h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I visited Loch Ness last week. There is scientific evidence (using sonar scanning) to suggest there is a sizeable living creature living in Loch Ness. The "boring" solution is, apparently, that there are sturgeon in the depths of the loch!

Sturgeon? That IS dull.

Isn't it! I have to admit, when the tour guide revealed this information, I was somewhat disappointed

However, Loch Ness is *so* deep that many people believe that something more interesting could be lurking within the depths.

Nothing dull about Sturgeon, that's where you get caviare from you know. I personally don't believe in Sturgeon though, it's a bit far-fetched.

The sturgeon is a fine and noble creature. I wish the entire species nothing but the best, really. I just think they're a less than exciting candidate for Loch Ness Monster. Lacks a bit of romance, you know.

When people talk about 'Nessie', they usually have in their mind a picture of some kind of sea-serpent, or else a plesiosaur that somehow 'got lost'. Even laying aside the issue that Loch Ness was frozen over during the Ice Age (no lost dinosaurs, then), it's unlikely that 'Nessie' could be anything like as big as people would like. OK, so the loch is deep enough to hide something large. However, you would need a sizeable family of 'Nessies' to provide a viable breeding population, and I doubt that the loch could support such a family over the hundreds (if not thousands) of years that they must have been there.