Veteran Loch Ness Monster hunter believes the legendary cryptid is a gigantic wels catfish. Pic credit: Pixabay
A veteran Nessie hunter believes he’s solved the age-old mystery surrounding the elusive cryptid native to the Scottish Highlands.
Steve Feltham, an enthusiast who has spent half of the six decades of his life searching for evidence of the lake-dwelling legendary monster, believes Nessie is a wels catfish that grew to an enormous size.
Loch Ness Monster could be a wels catfish
There are competing theories about the Loch Ness Monster. Many enthusiasts believe it is a surviving member of extinct ancient dinosaurs known as Plesiosaurs.
However, Feltham has spent three decades hunting for the lake monster. He believes it is not a surviving ancient Plesiosaur, the Daily Star reported.
After years of gathering evidence, he concluded the monster was likely wels catfish that sport fishing enthusiasts introduced into the lake during the Victorian age (1800s).
Wels (Silurus glanis) are a large and long-lived species of catfish. They may grow up to 10 feet long, weigh 200kg, and live 100 years.
They are native to many freshwater habitats across the Mediterranean central, eastern, Caspain, and Baltic regions. Sport fishing enthusiasts introduced them to colder freshwater habitats in northwestern Europe, including the U.K.
Wels catfish rank alongside the beluga sturgeon (H. huso) as the largest freshwater fish in Europe and Asia.
Wels fit the description of Nessie, Feltham claimed
According to Feltham, the wels catfish fits folklore and witness descriptions of the Loch Ness Monster.
He argued that the higher frequency of Nessie sightings in the past could be because people introduced them to Loch Ness during the mid-1800s.
Many cryptid experts, including Andy McGrath, believe the lake monsters are still alive. Sightings are supposedly rare nowadays because the population has since dwindled.
However, others claim they became extinct in the middle of the last century. Paranormal Papers reported that a Scottish official claimed the last surviving Nessie may have died in 1942.
The official reportedly filed a Freedom of Information request with the Inverclyde Council and obtained documents suggesting that a local official incinerated the carcass of the last surviving lake monster.
A tourist sighted a Nessie the size of a “double-decker” bus
The latest development comes after Sash Lake, a tourist from Box, Wiltshire, reported sighting the Loch Ness Monster while visiting the Scottish Highlands in October.
While riding in a coach out of Drumnadrochit, a village on the shore of Loch Ness, Sash spotted a dark shape in the water.
He sat up to get a better look. He had to stand on his feet because trees impeded his view.
Sash saw a dark shape in the water from about 100 yards. It had a prominent hump and was about twice the size of a “double-decker” bus.