91av

Nessie sonar tracks are fake

New evidence for a Loch Ness monster, which received wide publicity two weeks ago, was a fake, intended to give publicity to a firm at last week’s Brighton Toy Fair. Videomaster, a firm which makes home TV games, claimed in the Daily Record that it had carried out a six-month investigation at Loch Ness using a specially designed “videosonar”. At a press conference Bryan King, director of the Loch Ness “expedition”, presented photographs of loch-side equipment, graphs and a computer printout of sonar analysis.

In fact, none of the expedition team had visited Loch Ness, and the tape was produced on an electronic synthesiser. The company’s technical director, Robin Palmer, admitted he had simply typed the printout on a teletype terminal. The enterprise was dreamed up by a company employee to publicise products at the toy fair.

The hoax was criticised by the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau (LNIB) and by Birmingham University who have used Loch Ness as a testing ground for sonar equipment they are developing for fishing and North Sea Oil. Dr David Creasey of Birmingham University said the hoax “casts a shadow on what serious people are trying to do”. David James, head of LNIB, felt that “lunatic fringe groups were playing the fool”.

From 91av, 12 February 1976