along the seafront on Sunday and were sitting on one of the benches before the pier. The shape was right next to the pier and I noticed it moving,” said Anna Purse, who was out taking a walk with her six year-old daughter when she spotted it.
“It moved all the way along the sea in front of us whilst we were sat there. My daughter Grace said it looked like a sea monster. Just the shape of it reminded me of Nessie.”
After several people including Purse posted photos of the creature on social media, causing a bit of a stir, many settled on the belief that it was nothing more than an unusual shaped piece of driftwood, though it has been six months since an “official” sighting of the creature.
Harder to explain away was a Loch Ness Monster sighting by Eoin O’Faodhagain who captured two clips of something in the water near Shoreland Lodges in Loch Ness, near Fort Augustus.
“My reaction was I couldn’t believe what I was viewing, and it all happened so fast,” said O’Faodhagain.
“In the first video clip, something moves on the surface for a couple of seconds then you see two shadowy wakes moving in two lines under the surface.
“It probably moves left like this for about 15 feet then it is gone.”
2023 marks the 90th anniversary of the first reported sighting of the Loch Ness Monster.
“The second unusual occurrence happened slightly further out in the loch – you see a large white round disturbance on the surface,: he continued.
“You would think it is just a fish jumping, but it is not like that at all. It is too big and the water is too agitated.
“You may not see a body, but there’s definite movement in the water that cannot be explained by natural occurrences.”
There have been many theories over the years as to what the Loch Ness Monster really is, or if it even exists at all.
Over the years, the Loch Ness Monster sightings have been blamed on everything from eels and birds to otters and catfish.
In 2021, a theory was put forth that the Loch Ness Monster is a type of undiscovered turtle that somehow got trapped in the loch many years ago.
One of the most popular theories ties the Loch Ness Monster to extinct plesiosaurs.
Last year, scientists claimed that the existence of the Loch Ness Monster is “plausible” thanks to a discovery of fossils of small plesiosaurs in a freshwater river.
Another theory posits that Nessie isn’t any of those things and actually exists in a parallel universe, which would explain why the creature is always able to disappear before anyone can get too close to get a decent photo or video of the monster despite over 1,000 reported sightings since 1933.