THE latest hunt for Nessie is under way, with a top scientist coming from the ends of the earth in search of the tiniest trace of the monster.
Professor Neil Gemmell of Otago University in New Zealand has come to Scotland to find a sample of DNA, no matter how minute, that would prove the existence of a monster in Loch Ness.
The scientist from the university’s department of anatomy will trawl the deep waters of Loch Ness – the largest single volume of fresh water on the island of Great Britain – to find any sort of DNA sample. Excrement, urine and skin cells can all yield DNA, and no similar search has been undertaken before, bringing the possibility that some unknown DNA might show it is possible that Nessie exists or has existed.
The National told last week how there have only been two claimed sightings of Nessie this year, leading some people to think that the monster – first encountered by St Columba 1,500 years ago – has retired, or worse. The most recent sighting was last month, when retired engineer Peter Jackson and former lawyer Phillippa Wearne, of Sydney, Australia, took a picture of something large gliding through the water.
Wearne told reporters: “I really was just stunned and I thought, ‘what is it?’ It was pretty big even from 150 yards or more offshore. I didn’t know what to think.
“We took photos and showed them to people at a B&B and (then) on a cruise. Skipper for the Loch Ness Project, Ali Matheson, said he had not seen anything like it.”
Gemmell is being backed in his quest by the naturalist Adrian Shine, a veteran Nessie hunter.
He told Newshub television in New Zealand: “The thing about these hidden animals is we want lost worlds, places we haven’t been, places that conceivably the ordinary person could visit.
“We want there to be in nature and in reality dragons.”
Shine, who once spent many hours in a bathyscape suspended in the loch while looking for Nessie, added about the DNA search: “It’s extremely important because it means I can do this in carpet slippers – it has elegance.”
Gemmell outlined his theory when the project was announced in April. “We use environmental DNA to monitor marine biodiversity,” he said. “From a few litres of water we can detect thousands of species.”
“All large organisms lose cells as they move through their environment. New genomic technology is sensitive enough to pick this up and we can use comparisons to databases that span the majority of known living things.
“If there was anything unusual in the loch, these DNA tools would be likely to pick up that evidence.”
Gemmell said on arrival in Scotland at the weekend: “We are always excited at the prospect of discovering something new. I suspect there are new things to be found in Loch Ness.
“As scientists we will deal with the evidence, but I hope it doesn’t affect the tourism industry.
“I suspect we are never going to disprove the idea (of the monster), and people who want to believe will continue to believe.”
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