HOAX! Viral Loch Ness Monster photo was a hoax

George Edwards, a Loch Ness tour boat operator, admitted to faking a photograph that was purportedly of the Loch Ness Monster. The image, which showed a dark hump in the water, was in fact a photo of a fibreglass hump made for the 2011 film “The Truth Behind The Loch Ness Monster”.

Edwards claimed that the photo had been examined by a team of US military experts, who supposedly declared there was no doubt it showed an “animate object,” but he later confessed that it was a fake.

Edwards was unrepentant about the hoax, arguing that people come to Loch Ness for “a bit of fun” and not “for the science”—suggesting that hoaxes such as his own helped to bring tourists to the area. He stated, “It’s keeping things like this going for the last 80 years that has brought hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions, up here,” he told the Guardian. “It’s what Loch Ness is about”.

The hoax drew criticism from fellow Loch Ness Monster enthusiasts and researchers, with some accusing Edwards of damaging the credibility of genuine investigations into the legend of “Nessie”. Despite the backlash, Edwards maintained that he was proud to follow in the tradition of the famous “surgeon’s photograph” of 1933, which also turned out to be a hoax.

Edwards insisted that another photo he took of the Loch Ness Monster from years ago, on June 6, 1986, was genuine: “I’ve taken photographs over the years. One in particular, on the 6th of June, 1986, is an absolutely genuine photograph.”