A boat skipper reckons a mobile phone picture he took of a sonar image could unlock the long-running mystery of the Loch Ness Monster. Marcus Atkinson’s grainy shot – which shows a long, 5ft-wide serpent-like creature – was taken from a recording 75ft down in the loch at Urquhart Bay. It was taken from his sonar fish-finder device, which records the width of objects directly below his tourist boat. Marcus, 43, from Fort Augustus in Inverness-shire, said: “I was dropping customers at Urquhart Castle and as I moved out into the water and looked at the sonar, I saw this image. “The object got bigger and bigger, and I took a picture of it with my mobile phone. I was in shock as it looked like a big serpent.
“You can’t fake a sonar image and I’ve never seen anything like this on the fish finder. I’ve shown it to other experienced skippers and none of us know what it is.” The picture won Marcus a prize – Best Nessie Sighting of The Year – in a competition run by bookmakers William Hill. Excited Loch Ness monster experts have ruled out the sighting being a fish, seal or wood debris. Monster hunter Steve Feltham, 49, said: “It can’t be a fish because you just wouldn’t find them in water 75ft down. “It’s very exciting and the best evidence we’ve had in donkey’s years. It’s images like this that will keep me going with my hunt for the next 20 years.” But other marine experts claim the mystery object may be algae. Dr Simon Boxall, from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, Hampshire, said: “The image shows a bloom of algae and zooplankton that would exist on what would be a thermocline. “Zooplankton live off this algae and reflect sound signals from echo sounders and fish finders very well.”
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