Loch Ness monster hunter thought it would be easier to find it

A man who has spent about half his life searching for the Loch Ness monster has admitted he thought he'd have had an easier time finding it.

In 1991 Dorset resident Steve Feltham quit his job and moved up to Scotland to live on the shores of Loch Ness.

Ever since then he's been the world's most dedicated Loch Ness monster hunter, his obsession with the creature beginning when he was seven years old and visited Loch Ness.

He made up his mind to leave everything behind and hunt for the monster after wondering what it was he'd have regretted not doing with his life by the time he hit 70.

His more than 30 year vigil has been recognised by Guinness World Records as the longest continuous hunt for the monster, though Steve has still not been able to find it and said he's not leaving until he does.

Lee Karen Stow / Alamy Stock Photo

However, he did recently admit to the BBC that he thought it would be easier to track the monster down, having had his first sighting within year one of moving but not getting another proper glimpse since then.

He said: "I had one glimpse of something like a torpedo going through the water.

"I did think this job was going to easier as I had a sighting in the first year and I thought it wouldn't be long until a second sighting would come along.

"And that is where I'm stopped, at that moment, still waiting for that second glimpse of something unexplained. Because I am here full-time I speak to hundreds of people who do report something that we can't identify."

There are quite a lot of people who've dedicated their lives to finding the Loch Ness monster, or 'Nessie', but sightings tend not to venture beyond seeing something ambiguous out there in the water.

Of course what they see really could be anything, and some experts reckon that legends of monsters spotted in the water were actually sightings of a whale penis.

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The legend of the Loch Ness monster can trace its origins back to the Middle Ages where an Irish priest claimed he saw a creature swimming in the river that flows from Loch Ness.

In 1933 a hotel manager called Aldie Mackay said she saw a whale-like creature 'cascading and churning' the waters of Loch Ness, which sparked off interest that some mythical beast lay beneath the lapping waves of the loch.

Most people who go for a look don't believe Nessie actually exists and scientific analysis has found no evidence of a big monster in Loch Ness, but the legend persists and is fuelled by the occasional sighting.

People love to spot things in the water and wonder if maybe the world is just a little bit more magical than we believed.

Although famously associated with Loch Ness and Scotland, people sometimes say they've seen the monster elsewhere in the world so perhaps Nessie pops off on holiday occasionally.