Scotland: Loch Ness begins biggest monster hunt in 50 years; here's all you need to know

livemint.com:

AFP. McKenna told BBC radio that the searchers were “looking for breaks in the surface and asking volunteers to record all manner of natural behavior on the loch. Not every ripple or wave is a beastie.

Some of those can be explained, but there are a handful that cannot," he said as quoted by AP. The freshwater loch is the UK's largest lake by volume stretching 23 miles which is 36 kilometres with a maximum depth of 788 feet which is 240 metres. -The Loch Ness Center is located at the former Drumnadrochit Hotel, where the modern-day Nessie legend began.

-Earlier in 1933, manager Aldie Mackay had reported spotting a “water beast" in the mountain-fringed loch which is the largest body of freshwater by volume in the United Kingdom. -The story kicked off an enduring worldwide fascination with finding the elusive monster, spawning hoaxes and hundreds of eyewitness accounts. -Many theories have been put forward over these year, some also said that the creature could be a prehistoric marine reptile, giant eels, a sturgeon or even an escaped circus elephant.

-Meanwhile, reports of an aquatic monster lurking in Loch Ness also date back to ancient times, with stone carvings in the area depicting a mysterious beast with flippers. The earliest written record of the creature dates back to AD 565 in a biography of the Irish monk, Saint Columba. According to the text, the monster attacked a swimmer and was about to strike again when Columba commanded it to retreat, AFP has reported.