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The “Surgeon’s Photograph” is a genuine picture of a large animal in the loch.
Every official source agrees that the loch is exactly 230 m deep and exactly 23 miles long.
The 2019 DNA survey proved that a giant eel lives in the loch.
The same report says the 1934 “Surgeon’s Photograph” was, sixty years later, confirmed as a hoax hatched in revenge after a newspaper ridiculed journalist Marmaduke Wetherell for finding “Nessie footprints” on the shore. The “monster” caught on camera was apparently a toy submarine bought from Woolworths, with a head fashioned from wood putty, and the hoaxers then gave the photograph to Wilson.1 Professor Gemmell said the data contained no shark DNA, no catfish DNA and no evidence of sturgeon, and that he did not think the plesiosaur idea held up. There was, he said, “a very significant amount of eel DNA,” found at pretty much every location sampled. The data do not reveal the eels’ size, and he did not discount the possibility that some might be giant, or that what people see might be a giant eel.1
Sources differ. The Gazetteer says the maximum depth is at least 230 m (754 feet). The UK Lakes Portal lists 229.8 m. Young and Shine’s 1991 survey recorded 226.96 m in the North Basin, a little less than Murray and Pullar’s 230 m. This site keeps the disagreement in view.