Canadian family latest to spot elusive ‘Loch Ness Monster’

For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.

“We saw something,” Wiseman says. “Who knows? It’s unexplainable, it’s unbelievable.”

The couple says it was a cold and windy day when they peered out across the loch. It was Wiseman who first spotted something moving in the water below.

“We’re looking down and Shannon goes ‘What’s that thing?'” Malm recalls. The family thought perhaps it was a seal or an otter, but when they mentioned their sighting to the captain of a boat tour, they were told later that day that those animals don’t live in the loch.

They had taken out books on the Loch Ness Monster from the library to prepare for their vacation and their kids, aged three and five, were convinced they had seen the elusive “Nessie.”

Canadians Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman are shown in this undated handout photo. The Canadian couple living in Great Britain have been thrusted into the limelight after capturing images of what could be the famed Loch Ness Monster in Scotland. (HO-Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman / The Canadian Press)

When they returned home, Malm says he was “doom scrolling” the internet and stumbled upon the “Official Loch Ness Sightings Register” website and decided to submit their pictures.

“The Loch Ness people got in touch with us and now we are enjoying our 15 minutes of fame,” he says.

The register calls the photo “compelling new evidence,” and has deemed it the first Nessie sighting of 2024. Since then, their photo and story have appeared all over British papers. The couple says they are enjoying the attention, even if it comes with ribbing from family members.

“My brother asked me how my tinfoil hat fits,” Malm laughs. “So I don’t know if he was a good audience.”

But the family is choosing to believe that, perhaps, they saw something people have been searching for since 500 AD when the first sighting allegedly took place.

The mystery of the Loch Ness Monster took off in the 1930s, and exploded after a famous photo was published showing what appears to be a beast rearing its head out of the water. The picture was later exposed as a hoax, but the intrigue persists despite little evidence to support a large water creature living in the loch.

Last summer, hundreds of volunteers flocked to Scotland in one of the largest “hunts” in years. They used state of the art technology including Sonar, but nothing conclusive turned up.

Still, people continue to believe there might be something in the water, and Wiseman is one of them.

Our children full on believe it’s Nessie, so I believe it’s Nessie.”