Veteran Nessie hunter says Loch Ness monster ‘most likely’ a large catfish
Published 1:25 pm Saturday, July 18, 2015
- Could the giant wels catfish like the one seen in this viral photo from February be responsible for centuries worth of Loch Ness Monster sightings?
Talk about being catfished.
After 24 years of searching for the legendary Loch Ness monster, a pursuit he says ultimately cost him his home, job, and girlfriend, 52-year-old Steve Feltham is convinced that sightings of the prehistoric cryptid may actually be misidentifications of a species of large catfish.
“Looking at all the evidence, speaking to eyewitnesses, the most likely solution is a Wels catfish,” Feltham told Sky News.
The giant Wels catfish can reportedly grow up to four 13 feet long and weigh nearly 900 pounds. Though there are now Wels populations across the continent, the European species is typically in Spain and Italy.
In February, the internet’s collective jaw dropped at a colossal 280-pound Wels catfish caught in Italy.
Feltham claims his sonar occasionally registers living objects the size of a station wagon in Loch Ness.
“We get sonar contacts with things that are far bigger than any fish that should live in this body of water,” Feltham told Sky News.
This isn’t the first time a large fish has been credited as the true stuff of the lake’s legend. The sturgeon is among the usual suspects skeptics use to discount belief in a prehistoric beast haunting the Scottish lake.
A 2013 episode of Animal Planet’s “River Monsters” attributed Nessie reports to the mysterious Greenland Shark, a deep-water behemoth said to have a 200-year lifespan.