Could this really be Nessie? Sonar detects mystery 30ft long shape 500ft below the surface of Loch Ness

A sonar has detected a mystery 30ft long shape 500ft below the surface of Loch Ness – immediately sparking excited speculation from Nessie h̳u̳n̳t̳e̳r̳s̳.

The ‘solid and pretty big’ sonar contact was picked up by a boat owned by Cruise Loch Ness.

The mystery creature is likely to feed on trout and eels at the bottom of the loch, which has the largest volume of freshwater in Britain.

Director Ronald Mackenzie, 48, said: ‘Who knows what it is, there is quite a lot of fish at the bottom of the loch, there is carnivorous trout and eels.

‘I believe that there is something big living deep down in the Loch, who knows what it can be but I would love to think it’s Nessie.

‘It is something which is feeding on eels or trout. It is quite unusual.’

The mass was picked up around 4pm on Wednesday when Ronald was skippering a boat with technology from two years ago, about six miles from Fort August.

The father-of-three added: ‘A sonar expert has looked at it and says it’s genuine. There is definitely something there.

‘I’m going to give the image to the company which made the equipment to look at.’

There were 18 ‘confirmed’ sightings of the monster last year, making it the busiest year for claimed sightings since the peak of Nessie-mania in 1983.

Last September, researchers from New Zealand claimed that the Loch Ness Monster could be a large eel, extracting DNA from water samples to test for this.

Research carried out in 2018 revealed that the mythical creature is worth £41 million a year to the Scottish economy.