Why are UK tabloid papers obsessing about a photo of 3 seals?

ByCraig Haley

So this week on social media, a photo clearly depicting 3 seals frolicking in the water is being shared widely across sites like Facebook and Twitter, but why?

Because, according to various tabloid media outlets, the photo isn’t of 3 seals. It’s the “most convincing photo ever” of Scottish folklore creature the Loch Ness Monster, of course.

Despite outlets The Sun, The Express and a number of others purporting to be reporting on this “most convincing” photo, it is – quite obviously – a photo of 3 seals.

However, headlines claiming to have information on evidence proving the existence of the Scottish monster are inevitably very “clickbaity”, and thus will naturally drive a lot of traffic to those tabloid sites and social media pages. All this despite the incredulity of almost all of their readers, who – quite correctly – concluded that the photo does depict – as we may have already mentioned – 3 seals.

the-sun-nessie
The Sun may have been a tad optimistic with their headline.

“The most incredible sightings ever” said The Sun. “Astonishing new photo of Nessie” mused The Express. “Is this the most compelling picture of the Loch Ness Monster yet?” asked the Huffington Post. “Photographer takes clearest photo of Loch Ness Monster” claimed UniLad.

Seals are often seen on the shores of Loch Ness, though they are not common there. They have often been misattributed to ol’ Nessie, but never before have we seen such an obvious case of “mistaken” identity.


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With all that said, the Loch Ness Monster has trended on social media for about half a day now, and plenty of tabloid papers have most likely had a nice spike in traffic. All over a photo clearly showing… yes, 3 seals.

We’ll have to wait what next week has in store.

Happy weekend!

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