NEWS: Loch Ness Monster: As Important as the Cold War

Newly released files show that officials working under the Thatcher government feared that there would be nothing to prevent poachers and trophy hunters killing it, were Nessie to emerge from the depths.



The documents, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show a flurry of consultations, meetings and briefings between the Scottish Office and the Foreign Office. Eventually it was decided that no new act of parliament was needed and that the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act made it an offence for anyone to snare, shoot or blow up Nessie with explosives.



Officials concluded: "The legislative framework to protect the monster is available, provided she (or he) is identified by scientists whose reputation will carry weight with the British Museum." The files also show that a decade earlier, interest in the monster had reached ministerial level. Willie Ross, the Scottish secretary, had considered the issue of its existence after the publication of pictures said to show Nessie.

Hundreds of people claim to have spotted a large serpent-like creature in Lake Storsjon in the north-western province of Jamtland, and in 1986 the regional council put it on a list of endangered animals.



The so-called Storsjo monster was first mentioned in print in 1635. Some people describe the creature as a snakelike animal with a dog's head and fins on its neck. But no clear image of it has been captured on camera.



But a government watchdog challenged the decision, saying such protection was hardly necessary for a creature whose existence has not been proven

eventually removed from Scotland by a Montgomery Burns in 1999

BurningKrome said:
Dunno...wasn't it the Orangutan which was not officially documented till the late 1920's (or was it the Gorillalala?)

frogoth said:
Come on, if Nessie was real, she would've died long ago, if earliest sightings are to be believed.

So obviously that means that there must be an entire family of the wee tim'rous beasties hiding out in the loch...