College students capture underwater ‘monster’ on camera in Ireland

See for instance Discovery and Live Science

Three college students were filming a short movie as a class project at Lough Foyle, a large tidal estuary in County Donegal, Ireland, when something very odd moved through the water in front of them

“Looks like we have our own Loch Ness monster!” Conall Melarkey, a student at North West Regional College in Derry, Ireland, wrote in his posting of the video clip to YouTube.

Some observers have speculated that the object could be a large fish, a whale, a dolphin or some other marine animal (Lough Foyle is open to the North Atlantic).

Not everyone, however, believes in lake monsters, and critics wonder if this latest sighting is just a college stunt.

“The uploader claims the video was taken in Lough Foyle, but the landmass in the background is clearly that of Howth … about 130 miles [209 kilometers] away from Lough Foyle,” according to the Belfast Telegraph.

“When viewed at higher definitions, there are several tethering cables seen off the second boat, which raises further questions,” the Telegraph reports.

And several observers have cast doubt on the video simply due to the college student’s name: “Conall Melarkey.”