Reports are coming in that Scotland’s beloved Loch Ness monster may be dead.
For the first time in almost 90 years no ‘confirmed sightings’ have been made of the Serpentine Scottish beast.
Veteran Nessie spotter Gary Campbell, who keeps a register of sightings, said no one had come forward in 18 months to say they had seen the monster.
Bookmaker William Hill also said the three entries to its annual Nessie spotting contest could be explained.
They were images of a wave, a duck and a picture not even taken on Loch Ness.
Mr Campbell said it was the first time since 1925 that there had been no confirmed reports of the monster.
‘It's very upsetting news and we don't know where she's gone,’ he said.
‘The number of sightings has been reducing since the turn of the century but this is the first time in almost 90 years that Nessie wasn't seen at all.
‘Pretty much everyone now carries a camera with them in their smart phone - this allows then to snap what they're seeing and means that we don't just have to rely on eyewitness evidence.
‘As last year has shown, all the pictures and videos taken can prove to the expert eye that it wasn't Nessie that was being filmed.’
William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams said: ‘Although we had three entries, one was a wave, one a duck and the other wasn't from Loch Ness - even the one other sighting for the year that wasn't entered was a video of a wave.
Experts at the loch are appealing for anyone with new evidence from 2013 come forward.
‘It could be good for them,’ said Mr Adams, ‘we've now more than doubled the odds of finding proof that Nessie exists to 250-1 and we've done a “monster rollover” on the prize meaning that this year's winner could be taking away £2000.’
Mr Campbell, a chartered accountant based in Inverness, has been logging Nessie sightings for 17 years after seeing something in the loch himself.
As Nessie's registrar of sightings, he has put together a list of sightings going back 1,500 years.
Irish missionary St Columba is said to have encountered a beast in the River Ness in 565AD.
Mr Campbell said: ‘So far 1,036 reported sightings have been recorded and there were some in 2012.
‘I'm convinced that Nessie has just taken some time out and will be back with a vengeance this year.’
Last year, Loch Ness Monster was placed ahead of the Himalaya's Yeti in a list of ‘top 18 mysteries’ for travellers to solve in 2014.
Wanderlust Magazine put Nessie at number three and the Yeti at 12.
Easter Island's carved monoliths, the moai, were in first place followed by Mongolia's Gobi rock art.
Also listed are the Pyramids of Giza, the USA's Marfa ghost lights, Angkor Wat in Cambodia and finding Australia's Tasmanian tiger.
有消息称，备受喜爱的苏格兰尼斯湖水怪也许已经死亡。
在近90年的时间里，第一次没有人“确实目击到”这个蛇形的苏格兰怪兽。长期对尼斯湖水怪目击事件进行记录的加里·坎贝尔说，已经有18个月没有人声称目击到尼斯湖水怪了。
威廉·希尔图书公司也表示，该公司尼斯湖水怪年度观测大赛的3幅入围作品也许能说明问题。其中两幅作品拍摄的分别是一排波浪和一只鸭子，还有一幅甚至不是在尼斯湖拍摄的。
坎贝尔说，这是自1925年以来第一次没有收到“确实目击到”尼斯湖水怪的报告。他说：“这是一个让人非常难过的消息，我们不知道它去哪儿了。”
自上世纪末以来，尼斯湖水怪的目击事件越来越少。
坎贝尔说，现在几乎人人都能用随身携带的智能手机随时拍照，这意味着我们不再仅仅依赖目击证据。他说，经过专家鉴定，去年所有有关尼斯湖水怪的观测影像拍摄到的都不是尼斯湖水怪。
自2013年以来，研究尼斯湖的专家为获得有关尼斯湖水怪的最新证据而大幅提高了给予目击者的奖金。威廉·希尔图书公司发言人鲁珀特·亚当斯说：“我们已经将发现尼斯湖水怪存在证据的赔率提高了一倍多，达到250：1，我们还成倍提高了奖金，今年的获胜者将得到2000英镑的奖励。”
坎贝尔是英国因弗内斯的一名注册会计师。17年前，他在尼斯湖亲眼见到一些东西，从此就一直跟踪记录有关尼斯湖水怪的目击事件。坎贝尔收集整理的尼斯湖目击事件可以追溯到1500年前。
根据记录，公元565年，爱尔兰传教士圣科伦巴在尼斯河遇见了一个怪兽。
坎贝尔说：“目前为止，有记载的尼斯湖水怪目击事件已经达到1036个。2012年也有一些。”他说：“我相信，尼斯湖水怪只是暂时离开，今年将强势归来。”
去年，在“2014年旅行者最想揭开的18个谜团”排行榜上，尼斯湖水怪的排名甚至在喜马拉雅雪人之前。在旅游杂志Wanderlust列出的这个排行榜上，尼斯湖水怪位列第三，喜马拉雅雪人位列第十二。
