In the past month or so, tourist boat skipper Ronald Mackenzie — of Cruise Loch Ness — has reported two mysterious objects deep below the surface of the loch. Both were discovered on sonar.
The first object was found on September 30 while Mackenzie was skippering his catamaran The Spirit Of Loch Ness. The object was located about 500 feet below the surface, and seemingly measured around 32ft long (though later analysis would show it actually measured 15-20ft long).
The encounter lasted no longer than 10 seconds, as the vessel, with 12 passengers aboard, passed over the unidentified anomaly.
The second object, reported in mid-October, appeared to be slightly larger at 33ft long, but around 600ft below the surface, as reported by the Strathspey & Badenoch Herald.
The two sightings occurred about one mile apart from each other, near the small village of Invermoriston. Of the initial encounter, Mackenzie said it was a first for him. “I’ve been on the loch since I was 16 years old,” he said, “and I have never seen anything like it.” But what could it be?
“I honestly think it’s a big fish of some sort, known or unknown to the loch,” he said of his strange discoveries. One other possibility is that the sonar may be picking up a large shoal of fish.
Both sonar recordings have been added to the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register. 11 total sightings have been added so far this year.
Sonar has picked up a variety of unidentified objects in the past at Loch Ness. Various expeditions from the 1950s onward have found potential anomalies, though each finding has been deemed inconclusive. In 1987, for example, the Operation Deep Scan survey of the loch discovered three “unexplained underwater targets.”
On June 27, 2019 skipper Mike Bell noticed yet another unusual sonar reading, this one showing an object about 115ft down that measured 25ft long.
Adding to the mounting evidence, in response to Mackenzie’s claims, retired skipper Rod Michie came forward just last week with his own potential evidence in the form of sonar data captured back in 2015. “I also know Ronald Mackenzie well and he is a genuine guy,” he said, “There is something unexplained down there. My guess is that it is a big eel — 20 to 30-feet long.”
