While we can always count on Bigfoot to make news throughout the year, its aquatic kin in the cryptid world, sea monsters, were also surprisingly busy in 2018. From an array of Nessie sightings to the reemergence of its Canadian counterpart Ogopogo as well as witnesses spotting weird water-based creatures in a number of countries around the world, this past year proved to be particularly newsworthy for the oddities that lurk beneath the deep.
2018 saw no less than nine possible appearances by the Loch Ness Monster which were captured by bewildered individuals watching over the iconic site in Scotland. Among the many people who might have caught a glimpse of Nessie this past year were tourists from Canada and America as well as a schoolgirl who snapped what may be the first moonlit image of the creature ever taken. Meanwhile another youngster was heralded for having captured an image of the creature that was called the "best in years." And, thanks to modern technology, there were also sightings via Google Earth and the Loch Ness webcam.
Beyond difficult to decipher videos and photos, the creature also made news in 2018 when a much-anticipated scientific expedition collected water from Loch Ness with the intention of extracting environmental DNA from the site which would allow researchers to create a catalog of all the creatures living there. Whether or not the project found Nessie DNA in the water will be revealed sometime in 2019. And there may be a lot riding on the results as it was determined in 2018 that the creature accounts for a whopping $53 million spent by tourists visiting the site each year.
Check out our complete recap of strange and unusual sea monster sightings from 2018 at the Coast to Coast AM website.