Loch Ness and The Loch Ness Monster

Loch Ness is the largest Loch (by volume) in Scotland at over 22 miles long and with some sections as deep as 754ft (deeper than the North Sea). The volume of water contained here is the same as the combined total of inland lakes in the whole of England and Wales.

Due to both the depth of the Loch and also the low visibility in Loch Ness (due to peaty water) searching the Loch is difficult. Even with the most modern technology, the current brightest lights still only provide around 10 meters of visibility in this water.

These factors are a large part of the reason why the proving or disproving of the the Loch Ness Monster is so difficult. The most popular modern method that has been used in trying to find the Loch Ness Monster is sonar.

The largest example of this technology getting used occurred in 1987 in a project known as Operation Deep Scan. This involved a total of 19 ships lining up across Loch Ness, each equipped with sonar equipment. The idea was to sweep the whole of Loch Ness and prove or disprove the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster.

There were several contacts made but none of Nessie with the largest contact being larger than a shark but smaller than a whale. That was the last large scale search for the Loch Ness Monster and to this day there has still to be any definitive proof either for or against the Loch Ness Monster.