U.K. tabloids abuzz with Canadians' 'Loch Ness monster' photo
Moving object was 'bigger than a Sasquatch but smaller than Ogopogo,' B.C. man jokes
U.K. tabloids and Loch Ness monster believers are abuzz after an expat Canadian couple photographed what some say could be the legendary water creature.
Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman aren't fully convinced themselves, but say they are coming around to the idea — particularly if it keeps their two young kids happy.
The family, who currently live in the Wimbledon area of London, spent Easter vacation sightseeing in Scotland. To prepare for the trip, they said, they loaded up on books about the Loch Ness monster.
On a cold, blustery day in early April, the family visited Loch Ness, where sightings of a mysterious creature known as Nessie have been reported for centuries.
That's when they saw something moving through the waves.
"Its head was craning up above the water and it was slowly but gradually moving toward us," Malm, who is originally from Coquitlam, B.C., said, quipping that it was "bigger than a Sasquatch but smaller than Ogopogo."
"So, we obviously play it up. We have two little kids who are almost three and almost five," he added.
Wiseman, originally from Calgary, said she asked her sons, "Do you think it's Nessie?" while taking a picture of the blurry object.
"My instinct says it might have been a seal but I am told that seals do not go in that lake," she said.
Little did they know that their image, and their names, would soon be plastered across U.K. tabloids as the first sighting of Nessie in 2024.
Hundreds of years of history, but no official proof
Sightings of an unexplained creature in Loch Ness date back to around 500 A.D., though modern sightings are generally traced to 1933, when a local newspaper reported a couple's claims of seeing "an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface" of the loch.
Some believers have argued it's a freshwater plesiosaur, though studies have found the creature went extinct before Loch Ness was formed. A DNA study of hundreds of water samples from Loch Ness found that, if anything, the sightings were most likely a giant eel.
A massive hunt in 2023 using state-of-the-art technology failed to turn up anything definitive.
But the allure remains, with hundreds of tourists visiting the loch every year in the hopes of seeing the creature — or, at least, coming away with a story to tell.
Among the believers is Gary Campbell and his daughter Page Daley, who have maintained a website since 1996 titled "The Official Loch Ness Monsters Sightings Register," which aims to document all potential sightings of the creature, filtering out photos they are able to identify as waves, logs or other animals.
Malm said he submitted their photo "just for a bit of a laugh" and, the next day, said he got a reply telling him he had taken "the first confirmed sighting this year."
The photo was posted to the website and soon picked up by tabloids including the Scottish Sun, the Irish Star and the Daily Mirror.
'We're not tinfoil-hat-wearing people'
Malm and Wiseman are enjoying the attention and say their boys are fully on board with the notion they saw the Loch Ness monster, even if the adults aren't quite convinced.
"I mean, we're not tinfoil-hat-wearing people," Malm said. "There's probably a perfectly logical explanation for what it was. Maybe Species X lost its way home or something like that."
But he says he's not completely closed to the idea they saw Nessie.
"There's every possibility that there's some sort of unexplained species that, from time to time, makes an appearance."
For Wiseman, the fun comes in sharing an extraordinary memory with her kids.
"I want their childhood to be filled with the magic of the unbelievable," she said. "And this is just one of those things. It is unbelievable, and they believe it so I believe it — and I am all in on that."
Malm agrees. "What it sort of reaffirmed for me is there's still things in the world that can surprise and delight you," he said.
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With files from On the Coast and Abby Hughes