CleverDonkey.com …Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel

Yesterday there were various news reports about a 40 foot long gelatinous sea creature that washed ashore in Chile. The story can be found many places, including CNN (which has a picture):

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/americas/07/02/chile.science.reut/index.html

Reading this story got me thinking, because it’s not every day that 40 foot long creatures washes ashore that nobody can identify. And then I thought about another unidentified water creature, the Loch Ness monster. The legend of Nessie has persisted for a long time, but nobody has been able to find her. Sophisticated motion detectors, sonar, radar, etc have been used to try to spot Nessie, to no avail.

However, what if Nessie was a giant jellyfish of the same type that washed ashore in Chile? Jellyfish have a density that is very close to that of water, and don’t have any hard parts, like bones or shells. That means that it would be very difficult to use sonar/radar to distinguish her from normal fluctuations of water temperature, density, and pressure. A giant jellyfish might be quite stealthy in the deep, cold waters of Loch Ness.

I’m not a “true believer” in Nessie, and am not looking to justify my beliefs. However, I did find that this creature in Chile offered a plausible explanation for the phenomenon of the Loch Ness monster. Time will tell if it’s an accurate explanation or not.