A team of international scientists may have just solved the mystery behind the Loch Ness monster as they have found a “plausible” theory for decades of sightings.

A team of scientists led by Professor Neil Gemmell of the University of Otago used environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling of the waters to find their theory, which they will be revealing later this month. This identifies tiny genetic remnants left behind by life and was sued to establish a detailed list of all life living in the waters of Loch Ness.

During their research, 250 water samples were taken from the length, breadth and depth of Loch Ness.

“There have been over a thousand reported sightings of something in Loch Ness which have driven this notion of a monster being in the water,” Gemmell said. “From those sightings there are around four main explanations about what has been seen. Our research essentially discounts most of those theories – however, one theory remains plausible.”

The researchers travelled the entire length of Loch Ness on the research vessel “Deepscan,” which is named after the operation to sonar scan the lake back in 1987. As they sailed, the scientists took three different depths within the loch, in order to collect the traces of DNA found in the waters. They ended up identifying fifteen different species of fish from within Loch Ness, along with 3,000 types of bacteria that were living in the water.

The scientists were hoping to make a documentary about their findings, and they approached various production companies, but they were unable to negotiate a deal to begin filming.

“There’s been an ongoing tension between wanting to tell people what we’ve found and wanting to maximise the vehicle through which we tell them,” said Gemmell. “I think a TV documentary would’ve been a wonderful way to document the search and what we found, and put it into the context of other studies of Loch Ness. It’s been something I’ve worked on pretty hard.”

Gemmell will be revealing his findings later in the month. Find out more in the video below.