Scientists Recover Underwater Camera Designed to Snap Photos of Loch Ness Monster

In 1970, a cryptid-obsessed placed several cameras inside plastic trap boxes and sent them down to the depths of Scotland's Loch Ness in hopes of catching its storied monster — and now, it appears that one of those cameras has been recovered by sheer accident. As USA Today and other outlets report, one of the cameras deployed by University of Chicago biologist Roy Mackal some 55 years ago was discovered during a test dive of an unmanned submersible in the famed lake in the Scottish Highlands. Specifically, the camera trap's mooring system appeared to have gotten tangled up in the propellers […]

Apr 2, 2025 - 23:10

Scientists Recover Underwater Camera Designed to Snap Photos of Loch Ness Monster

A camera meant to capture photos of the Loch Ness monster has been recovered in the famed Scottish lake after 55 years.

In 1970, a cryptid-obsessed biologist placed several cameras inside plastic trap boxes and sent them down to the depths of Scotland's Loch Ness in hopes of finally capturing compelling evidence of its storied monster — and now, it appears that one of those cameras has been recovered by sheer accident.

As USA Today and other outlets report, one of the cameras deployed by University of Chicago biologist Roy Mackal some 55 years ago was discovered during a test dive of an unmanned research submersible in the famed lake in the Scottish Highlands.

Specifically, the camera trap's mooring system appeared to have gotten tangled up in the propellers for the submersible, which was named, much to the chagrin of the British government, "Boaty McBoatface" by the public in a viral poll in 2016.

Full of sensitive oceanographic instruments meant to study Loch Ness' unique marine climate — it sits atop the British Isles' most prominent tectonic fault, after all — and the world beyond it, Boaty McBoatface's job description almost certainly doesn't include searching for monsters.

All the same, the researchers who work with the submersible, known affectionately as Boaty, were pleased with their discovery.

"While this wasn't a find we expected to make," Sam Smith, a robotics engineer with the UK's National Oceanography Centre, said in a press statement, "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."

It seems that Smith and his team weren't quite aware of what they had their hands on when they pulled the aged but remarkably well-preserved Instamatic camera out of its thick plastic cylinder. With help from naturalist Adrian Shine — a researcher who's been studying Loch Ness for more than half a century himself — they were able to identify the famed UChicago cryptozoologist's camera.

"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," Shine said in his own press statement. "It is remarkable that the housing has kept the camera dry for the past 55 years, lying more than [426 feet] deep in Loch Ness."

When researchers developed the Instamatic's film, they unfortunately didn't find any photos of Nessie, though they did recover some beautiful, eerie photos of the deep, dark lake.

A camera dropped in Loch Ness in the 1970s has been found and the film developed
The two pictures on the BBC website are the purest distillation of my biggest fears. There is of course no monster, there is only cold, deep, dark water and a layer of dead things. pic.twitter.com/LPSGgnu05u
— Monkey Bones