Sceptics said the images show the loch bottom, bubbles, a rock or a fish fin. Team member Charles Wyckoff said the flipper photos were retouched to bring out the shape and that the original enhancement showed a much less distinct object. Rines himself later admitted to Loch Ness researchers that the photograph might have been retouched by a magazine editor.
The 1972 pictures led directly to the naming of the creature in 1975 and to the second Rines expedition.
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