--- title: Loch Ness Monster Probably a Catfish, Says 24-Year Watcher description: He does not regret the time he spent looking for the beast canonical: https://time.com/3962382/loch-ness-monster-catfish/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-17T12:17:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:22:15.241Z og:title: Loch Ness Monster Probably a Catfish, Says 24-Year Watcher og:description: He does not regret the time he spent looking for the beast og:url: https://time.com/3962382/loch-ness-monster-catfish/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14981f0e2ffa5bb7/69885b5da988ca6ae66b3803/loch-ness.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Loch Ness Monster og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Loch Ness Monster Probably a Catfish, Says 24-Year Watcher twitter:description: He does not regret the time he spent looking for the beast twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14981f0e2ffa5bb7/69885b5da988ca6ae66b3803/loch-ness.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Loch Ness Monster Probably a Catfish, Says Man Who's Been Watching for 24 Years ## Video: ANSWERS: DESIGNER DOGS [Watch (HLS stream): ANSWERS: DESIGNER DOGS](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HlrH8Ag1.m3u8) (1:07)  _Published 2014-08-28. ANSWERS: DESIGNER DOGS_ by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jul 17, 2015 12:17 PM UTC  A view of the Loch Ness Monster, near Inverness, Scotland, April 19, 1934\. The photograph, one of two pictures known as the 'surgeon's photographs,' was allegedly taken by Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson, though it was later exposed as a hoax by one of the participants, Chris Spurling, who, on his deathbed, revealed that the pictures were staged by himself, Marmaduke and Ian Wetherell, and Wilson. References to a monster in Loch Ness date back to St. Columba's biography in 565 AD. More than 1,000 people claim to have seen 'Nessie' and the area is, consequently, a popular tourist attraction. A view of the Loch Ness Monster, near Inverness, Scotland, April 19, 1934\. The photograph, one of two pictures known as the 'surgeon's photographs,' was allegedly taken by Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson, though it was later exposed as a hoax by one of the participants, Chris Spurling, who, on his deathbed, revealed that the pictures were staged by himself, Marmaduke and Ian Wetherell, and Wilson. References to a monster in Loch Ness date back to St. Columba's biography in 565 AD. More than 1,000 people claim to have seen 'Nessie' and the area is, consequently, a popular tourist attraction.Keystone—Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jul 17, 2015 12:17 PM UTC A man who has spent the last 24 years searching for the Loch Ness monster [says it is probably just a catfish](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/16/us-odd-britain-lochnessmonster-idUSKCN0PQ0U520150716), after all. Steve Feltham, 52, apparently gave up his job, home and girlfriend more than two decades ago to track Nessie, but now he’s convinced the mythical beast is just that—a myth. Now he thinks it’s much more likely that the creature people have reported seeing is a very large Wels catfish. The species can grow up to 13 ft. long and were introduced to the water for fishing during the Victorian period, according to Reuters. Never mind that the first written record of the monster is from the 6th century AD. Has Feltham’s realization brought a sense of wasted time? Not so. “I certainly don’t regret the last 24 years,” he told the _Times_ of London. \[[_Reuters_](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/16/us-odd-britain-lochnessmonster-idUSKCN0PQ0U520150716)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3962382/loch-ness-monster-catfish/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3962382/loch-ness-monster-catfish/"},"headline":"Loch Ness Monster Probably a Catfish, Says Man Who's Been Watching for 24 Years","datePublished":"2015-07-17T12:17:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:22:15.241Z","description":"He does not regret the time he spent looking for the beast","url":"https://time.com/3962382/loch-ness-monster-catfish/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14981f0e2ffa5bb7/69885b5da988ca6ae66b3803/loch-ness.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14981f0e2ffa5bb7/69885b5da988ca6ae66b3803/loch-ness.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Loch Ness Monster","caption":"Loch Ness Monster","creditText":"Keystone—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3962382/loch-ness-monster-catfish/","name":"Loch Ness Monster Probably a Catfish, Says Man Who's Been Watching for 24 Years"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"ANSWERS: DESIGNER DOGS","description":"ANSWERS: DESIGNER DOGS","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/HlrH8Ag1/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-08-28T01:52:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HlrH8Ag1.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3962382/loch-ness-monster-catfish/","duration":"PT1M7S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3962382/loch-ness-monster-catfish/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```