The world's foremost expert on the Loch Ness Monster is sitting in a lodge overlooking the fabled highland lake, discussing plans to seek UN World Heritage Site status to protect the area. Suddenly his eyes flash to the window and a pointing finger shoots out like the hand of God."Look -- look out on the loch! That's amazing!" A visiting Canadian journalist jumps to the window, wildly hopeful -- despite himself -- that he will see Nessie cutting through the cold, dark water below. Instead, the object of excitement is an antique coal-burning steamboat billowing clouds of black smoke as it chugs southward down Loch Ness."That's a Clyde Puffer," says Adrian Shine, naturalist, scientist, inventor, explorer, renaissance man and chief guardian of the Loch Ness legacy.
"Haven't seen one of those in years."
Shine's eyes
sparkle with pleasure at the sight of the rare watercraft. Or perhaps
amusement at the naive expectancy and obvious disappointment of the
visitor.
Adrian Shine certainly wasn't expecting to see a long-necked water beast cruising down his beloved loch.
Photo a Fraud
Shine's Loch Ness Project
group was instrumental in unmasking the most famous image of Nessie --
the so-called "surgeon's photo" seen on the next page -- as a fraud in
1994, 60 years after it seared the spectacle of a prehistoric water
monster into the publicimagination.
He has been exploring the
loch's immensely deep underwater world for the past 34 years. In that
time, the young zealot has become the reasoned and skeptical elder
statesman, debunker of hoaxes and false hopes, and formulator of
rational explanations for the hundreds of eyewitness accounts of Nessie
sightings.
But still, there is always the hope of a Nessie eureka.
As Shine says: "I do not
believe in the Loch Ness Monster -- yet -- because there isn't enough
evidence for it. But 1,000 people like you and me do believe they've
seen it."
Shine first came to Loch
Ness in 1973, more than a decade after organized, scientific
investigation of the Nessie phenomenon had begun. His early efforts
were more brave than productive. The first summer, he spent nights
rowing around Loch Ness and aneve......
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Strange creature found washed up on beach
Mystery creature found in Okanagan Lake
"Mermaid" sightings grip Israel
Monster bug attaches itself to submarine
Cyprus official search for lake monster
Investigation demanded in to "lake monster" deaths
Monster spotted in Lake Windermere
Dinsdale insists Nessie photos were real
Orkney beast 'similar to Nessie'
