Tourist Steve Challice was visiting the Urquhart Castle on the banks of the Loch last year when he spotted something that would make him question one of the biggest cryptid debates of all time- the Loch Ness Monster.
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Challice noticed that there was a ripple of movement in the lake and realising his opportunity to meet Nessie, he whipped out his camera and started snapping away.
Luckily, unlike the usual despicably blurry and low-quality photos of Ness that have been supplied in the past, Challice's photo is possibly one of the clearest images taken of the creature. Steve told the Daily Record:
I started taking a couple of shots and then this big fish came to the surface and then went back down again.It only appeared in one shot and to be honest that was something of a fluke. I watched for a while as you can see from the last picture but didn't see it again.
Steve posted the image online and it has since sparked up a debate about the Loch Ness Monster. But, Challice urges everyone to slow their roll as he doesn't believe in the beast himself and claims that it was probably something completely reasonable and rather boring. He added:
I have to say I don't believe in the Loch Ness Monster and frankly I think if anything is there then there is a logical explanation for most of the sightings. My guess would be that what I captured was a catfish or something like that.
Challice also mentioned that the creature was about thirty feet away and about eight feet long so it could have also been a seal that had made it's way up from the sea:
As seals get in from the sea then I expect that's what it is and that would explain why these sightings are so few and far between.
Loch Ness Mystery blog writer, Author Roland Watson, has made contact with Steve about the image as he believes, if it is the Loch Ness Monster, then it could be one of the clearest photo's of Nessie ever seen:
Up until now this year we only had distant webcam blobs due to the lockdown at Loch Ness, then this image turned up.
He continued:
If this is a genuine picture of a creature in Loch Ness, it would easily rank in the top three of all time. At this point, I am in an ongoing conversation with Steve as to the objections and concerns I have about this being a photoshop picture. So we will see where that takes us.
Another photographer has also sparked concerns that the image was photoshopped due to the indistinct patterns on the animal's pelt and the saturation of the photo's colour. But, Steve still insists that the photo is original and untouched. He stated:
I genuinely think, to this day, it's just a big fish.
