For lovers of the paranormal who've grown weary of waiting for the Loch Ness monster to reappear, here's a new "monster" to feast your eyes upon.
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, UPI reports.
"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. [Loch Ness, Chupacabra & More: Our 10 Favorite Monsters]
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"I have absolutely no idea what it is, but it looked amazing!" Melarkey wrote.
The shaky, 59-second video shows a dark object of indeterminate size moving slowly along the surface of Lough Foyle before diving or sinking slowly beneath the waves.
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).
Besides the infamous Loch Ness monster of Scotland, reports of large, lake-dwelling creatures have come from other parts of the world, including the mysterious "Devil of Lake Labynkyr" in Siberia.
Nessie achieved international fame when, in 1934, a now-famous photograph was published showing a large animal with a serpentine head and neck. The photo, taken by a London surgeon named Kenneth Wilson, was exposed decades later as a hoax.
And despite countless searches for the Loch Ness monster using everything from submarines to sonar, no evidence has ever appeared of the mythical beast except a handful of dubious photos and videos. Nonetheless, the legend of Loch Ness — now one of Scotland's biggest tourist draws — refuses to die.
Not everyone, however, believes in lake monsters, and critics wonder if this latest sighting is just a college stunt.
"There are several inconsistencies with the video that point to it being a set-up," the Belfast Telegraph reports.
"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 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."
Follow Marc Lallanilla on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.
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