Loch Ness Envioromental DNA Research concludes Monster is a Giant Eel

The results of the study are finally out. According to the DNA research, the monster is mostly likely a giant eel.

The Loch Ness monster is no monster, but if it is any consolation it may be a big eel.

On Thursday, an international group of scientists that compiled the genetic profiles of living creatures in Scotland’s mysterious Loch Ness said they had found no evidence that the fabled eponymous creature was lurking in the lake.

“We have no definitive evidence of a monster,” said Professor Neil Gemmell of the University of Otago, New Zealand, who led the study.

The Loch Ness monster, or Nessie for short, is one of Scotland’s most enduring tales. Alleged sightings have given birth to stories of a prehistoric creature living in the loch.

The team of researchers led by Gemmell analyzed the environmental DNA — or genetic material shed by all life in Loch Ness — from around 250 samples of water collected from the lake last year, and compared it to large databases of genetic sequences from known species.The scientists did not find evidence of DNA sequences similar to those predicted to come from a large extinct marine reptile.

via CBS

a reply to: Frocharocha

Except sturgeon have been caught in Lochness, and this test showed no sturgeon. So, I'm thinking there still could potentially be a lochness monster since they didn't find any prehistoric dna for a plesiosaur.

a reply to: Frocharocha

that would fit with most descriptions.

a reply to: Frocharocha

That's disappointing, I was hoping it was a sturgeon.

Lol...They were looking at fish Poop

a reply to: Frocharocha

Interesting. I did some searches on google. Looks like the largest eels on record aren’t much more than 10 feet long.

I see from the article, that they don’t know how big it was from DNA sequencing.

Additionally, they got the DNA samples from the water? I don’t see how they could define this as a ‘giant eel’ from water samples.

I’m not saying I believe in the Loch Ness Monster. This article just seems very vague.

originally posted by: KKLOCO
a reply to: Frocharocha

Interesting. I did some searches on google. Looks like the largest eels on record aren’t much more than 10 feet long.

I see from the article, that they don’t know how big it was from DNA sequencing.

Additionally, they got the DNA samples from the water? I don’t see how they could define this as a ‘giant eel’ from water samples.

I’m not saying I believe in the Loch Ness Monster. This article just seems very vague.

Maybe they condluded the conditions of the loch ness don't allow for sturgeons to grow very big? Most articles report the same thing, so unless we have a DNA expert here, we can't say.

a reply to: KKLOCO

They range in size from only a few inches long to over 12 feet in length. Eels weigh, on average, around 30 pounds. But size, length and weight vary based on species and gender.

The world's biggest conger eel ever recorded was a gigantic fish of 350lb (159kgs) found trapped in nets off Iceland's Westmann Islands.

A giant conger eel weighing in at 131lb (59kgs) and measuring 21ft (6.4 metres) has been caught off the coast of Devon.

www.thehits.co.nz...

Darn, "The Loch Nest Giant Eel" just doesn't sound as exciting as "The Loch Nest Monster" and wouldn't make for a good movie.

Not sure why people are still chasing the tale.

That early fake black and white photo of a long necked plant eating dinosaur impacted our minds before the advent of the internet, I remember it clearly from when I was young and ignorant to everything I know now.

I don't see the main issue with its existence talked about much or at all; reproduction. If they are so scarce that no trace of them can ever be found, not a single irrefutable video or picture from the plethora of researchers and tourists from decades, if it exists, how does it find mates, have babies?

There was only one left and the photo was real? Highly unlikely but theoretically possible much like winning the mega millions jackpot. Those are the kind of odds we're dealing with here.

a reply to: SeaWorthy

I used to fish off a pier in Cairn Ryan (SW scotland), i can confirm conger eel to 40lb by just dropping your baited hook over the edge of the pier, they are ferocious. Ive been told they get em to 70-80lb with a good bait and patience, i wouldnt doubt it either.

originally posted by: KKLOCO
a reply to: Frocharocha

Interesting. I did some searches on google. Looks like the largest eels on record aren’t much more than 10 feet long.

I see from the article, that they don’t know how big it was from DNA sequencing.

Additionally, they got the DNA samples from the water? I don’t see how they could define this as a ‘giant eel’ from water samples.

I’m not saying I believe in the Loch Ness Monster. This article just seems very vague.

I remember reading a story when I was a kid in the 1960s about a scientist that was fishing for specimens off the coast of Chile. He caught a larval eel that was several feet long. He surmised that if it had grown to adulthood, it would have been at least 50 feet long.

I did some searching and found a similar story, but the scientist was fishing off the coast of South Africa:
Mysterious Universe

The creature had resembled a fish somewhat, but had a thin, translucent body about six feet in length. Bruun recognized the creature to be a leptocephalus, that is, the larva of some sort of eel. It isn’t uncommon for certain eels to grow to sizes larger than six feet in length; however, their larvae are proportionately much smaller, typically only one-thirtieth the size of the mature adult. If the specimen Bruun managed to capture was only the animal’s larval form, then how big would the adult have to be?

Again cbs told us the truth. just saying with all that fakadaka news , what's the value of such a statement. Loch Ness was a hoax tomorrow , and a dinosaur yesterday. Big Eel , sturgeon. Whatever. Anderson Cooper knows for sure it's trumps fault.

Oh nessie I love thy !

Ah, just what I predicted in my thread here . . .

Fosters Island Rule Applied to Lake Monsters

The DNA guys are from New Zealand, but a group from the UK are in Ireland to find the legendary Horse Eel.

However, Richard said this new study is particularly important because the ‘monsters’ may just be a massive strain of eel. He said: “The monsters may be a gigantic, mutant strain of the common eel. “The European eels live in freshwater but when it is ready to breed to swims out into the Sargasso Sea. “The eels breed and die here and the young swim back the waters inhabited by their ancestors. “However there is a theory that some eels never sexually develop. These eunuch eels as they are known, remain in freshwater and nobody knows just how long they live or how big they get.

Monster hunters coming to Ireland

The DNA evidence seems to support their theory. I'd like to see what they come up with, hopefully they actually can catch an extremely big one and prove the eunuch eel theory.

Visited Loch Ness in June and took tour by the boat there. Loch Ness is deep lake 230 meters deep and has more water in it than all the other lakes in UK together.
On the tour there were on the screen thermal images of the beast which didn´t look like a eel. Scientist took dna samples 250 and when you think about the depth of the lake and size of the lake 250 is nothing.

Congers DEFINITELY qualify as a monster.

So they are saying "Lack of evidence is evidence of absence".

Modern science.

a reply to: SeaWorthy

Pardon my language, but holy # O.O
I had no idea they could get THAT big O.O

Yeah Nessie!

Big Eels keep on turnin'

This needs to be on the Top list so list so people can see it instead of the Political Crap.

originally posted by: Nyiah
a reply to: SeaWorthy

Pardon my language, but holy # O.O
I had no idea they could get THAT big O.O

I didn't either! Sure could scare a person seeing that move through the water, might even eat a person!