Daily Mail - 06.09.2019

Daily Mail, Friday, September 6, 2019 Page 23

Is Nessie a giant eel?

... AND WHAT’S BEEN RULED OUT

THE ‘SURGEON’S PHOTOGRAPH’

First ever DNA study of loch rules out monster legend

and points to a 10ft-long slippery customer instead

Research: Professor Neil Gemmell with Nessie expert Adrian Shine

Famous: Image from 1934 purported to show monster

By Victoria Allen

Science Correspondent

It is a legend which has persisted

since the 6th century – a huge

dinosaur-like monster roams the

depths of Loch Ness.

But the first ever DNA study of the

650ft-deep Scottish lake has failed to

find any evidence to support the myth

and pointed to a massive eel as the

most likely source of the story instead.

Scientists say 250 water samples show

no genetic evidence for the theory that

the monster is a prehistoric marine crea-

ture called a plesiosaur.

the study also found no genetic mate-

rial to support speculation that Nessie

may be a giant sturgeon, a catfish or a

wandering shark from Greenland. But it

discovered a significant amount of eel

DNA. that could mean there are giant eels

in the water rearing up to appear like the

arching neck of a monster.

Study leader Professor Neil Gemmell

said: ‘Eels are very plentiful in Loch Ness,

Red alert over pink salmon invasion from Russia

AN invasive breed of salmon – which has

spread from Russia – is colonising Britain’s

rivers and putting native fish at risk.

In 2017, ‘unprecedented’ numbers of the

Pacific pink salmon were seen in British

waters, where they successfully spawned.

And now after two years out at sea,

the Environment Agency is warning that

more pink salmon will return to British

waters this year to spawn.

The danger is that they will introduce

diseases or parasites that could afflict

Britain’s native Atlantic salmon and wild

trout and compete with them for food.

Pink salmon are native to the icy waters

off Alaska and Canada but they were intro-

duced to Russian rivers in the 1960s and

came to Britain after spreading across

northern Norway. In 2017, seven pink

salmon were recorded on the rivers

Wear, Tyne, Coquet, the Humber, Hamp-

shire Avon in Dorset, Frome and from the

mouth of the Solway estuary.

Pacific pink salmon are smaller than

Atlantic, and sometimes have a hump on

their back. They are steel blue or blue-

green with silver flanks and white bellies.

They also have a distinctive black tongue,

and are about 40-60cm (16-24ins) in

length. The Environment Agency said:

‘Owing to the two-year life cycle of this

species, 2019 will be the first year that we

can expect to see these fish return in

numbers.’ Simon Toms, of the agency,

added: ‘Anyone catching a pink salmon is

urged not to return it to the water, but to

report it, photograph it and freeze it.’

There have been ten confirmed sight-

ings across Britain this year, including one

in Wales, three in Scotland, and two off

the Northumbrian coast.

By Colin Fernandez

Environment Correspondent

with eel DNA found at pretty

much every location sampled.

‘We don’t know from their DNA

if they are giant eels but a

genetic quirk could see them

potentially grow large – perhaps

10ft. the thought is these large

eels would be infertile, staying

in the loch instead of going to

the sea to spawn, thus reaching

an unusual size.

‘It is a plausible idea that peo-

ple who thought they were see-

ing the Loch Ness monster were

instead seeing a very large eel.’

there have been more than

1,000 recorded sightings of the

Loch Ness Monster since the

legend began in the 6th century.

the myth is worth nearly £41mil-

lion a year to the economy,

inspiring people to visit the area

near Inverness.

the most famous photo of

Nessie, taken by London sur-

geon Robert Wilson in 1934, was

exposed as a hoax partially

made using a toy from Wool-

worths. there have been many

previous attempts to find the

truth from a search party of 20

men heading out with binocu-

lars in 1934 to Operation Deep-

scan in 1987, which picked up

water samples from the centre,

edges and depths of the loch,

Professor Gemmell found no

evidence of any reptile living or

extinct. the water is probably

too cold for them to live there.

the research debunks the idea

of Jurassic-age plesiosaurs hav-

ing outlived the extinction of

the dinosaurs to survive in Scot-

land. the professor said: ‘We

can’t find any evidence of a crea-

ture that’s remotely related to

that in our DNA-sequence data.

So sorry, I don’t think the plesio-

saur idea holds up.’

A theory that the monster may

be a sturgeon, which can grow

to almost 10ft long and live for

more than 100 years, was not

supported by the study. Neither

did it find evidence that Nessie

could be a giant catfish intro-

duced by Victorians to make

angling more interesting in the

loch. the monster is also not a

Greenland shark, which can

grow up to 21ft in length, and

could have got lost and strayed

into Loch Ness.

the tests found more than 68

per cent human DNA and 10 per

cent eel DNA, as well as mate-

rial from dogs, deer, pikes and

salmon. Professor Gemmell

said: ‘Divers have claimed that

they’ve seen eels that are as

thick as their legs in the loch.

However, no such eel has ever

been found or caught.’

Chris taylor, of VisitScotland,

said he did not expect the find-

ings to deter tourists hoping to

spot Nessie. He insisted: ‘Ques-

tions still remain and visitors

will, no doubt, continue to be

drawn to the loch to seek

answers for themselves.’

‘1,000 sightings

of creature’

only three objects on sonar

which could have been seals.

the study by Professor Gem-

mell, from the University of

Otago in New Zealand, involved

searching the water for DNA left

behind by animals from their

skin, urine and faeces.

Sequencing the DNA of 250

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