Loch Ness Monster Spotted THREE Times This Month Henry Bauer, a former professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, suggested that ‘Nessie’ could have been a type of undiscovered turtle trapped in the Loch as the waters receded at the end of the last Ice Age. Believable? Let’s see: According to many of the 1100+ sightings dating all the back to 535 AD, “Nessie” appears to be air-breathing but spends a lot of the time in deep water – hence the rare sightings. It may venture onto land, appears to be very fast in water, and has a relatively long neck.