Book Explore Find Us
Adrian Shine in The Loch Ness Centre talking to the press

Methods in Madness with Adrian Shine: A Natural History of Sea Serpents

27th Mar 2025

We’re excited to share an exclusive excerpt from Adrian Shine’s new book, A Natural History of Sea Serpents, right here on our blog.

In this piece, Adrian re-examines the mystery of sea serpents and monsters, offering fresh insights into the sightings reported by witnesses over the past three centuries. As one of the foremost experts on Loch Ness, Adrian sheds new light on the creatures that have captured the imaginations of many, exploring how the legend has evolved and what these sightings might really reveal.

Take a read at the overview written —it’s sure to intrigue both sceptics and believers alike!

A Natural History of Sea Serpents by Adrian Shine

A Natural History of Sea Serpents by Adrian Shine

A Natural History of Sea Serpents

A Natural History of Sea Serpents re-examines the cold-case enigma of sea serpents and monsters described by impeccable witnesses over three centuries. These reports have sometimes intrigued and puzzled the most eminent scientists of their times yet often became the butt of popular derision.

Naturalist Adrian Shine, best known for his fifty years examining Loch Ness as a ‘sympathetic sceptic’, reveals how the loch actually held the key to the greater mystery. He exonerates the integrity of most witnesses, often remarks upon the accuracy of their observations yet offers bold and radical interpretations of what they have seen. The book digs deep into the roots of the legend and shows how expectations ‘evolved’ from those ‘serpents’ to prehistoric ‘monsters’ during the nineteenth century. The book cites over a hundred reports and contains as many illustrations as evidence for its conclusions. His findings, stemming from knowledge of ships, the sea and the true monsters living there, cover the entire spectrum of reports, giving new insight, for example, into the famous HMS Daedalus episode of 1848, the description of a very unusual creature seen by two zoologists in 1904 and the serpent seen by hundreds off the coast of New England in 1817. Nothing daunted, he investigates reports of huge serpents seen battling whales and creatures which defy our understanding of vertebrate anatomy by bending both sideways and up and down, whilst under fire by the French Navy.

This book will certainly generate debate within the cryptozoology movement yet also challenges the theories of the preeminent sceptical writer on the subject, Dr. Robert France, who has proposed whales and other creatures entangled in pre-plastic era fishing gear as the cause of most sea serpent encounters. Nevertheless, the author shares this ethnobiological perspective and ends with a strong conservation message.

Humpback breach A Natural History of Sea Serpents
Sea lions phalanx A Natural History of Sea Serpents

Undiscovered Scotland,

“…Sometimes a book comes along which you just know is going to be a lasting source of reference about the subject it covers. This is one of those books and I’d highly recommend it to anyone with any interest in the subject…”

Waterstones Mark Seymour

“…With this book Adrian Shine has given a plethora of disciplines a new golden standard for what engaging with research should look like.”

Sharon A. Hill, Strange Claims Adjuster

“What I truly appreciate is a genuine expert, who has put in the time, presenting their well-reasoned arguments, supported by evidence. You can hardly get a better example of this than Adrian Shine’s new volume on sea serpents.”

Available online and at Nessie Shop next door.

Shop Now

Share news to:

News.

Nessie's easter egg hunt at The Loch Ness Centre

Egg-sighting Easter adventure for budding monster hunters

27th Mar 2025
Read More
Adrian Shine in The Loch Ness Centre talking to the press

Methods in Madness with Adrian Shine: A Natural History of Sea Serpents

27th Mar 2025
Read More
University College London on Deepscan Cruise to take some core samples

Underwater Inquiry: A UCL Team’s Exploration of Loch Ness

17th Mar 2025
Read More