The Flipper Photo

 The Flipper Photo

Preface: Most of the information I researched for this article can be found in a former one written by the folks over at Tetzoo. Link to the article: https://tetzoo.com/blog/2020/8/17/loch-ness-monster-flipper-photos 

The 70's were a notorious time for Loch Ness. Money and technology began to funnel into the area by scientific associations and amateur investigators alike. Two notable groups that had made a mutual alliance in searching for the monster were the LNIB (Loch Ness Phenomenon Investigation Bureau) and the AAS (US Academy of Applied Science.) Members of the AAS team included Martin Klein ,Charles Wyckoff , Robert Rines, and Professor Harold Edgerton of MIT. The AAS was able to lend some new equipment for the hunt of the monster involving what is called high-speed strobe photography. The camera shutter is held open on Bulb, and when the "shutter-beam" detects an object it fires the strobe. (Woodselec, N.D.) Utilizing this technology AAS in conjunction with LNIB attached this form of underwater camera and strobe to the boat "Nan," and the second boat "Narwhal" carried sonar equipment to detect any subsurface objects. Using this technique the team in August of 1972 supposedly came in contact with two beasts in the loch. 2000 shutters were taken during this encounter and were supposedly so alarming that the photos were sent back to the US immediately for development. 

(Two photos believed to depict a diamond shaped flipped)

Bingo! The team had successfully captured three photos of a diamond shaped flipped on one of the animals. Two were extremely well focused and used when the news broke. On November 1, 1972 the two photos shown above were published in Time Magazine as well as other journals and news affiliated papers. The Natural History Museum announced that the photos were genuine and appeared to depict an animal unknown to science. The species was coined 'Nessiteras Rhombopteryx' adding to the validity of the scientific outlook on proposed animals to inhabit Loch Ness.

Many experts in the scientific community then and now are skeptical of these photos. Many claim the the veracity and process of taking these photos are mediocre at best. Some scientists even claimed that the team mistakenly took photos of pieces of sunken ships at the bottom of the Loch. But let us take a look at one of the original photos pre-enhanced by computers...

Well what can we ascertain from this photo? Certainly not the detail we see in the enhanced versions. The articulate diamond flippers sporting an arterial vain, are, in this photo just a jumble of spots and lines. 

This photo is a computer enhancement done by Alan Gillespie at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories in the United States. The computer enhanced only what it thought was necessary, and as you can see does not reflect the final photos taken by AAS. The photos were manipulated to fit the minds eye on what the team so hoped it would be. 

My take...

The events that took place when the flipper photos were taken and subsequently the debunking thereafter are all abnormal. For instance, the enhancement done by the AAS was done using multiple computer enhancement layers, while Gillespie only used one. It could be argued that the one enhancement is all that is needed to ascertain that there is nothing really there. Maybe peat disturbed by the camera equipment bumping into the loch floor. Or a rock formation that was mistaken for an appendage. However, the sonar contacts that were made when the photos were taken adds to the validity that something was indeed there. To think the team dragged their equipment on the Loch's bottom and not one of the member's of this reputable group didn't raise a hand is difficult to accept.

Add this one to the unsolved mysteries of the loch pile. I don't think we will ever have a definitive answer on the "flippers" of Nessiteras Rhombopteryx. 

-T