Inspired by the mock plan to storm Area 51, Scotland now has an event scheduled to definitively prove the existence of its own elusive creature: the Loch Ness monster.
On Facebook, at least 21,000 people have RSVP’d to an event called “Storm Loch Ness, Nessie can’t hide from us all.”
Though Loch Ness doesn’t share the same top-secret allure that the potentially alien-stocked Area 51 holds, people have long believed something unknown lurks in the Loch.
Now, Nessie truth-seekers can come together en masse September 21 to, as the event description says, “find dat big boi.”
“There’s really no need to ‘storm’ Loch Ness, given that it is open to the public 24/7, 365 days a year,” Gemma McDonald, a spokeswoman for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, told CNN.
However, any Loch Ness-navigator should take appropriate precautions when searching for the sea creature of lore, according to McDonald.
The Loch Ness is one of the largest bodies of water in the British Isles, at 22 miles in length and more than 750 feet deep.
Plus, with waters at around 43 degrees Fahrenheit and waves up to 13 feet high, any unprepared monster-hunter could easily face capsizing, cold water shock or hypothermia, McDonald said.
Though she encouraged everyone interested to come to the Loch, McDonald cautions visitors to respect the water — and whatever dangers potentially lie within.
“Our team knows the Loch incredibly well, but they would never be complacent about it and would say themselves that Loch Ness’ real monster is cold water shock,” McDonald said.
While some have devoted years of their life to researching the mythical creature, others — including many of the event participants — relegate the monster to memes and pop culture references, but the desire to know attracts people worldwide.
Luckily for another secluded mythical creature, no Facebook events appear to have been created to scour the Pacific Northwest for Bigfoot. Yet(i).