Solved: The Mystery Behind Sightings of the Chinese ‘Loch Ness Monster’

Video clips of a huge, long, serpent like creature spotted near the Three Gorge Dam in China’s Yangtze River started hitting the internet earlier this month. Instantly dubbed the Chinese Loch Ness Monster after the infamous beast which lurks beneath the waters of the Scottish lake, theories about just what this mysterious object was lit up social media all around the world.

© J. Patrick Fischer
The Yangtze is home to the Chinese alligator, but this is far from its natural habit and they usually only grow to 2 metres (7 feet) in length. This creature was reported to be up to 20 metres (65 feet) long, and far too slender to be any freakish sized croc wandering far from home. Climate change or pollution build up near the dam causing mutation in an existing animal was also brought up as a possibility by many people, with the suggestion of a river snake being one of the most popular ideas thrown around. Although others were more convinced that that a dragon was cause.

Credit: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=196634
Old Nessie, as she is affectionately known in the UK, has been apart of local legend for at least 150 years. There have been dozens of sightings, some recorded on film or video, and many scientific studies of the loch and its wildlife. The most recent being a DNA survey in June 2018, in which results showed there was no reptile sequences found, though there was an unusually large amount of eel DNA which led them to report that they “could not rule out the possibility of eels of extreme size, though none were found.”

Unfortunately for those inspired by the The Three Dam Monster, it was not destined to become the legend the Loch Ness Monster has achieved. Last week, as the waters in the Yangtze River subsided, some rocks near to the spot she had been spotted were revealed, and snagged on them was what at first believed to be a large piece of black rubber material. It wasn’t long before a staff member from the local ferry company contacted a Chinese news station to state that he believed it was an airbag from a boat which had detached and become caught on the rocks.

However once it was safe to access the rocks, what the crew actually discovered was a large piece of thick canvas material which took several of them to lift out of the water and back to the shore. At this time, the origins of the initial video clip also came to light through China New Channel, CCTV. The person who filmed it saw it on his way to work and thought it would be a piece of harmless fun to share with his friends on WeChat, never dreaming that it would go on to take the internet by storm.

It goes to show that you can’t believe everything you see with your own eyes, but then again, not all mysteries have such a simple and mundane answer as the Three Dam Monster either. What stories do you have to tell, and what kind of mysteries do you want to see us cover, let us know in the comments below.