“Also, why were Basking Sharks even mentioned in this report?”

Greenland, Bull and Great White Sharks can sustain being in fresh water for a while (Bull Sharks have been found north on the Mississippi, taking cows and people in freshwater rivers. MonsterQuest devoted an episode to this, and after they came up empty in Louisiana, one of the men they had hired to find sharks in the Bayou found a bunch of them, all Bull Sharks. They also found a Greenland Shark in fresh water and filmed it for a considerable time. If These sharks can do it, then perhaps a Basking Shark just might be able to do it as well. However, I do not know if it has ever happened, if this particular lake is connected to the ocean, and if a Basking Shark actually can survive being in freshwater, let alone for a very long time.

Basking Sharks are believed to have been mistaken for sea serpents and sea monsters in the past (and they certainly qualify as a Sea monster, though a harmless one: imagine a giant Great white void of teeth. Toothless, yet impressive…)

A main question that arises for me is regarding the nature of the smear on the lake surface. Is it water disturbance or is it the shadow of the body’s creature due to translucency?

Also, why were basking sharks even mentioned in this report?

Hello. I do not personally think that Nessie is a Wels catfish, just said that it was one of the theories about Nessie. I think some sightings might be of a Wels Catfish (some sightings of Nessie are by non-locals and foreigners, and therefore less likely to not misidentify a Giant Catfish as Nessie from a distance), but I don’t think personally that it is a Wels. The following is a theory list of what Nessie might be;

Wels or Sturgeons (some sightings of Nessie, though few, describe giant fish) large eels, perhaps Circus Elephants taking a dip in the Loch (though that might be debated: Elephants do not drink cold water, and I think they might have an aversion to entering really cold waters, but I’ll have to do some research about the latter. Nevertheless from a distance, an elephant swimming might be misidentified as a serpentine or plesiosaurus-like creature), other exotics (Hippos, Crocs, giant salamanders have been seen in the Loch), and some that defy easy explanations (a horse-camel hybrid seen on few occasions, spanning perhaps centuries).

The last odd critter might be a odder way of describing a Moose without Antlers (When I try to picture what a hybrid of Horse and Camel might look like, I can’t but help to think of a Moose, with its large shoulder hump, its darker hair and hooves, and its face, which turns downwards at the front similar to a Camel.). Having said that, Camels were extinct in Scotland when these sightings were noted: they were reintroduced quite recently.

These odd sightings can be found in Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark’s “Cryptozoology A to Z”, pages 138-143

They are so fortunate that a professional photographer happened to be the one to snap those shots. He had the equipment and knowledge to know how to get the best possible shots and took several to show the movement and fluctuations of the animal. Well done, Sir.

As for Nessie being a Wels Catfish? Doubtful. Too many people along the loch fish, either recreationally or as a livelihood, to not know what a catfish would look like. A sturgeon I could see, as even those of us who have a good idea of what they look like may be startled to see them thrashing about in real life (all muscle and vinegar, nasty temperament). Although that wouldn’t account for the long neck seen by many witnesses and photographed occasionally.