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Saturday 10 December 2016

HOAXED BY SEALS

A Genuine Case of Mistaken Identity


It has been a bumper year for Nessie sightings, with 7 genuine recorded sightings, most of which have been photographed or filmed.

After keeping a low profile for a couple of years, it seems that the Loch Ness Monsters are back on form and popping up all over the Loch to the delight of tourists and lake monster enthusiasts alike.

There have not only been a lot of recorded Nessie sightings in 2016, but also a record number of sightings of other 'Nessie like' creatures all around the British Isles!

So, when I read in the metro on my commute to work one morning that an amateur photographer (Ian Bremner) had finally captured indisputable proof of Nessie, I was as you would expect, quite EXCITED!


Photographic proof of Nessie or 3 seals swimming in a line?
Photo by Ian Bremner

However, what I saw in the photograph was 3 seals swimming in formation. 
For a moment my disappointment was palpable, but the more I examined the picture, the less sure of my 'Diagnosis' I became.

I looked and looked, then looked again!
The front of the 'formation'  definitely looked like the torso and head of a seal, but the middle and back 'Humps' seemed so serpentine, causing me to doubt my convictions, like a loud chorus of singing sirenians, somehow posing in mockery of 'Nessie's' purported undulations.

Furthermore, there also appeared to be water displacement at the front of the middle and back 'Hump' as well as partially visible, seal-like flippers on the final 'Hump'. 

 I suddenly heard myself say out loud, "This photo is quite obviously 3 seals swimming in formation!"

I admit to feeling slightly shaken by how long it had taken me to come to this conclusion and freely admit, that were it not for the location of the sighting and the 'Serpentine' pose that these seals were photographed in, I would never have considered the photo to show anything other than what it clearly shows, which is, 3 seals!

I think the inherent danger of blind belief and acceptance of what we desire to be true is extant in this case. However, it also proves something very encouraging about cryptozoology and that is that the majority of its adherents are more than willing to critique and discard desirable, yet flawed theories and evidence to pursue the search for real truth and hopefully one day, a final scientific acceptance of the mysterious animals they so earnestly believe to exist.



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