Bigmax2: I just brushed up my geological knowledge of Scotland and both Morar and Ness are described as glacial valleys and both appear to have been connected to the sea. A google earth fly-over strongly suggests it as well based on the geomorphology. I wonder why the difference in trophic levels.

Springheeljack; Nocturnal activity would indeed explain the rarity of sightings, but considering the latitude, during the summer their feeding or foraging hours would be pretty short, kinda like being in Anchorage this time of the year (which I sorta wish I was) or just a few miles outside the city limits.

Thanks for the great posts. Enjoy the mind stretching speculation and conjecture. Cheers.

Bigmax2- I live in Tokyo too and it’s funny that you should mention the Hibagon, because I keep meaning to translate a piece on that cryptid for Loren but have not gotten around to it due to a hectic schedule and a fairly recent baby. I helped with a piece on this site about the Honshu wolf back in March. I have done a lot of research on the Hibagon, Honshu wolf, and the Tsuchinoko, and I am involved with studying Japanese habitats and animals. As for the recent lack of sightings, it is of course very possible that the species has been depleted or even gone extinct due to any number of environmental factors. I was just speculating about other possible causes for this, such as the possibility that the animals have gone into some sort of dormancy or torpor. It is not a biologically infeasible possibility.

Springheeledjack- Well, yeah, size is one thing that I was considering with that theory. There are large species that reach quite a high degree of metabolic depression and dormancy, but nothing as large as what has been reported in the Lochs. Some big animals can reach a profound state of depression or hiberation as is demonstrated with land animals such as the grizzly, and it has been shown that some animals can go into states like this for quite extended periods of time, so the biological possibility is there. I am not sure how this adaptation would scale up to the size of the things reported in the Lochs, but I for one at least think it is an idea worth considering and I am fairly certain it is not an entirely far fetched notion. I don’t think there is any evidence pointing to this happening in the Lochs, but it is interesting to speculate about nevertheless!

I have been reading Dennis Hall (Champquest 2000) who is of the mind that at least the critter in Champlain is nocturnal. To me that sounds reasonable and would account for a lack of sightings on a regular basis.

I also am of the mind that Morag and other lake critters are probably some sort of creature that has indeed evolved to master its environment over the decades and centuries and that it may an offshoot of some other, possibly better known species…though at present I am not sure enough to hazard a guess.

I think I will have to hunt down the book on Morag and read through it even though I am not likely to get to that loch for quite a while.

Back to your comments though, I know the old ’sea connecting to the loch’ theory has been paddled around for ages, and evidence is sparse. The ability to survive in both saltwater & freshwater has always worried me about this idea anyway. I have heard about Issie here in Japan, and of course there is also Kussie up in Hokkaido.

I think a theory more along the lines of extinction or species depletion is more likely to account for Morag’s no-shows over the past 20 years. But biologically speaking, it appears that Loch Morar would be a better candidate for supporting a largish marine creature than Loch Ness.

I suspect the Scottish landform is rising as a result of isostatic rebound since the last glacial retreat. When lower Lock Ness has a direct connection to the sea.

Thanks for those metabolic figures. It is astounding what living organisms can withstand…it sounds cliche’ but the tenacity of life is formidable.
I mention the hag fish because years ago I’d read small science article about some ecologist wondering what happened to all the carcasses of animals and stuff that got washed out in floods. Of course he expected the hagfish and whatnot but was a little surprised to find that they hadn’t travelled far but emerged from the mud on the deep submerged depositional fan. What did they do the rest of the time? The speculation was that they were dormant until the signal (turbulence? infrasonics? chemical signature of decaying tissue?) triggered their awakening…at that depth the seasonal signals on the surface were so dampened that the system would be more attuned to periodic floods bringing debris to them. The interval could be years and years…and the question left unanswered was, “were there populations synchronized with 50 year floods? 100 year floods? 500 year floods? Those might not be unrealistic cycles for abyssal communities of scavengers. I used to think about this while staring out through the Golden Gate.

I am interested in the idea of some sort of eel, or mollusk, or other creature that may undergo a sort of metabolic depression in the cold, deep parts of the lakes. There are many animals that can lower their metabolic rates to a good 5 to 15% of their resting rate and creatures in torpor reach lower levels than this. I wonder if there is maybe some sort of intrinsic depression, in that the animals may experience a reduction in metabolic rate due to anticipation of some sort of adverse environmental conditions. This periodic dormancy could explain why there are long stretches where there are no sightings and I suppose it could be a good survival adaptation in this environment.