- Loch Ness Monster: New Study Challenges Eel Hypothesis.
- Folk Zoology Society Publishes Scientific Investigation on Nessie.
- Freshwater Data Reveals Unlikelihood of Giant Eels in Loch Ness.
It was a tale destined for the headlines: a reclusive creature lurking in a picturesque Scottish lake.
It could have been a crocodile, a fish, or even a dinosaur. Nobody knew for certain, but many dismissed the Loch Ness Monster as nothing more than an unusually large eel.
Now, however, a scientist asserts that he has debunked the ‘eel hypothesis’ with a new theory that deepens the decades-old enigma.
The likelihood of encountering an eel of Nessie’s girth is 1 in 50,000, according to a recent study.
In this new publication from the Folk Zoology Society, scientific rigor and data are applied to a topic that is otherwise as elusive as an eel, according to author Floe Foxon.
Contrary to conventional belief, the intersection of folklore and zoology is amenable to scientific investigation and has the potential to yield important insights into anthrozoological phenomena.
This work also advocates for open-access science and nontraditional publishing, which represent the future of scientific publication.
As part of Foxon’s analysis, freshwater data was collected from a variety of freshwater bodies across Europe, including Loch Ness.
129 eels were measured between 1970 and 1971, approximately 40 years after the famous black-and-white portrait of Nessie.
Even though the ‘Surgeon’s Photograph’ is widely recognized as a hoax. It is estimated that the creature in this image measured between 0.6 and 2.4 meters in length.
Foxon concedes that the existence of a one-meter-long eel in the loch is not implausible.
A 1.05-meter-long eel was discovered in another lake by Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute researchers.
If it developed at an absurdly constant rate, a Scottish eel would take about 30 years to reach one metre.
And to reach six meters in length, an eel would have to develop rapidly for nearly 200 years, which is close to the Greenland shark’s longevity record.
The current study contradicts prior investigations, including a 2019 University of Otago study.
