COULD this video prove once and for all that the Loch Ness monster exists?
Craig McCaa, who works for the Bureau of Land Management in Alaska, was taking pictures of the Chena River last week when he spotted what appears to be a 15-foot long creature making its way through the water.
McCaa had decided to walk his camera down to the University Avenue bridge that crosses the river to take a few quick pictures of ice forming on the surface of the water.
He told the Alaska Dispatch News: “I initially thought, and several people thought, it could be some rope that snagged on the bottom of the river with chunks of ice.
“It’s strange thing. I don’t know what I would have done if I had come by in a canoe or something,” he said.
“But looking from it above on the University Avenue bridge I didn’t feel too threatened.”
The clip went viral soon after it was posted on Facebook, and currently boasts over 229,000 hits.
Bewildered users have rushed to propose their own theories as to what could have caused the mysterious movement, with one person joking the Loch Ness monster must have some offspring that travelled to Alaska.
Some guessed it must have been a branch, or a clump of weeds, while others insisted it was a living animal such as an eel or sturgeon swimming against the current.
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The Bureau of Land Management seems to be enjoying the speculation, adding an eerie soundtrack to the video.
But spoilsport river biologist Klaus Wuttig claims the mysterious object is actually just rope stuck to a bridge pier.
After contacting the Alaska Dispatch News to end speculation over what the object might be, Wuttig explained that cold temperatures at night allowed frail ice — which is a type of loose, slushy ice that forms on top of water — to stick to a rope, which then caused it to float to the surface.
While admitting the video “looks really cool”, the reality is “not that exciting”, he said.
In a phone interview on Thursday morning, he continued: “It looks like it’s swimming but it’s actually stationary and just wading in the current.
“The ice looks segmented because of the current of the river.
“It looks like it’s swimming upstream, but it’s not organic.”
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