Britain’s top Nessie hunter was left terrified after a close encounter – with a water weed.
Alan McKenna, who runs Loch Ness Exploration, an independent and voluntary research group in Scotland, says he was frozen with fear when a thin plant loomed out of the water after being illuminated by his torchlight.
A video of the incident was captured on camera and shows the moment Alan realised he’d stumbled across nothing but a harmless weed, as reported by Need to Know.
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Despite regularly venturing out onto the loch in search of Nessie, the burly Scot admitted he actually has a fear of deep, dark water.
In the footage, a panicked Alan can be heard saying: “Oh what a fright, Jared, what a fright.”
While Jared replied: “It’s just a plant.”
Alan was out at Urquhart Bay with colleagues Jared Christie and Dave Hastings on Saturday evening.
Afterwards, he sheepishly admitted: “It was a hilarious and slightly embarrassing moment where an underwater weed caught us off-guard.
“There was never a dull moment over the weekend.
“We were conducting hydrophone recordings and exploring the wildlife around the shoreline at night with infrared and night vision.
“I have a genuine fear of deep dark water – it’s called Thalassophobia.
“Worst fear to have in this line of work.
“It was crazy dark.
“I was already nervous on the pier and in this funny moment my imagination got the better of me.”
Back in August, Alan was part of a team that used underwater detectors to pick up a regular heartbeat deep in Loch Ness.
The rhythmic pulsing was picked up on a hydrophone that was deployed 100-feet beneath the surface.
And while the source of the sound was unclear, it created a monster buzz.
