A camera with a story to tell set deep in Scotland’s Loch Ness has been surprisingly retrieved by a robot after 55 years of being submerged.
The UK’s National Oceanography Center’s (NOC) submarine robot – called Boaty McBoatface – snagged the camera system’s mooring almost 600 feet (180 meters) deep in the Loch Ness. Shockingly, the camera still worked and has captured some unique photos.
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Why was the camera submerged?
This camera, a Kodak Instamatic, was submerged in an attempt to capture pictures of the Loch Ness Monster, in addition to another five, three of which were lost in a gale.
The cameras were placed deep in the Loch Ness by Professor Roy Mackal, of the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau and the University of Chicago.
Adrian Shine of the Loch Ness Project confirmed Boaty McBoatface’s findings
Professor Mackal had been investigating the monster since the 1960s and claimed to have recorded a sighting of it in 1970, hence, the unleashed investigation.
While the professor passed away in 2013, Shine was still alive to confirm that the camera did belong to Mackal, and he started telling its story.
The camera’s journey
“It was an ingenious camera trap consisting of a clockwork Instamatic camera with an inbuilt flash cube, enabling four pictures to be taken when a bait line was taken. It is remarkable that the housing has kept the camera dry for the past 55 years, lying around 180m deep in Loch Ness,” Shine explained to NOC.
The camera captured eerie photos
While they had hopes to capture clear photos of Nessie, the photos retrieved had no definitive footage of the monster.
However, the pictures captured fascinatingly showed the visual map of the murky depths of Loch Ness.
And the photos were mind-blowing
“While this wasn’t a find we expected to make, but we’re happy that this piece of Nessie hunting history can be shared and perhaps at least the mystery of who left it in the loch can be solved,” said Sam Smith, ALR operations engineer, from NOC’s Marine Autonomous Robotics Systems (MARS) group.
The camera and its pictures are going down in history
The film, camera and its housing have since been passed over to The Loch Ness Centre, in Drumnadrochit, in order to be put on display as part of the loch’s rich Nessie hunting history.
Nagina Ishaq, General Manager of The Loch Ness Centre, said: “We want to say a big thank to NOC for handing over the film and camera, that we believe has been hidden for over 50 years, for everyone to come and discover and be inspired by what could be hidden in the mysterious loch.”
