The ‘Return’ Of The Loch Ness Monster Feels Amusingly Appropriate

尼斯湖水怪的“回归”让人觉得恰如其分

2020 continues to barrel forward, and is now beginning to resemble an episode of Rick and Morty, having delivered a global pandemic, swarms of locusts, an invasion of “murder hornets,” Pentagon-approved footage of U.F.Os, and a green glow that recently appeared around Mars - now, the Loch Ness Monster is making an unexpected comeback.

2020年继续飞速前进，现状开始像《瑞克和莫蒂》中的一集:全球大流行，成群的蝗虫，“杀人黄蜂”的入侵，五角大楼批准的U.F.O的镜头，以及最近出现在火星周围的绿色光芒--现在，尼斯湖水怪出人意料地卷土重来。

The above photo, taken by tourist Steve Challice of South Hampton, has drummed up excitement among the monster-hunting community; author Roland Watson, who runs the Loch Ness Mystery blog, stated:

运营尼斯湖水之谜博客的作者罗兰·沃森说:这张照片由来自南汉普顿的游客史蒂夫·查利斯拍摄，在猎杀怪兽的社区中引起了轰动；

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"If this is a genuine picture of a creature in Loch Ness, it would easily rank in the top three of all time."

“如果这是尼斯湖生物的真实照片，无论任何时期，它都能轻而易举地列入世界奇观前三名。”

With all of these surreal events constantly simmering in the background, the appearance of the Loch Ness Monster seems almost expected. But, like so many of these unusual, clickbaity news stories, it’s just a meme, taken seriously by only the most dedicated of cryptozoologists.

随着所有这些超现实事件不断在悄然地聚积，尼斯湖水怪的出现似乎几乎在意料之中。 但是，就像许多不寻常的高点击量新闻一样，它只是一个迷，只有最专注的神秘动物学家才会认真对待。

And even they have their doubts. Watson went on to say:

Watson接着说:甚至他们也有自己的怀疑。

"At this point, I am in an ongoing conversation with Steve as to the objections and concerns I have about this being a photoshop picture. So we will see where that takes us."

“在这一点上，我正在与史蒂夫(Steve)就这一照片展开讨论，我对这张照片的真实性持有怀疑态度，并且担忧这张照片是经过Photoshop图片编辑软件加工而成的。所以我们将看看它会把我们带向哪里。”

Amusingly enough, Steve Challice never actually claimed this to be a photo of the Loch Ness Monster - he clearly describes the subject of the photo as a “big fish,” only posting it online so that others could help him identify the species.

有趣的是，Steve Challice实际上从未声称这是一张尼斯湖水怪的照片--他清楚地将照片的主题描述为一条“大鱼”，只是将照片发布到网上，以便其他人帮助他识别这一物种。

"I started taking a couple of shots and then this big fish came to the surface and then went back down again … My guess would be that what I captured was a catfish or something like that. As seals get in from the sea then I expect that's what it is and that would explain why these sightings are so few and far between.”

“我开始拍了几张照片，然后这条大鱼浮出水面，又掉了下去……我猜我拍到的是鲶鱼之类的东西。当海豹跃出海面，我想这就是海豹的样子，这种思路也就解释了为什么这些目击事件如此稀少。”

But the Loch Ness Monster has a history of dodgy photos blown out of proportion; one of the most famous images of the beast, the “Surgeon’s photograph," was eventually admitted to be a mischievous prank, nothing more than a toy submarine, with the head and neck sculpted from wood putty.

但是尼斯湖水怪曾经被拍摄过被爆得不成比例的诡异照片； 这只野兽最著名的照片之一，“外科医生的照片”，最终被承认是一个恶作剧，只不过是一个玩具潜艇，头颈是用木油灰雕刻的。

This map shows the amount of cryptids lurking in the United States alone, lake monsters being significantly overrepresented; it’s easy to look into the murky waters of a lake and imagine a Lovecraftian entity lurking beneath.

这张图显示了仅在美国潜伏的隐孢子虫的数量，表明了这类“湖中怪兽”大量涌现； 人们很容易看到一池浑浊的湖水，就想象一个恐怖实体潜伏在下面。

If the Loch Ness Monster were to exist in 2020, it would be more likely to be declared extinct, another victim of climate change, rather than randomly popping up to scare tourists.

如果尼斯湖水怪在2020年还存在，它更有可能被宣布灭绝，这是气候变化的另一个牺牲品，而不是随机冒出来吓唬游客的一类物种。