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There have been numerous sightings of the Loch Ness Monster in 2023, even before last weekend’s big search.
Several of these sightings were reported by Eoin O’Faodhagain, perhaps the most prolific Loch Ness Monster hunter in the world.
O’Faodhagain regularly monitors the Loch Ness webcams searching for signs of the cryptid and has had multiple sightings in 2023, adding to his total of more than 20 since 2017.
Etienne Camel, a pharmacist from Lyon in France, and his wife Eliane also claimed to have spotted the monster while taking photos on the west side of the loch.
In April, tourist John Payne, 55, from Newport in Wales seen Nessie as he was looking over the water from his hotel window.
However, none of those sightings were good enough to be logged in the Official Loch Ness Monster Register.
2023 has actually been a very slow year for the Official Loch Ness Monster Register.
They have recorded just five sightings this year after there also being just five in 2022. Prior to that the Loch Ness Monster had been officially spotted 13 times in 2020, 18 in 2019, 15 in 2018, 14 in 2017, and 11 in 2000.
The fourth and fifth official sightings that were recorded both took place in the month of August.
“Steve Valentine visiting from Urmston in Manchester was on holiday with his family when he saw something from the Deepscan boat as they were returning from a tour at around 1pm,” Gary Campbell of the Official Loch Ness Monster Register wrote in an August 17th entry.
“He said ‘I just saw a black shape in the water. It was when we were returning to the dock near to Urquhart Castle. I lost sight of it when the boat turned, but managed to get a quick photo from a distance.'”
A zoomed in version of the picture can be viewed here.
Then, in an August 26 entry, Campbell wrote, “Alastair Gray, taking part in the LNE search, reported that at 3.20pm that he saw something unusual half way across the loch from his position near Invermoriston.
“Mr Gray, a civil servant, reported seeing three odd and seemingly connected shapes where one part was sticking out of the water at 45 degrees with two other humps going up and own as if it was moving.”
The sketch of what he saw can be viewed here.
Meanwhile, during the big search that took place last weekend, production company Dragonfly Films used thermal imaging tech to film what they believe to be Nessie near the shore of the loch.
“This thermal imaging technology has been available for several years now, and it seems remarkable that no one has yet deployed such equipment in an effort to investigate this mystery,” he said. “It did detect an unusual heat signature on one of the thermal imaging drones – a large mass near the shore.”
That footage will be included in the season finale of the TV series Weird Britain, which is expected to be broadcast on television in the UK and released online later this year, according to the Mirror.