Apple Maps spur increase in Loch Ness Monster sightings

Apple Maps spur increase in Loch Ness Monster sightings

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LOCH NESS — Apple Maps may have been designed for giving directions, but according to Loch Ness Monster enthusiasts, the app is also useful for locating mythical beasts.

Members the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club are citing a mysterious satellite image of Loch Ness as evidence of Nessie's existence. They said a shadowy figure appears to be about 100 feet long and have two flippers.

"The interesting thing is that nobody has been able to explain what it is," club president Glen Campbell told ABC News. "It's pretty large, so it's not a seal or an otter. It's also not a whale or basking shark as some people claim, because they wouldn't go in fresh water."

The image was brought to the attention of the club by two people near the end of 2013, according to Campbell. He said the club then spent months researching the images before presenting their findings to Scottish Canals, which manages the waterways in the country.

"It was a total fluke that I found it," Andrew Dixon told the Daily Mail. "I was looking at satellite images of my town and then just thought I’d have a look at Loch Ness. The first thing that came into my head when I saw it was, 'That’s the Loch Ness Monster.' It was the shape of it, I thought it had to be something more than a shadow."


Whatever this is, it is under the water and heading south, so unless there have been secret submarine trials going on in the loch, the size of the object would make it likely to be Nessie.

–Glen Campbell


Campbell said the shape looks similar to the wake of a boat, but that the boat appears to be missing.

"You can see some boats moored at the shore, but there isn’t one here," he told The Daily Mail. "We’ve shown it to boat experts and they don’t know what it is. Whatever this is, it is under the water and heading south, so unless there have been secret submarine trials going on in the loch, the size of the object would make it likely to be Nessie."

However, other people remain skeptical that the image is of Nessie and maintain the idea that it is a boat. Metabunk, a website that debunks these types of theories, explained that the ambiguous figure may be the result of a composite image created from two satellites.

"(The boat is) dimmer because of the way different images are stitched together to create a seamless image," they wrote. "The area with Nessie is not simply the low contrast image, but it's also blended with a higher contrast image without the boat, which is why you can see some texture in the surface of the water through the boat wake, making it look like it's underwater."

This is not the first time strange images have been found on Apple Maps — distorted images of bridges and other flaws were reported after the Apple Maps app first launched.

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Natalie Crofts

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