Sonar Image of Large Object Submitted to The Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register

The object as photographed by Scanlon. (Benjamin Scanlon / The Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Registry) — The object as photographed by Scanlon. *(Benjamin Scanlon / The Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Registry)*

The latest sighting report posted to The Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register features a sonar image captured by tourist Benjamin Scanlon while aboard the cruise ship 'Nessie Hunter' of Loch Ness Cruises.

According to the report, Scanlon noticed something on the sonar and took a picture of it while touring Scotland's Loch Ness with his family on August 26th.

Mike Bell, the boat's skipper, estimated the object to be between three and four meters (10 and 13 feet) in length, and at a depth of about 20 meters (65 feet).

The depth of the loch at the sighting area was 40 meters (131 feet) deep.

This is Bell’s second such sonar capture since first acting as skipper in 2019.

In June of that year, Bell was piloting a group of tourists around Loch Ness when one of them drew his attention to an object on the sonar, which he estimated to be between three and seven meters (10 and 25 feet) in length and approximately 35 meters (115 feet) below the surface.

Two other sonar images were captured by Cruise Loch Ness director Ronald Mackenzie in late 2020.

Mackenzie's sonar images were recorded within a mile of each other in the loch, off of Invermoriston, and at a depth of several hundred feet.

The objects in those images were estimated to be about twice the size of that recorded by Scanlon.

A 2019 study by Neil Gemmell, a New Zealand scientist and professor at the University of Otago, found no evidence of any large animals such as sturgeon, catfish, sharks, or surviving prehistoric plesiosaurs in Loch Ness, but it did find an abundance of eel DNA.

This has caused some to speculate that perhaps these sonar images show a species of giant eel.

Others have dismissed the images captured aboard ‘Nessie Hunter’ as schools of fish, although those recorded by Mackenzie don’t lend themselves easily to that explanation.

Ultimately, the sonar images remain unexplained.

This is the fifth “official” sighting of something mysterious in Loch Ness this year, which, when combined with eight submitted webcam images, makes for a total of 13 entries in The Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register so far in 2021.

To report your own encounter with the impossible, reach out to us directly at the Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.

If you enjoyed this article and would like to support the Singular Fortean Society, please consider becoming an official member by signing up through our Patreon page—membership includes a ton of extra content and behind-the-scenes access to the Society’s inner workings.