Thursday 18 July 2013

The Gordon Holmes Video

Nessie believer, Bill Appleton, got in touch with me recently to point me to his stabilised images of the 2007 Gordon Holmes video. I have seen these before on the Web elsewhere, but these images should be larger and perhaps more amenable to inspection by some readers.

The non-monster theory proposed is that it is a form of wind turbulence on the loch caused by winds being funnelled down in a certain way on to the loch surface. You can find one exposition of that theory here. The author of that assessment, Dick Raynor,  admits he had not seen such a video footage before in his 40 years of Loch Ness investigation, but plumps for a phenomenon similar to a wind devil.

However, another sceptic by the name of Benjamin Radford, appears to have put little thought into the matter when he dismissively states:

"There are many fish and fauna around Loch Ness that could look easily create the image Holmes taped." 

Dick pointed out to me a cleft in the hills where he thought a wind channel could form. I took the picture below which shows the cleft.



There are many fish and fauna around Loch Ness that could look easily create the image Holmes taped. - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/1566-video-loch-ness-monster.html#sthash.c0w3WziX.dpuf
There are many fish and fauna around Loch Ness that could look easily create the image Holmes taped. - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/1566-video-loch-ness-monster.html#sthash.c0w3WziX.dpuf
There are many fish and fauna around Loch Ness that could look easily create the image Holmes taped. - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/1566-video-loch-ness-monster.html#sthash.c0w3WziX.dpuf
There are many fish and fauna around Loch Ness that could look easily create the image Holmes taped. - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/1566-video-loch-ness-monster.html#sthash.c0w3WziX.dpuf
There are many fish and fauna around Loch Ness that could look easily create the image Holmes taped. - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/1566-video-loch-ness-monster.html#sthash.c0w3WziX.dpuf
There are many fish and fauna around Loch Ness that could look easily create the image Holmes taped. - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/1566-video-loch-ness-monster.html#sthash.c0w3WziX.dpu
There are many fish and fauna around Loch Ness that could look easily create the image Holmes taped. - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/1566-video-loch-ness-monster.html#sthash.c0w3WziX.dpuf
There are many fish and fauna around Loch Ness that could look easily create the image Holmes taped. - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/1566-video-loch-ness-monster.html#sthash.c0w3WziX.dpuf
There are many fish and fauna around Loch Ness that could look easily create the image Holmes taped. - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/1566-video-loch-ness-monster.html#sthash.c0w3WziX.dpuf

Now, to me, the formation in the water looks too "solid" to be solely the product of the action of moving air on water. Dick says he sees a similar formation near this one, but I see nothing else that is not just ordinary wind slicks on the loch which are extremely common. 

He also says there is no wake which rules out an animal. I disagree with this view as an animal can leave a water trail behind which does not have to be the classic V-pattern as this YouTube video of a swimming alligator shows (especially the last few seconds of the clip).



So is this the Loch Ness Monster? Click on the images below to expand them and form your own opinion. We close with Bill Appleton's own view of the video:

"I believe they display a giant eel side-winding across the lake. The animal is at least 10 feet long, maybe 15 feet.

You can see in some frames the classic "plesiosaur" neck, but this is just the eel moving away from the camera."







P.S. I will be on holiday soon, so responses will be slow over that time, if there at all!