OSLO - [Reuters] A hunt in Norway for a fabled serpent reputated to be a counsin of Scotland's Loch Ness monster has sparked protests among animal rights activists, Norwegian authorities said yesterday.
The Norwegian Environment Ministry said it had received a letter from US-based animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), asking Norway to stop the chase for the elusive lake beast, known to locals as "Selma".
"Certainly, such an animal, if its existence were ever proven, would immediately be placed on every protected species list in the world," PETA said in the letter.
"It's inconeivable that government would permit the capture and killing of a species that is obviously endangered," it said.
An international team of 12 experts gathered for two weeks earlier this month [August] around Seljord lake in south Norway, about 110 miles (170 km) southwest of Oslo, hoping to catch the monster with a brand new 12-metre (yard) long tupe-shaped trap.
The trap, named Comet (Cooperative Monster Eel Trap), was lowered down to 100 metres near the sightings where the monster had been reported. But the team, struggling with stormy weather, went home empty-handed, with plans to improve the method for next year's expedition.
"It is a pioneer project which is still in an experimental phase and needs improvement," Jan Sundberg, a Swede leading the team, told Reuters. And he said his intention was not to harm the beast but to prove to scientists that it actually exists.
"If we catch a monster, that's good, but the most important thing for us is to prove that it is actually there," he said.
He said the project was still successful because the team managed to tape up to five-second long whale-like sounds from the monster, which have been sent to several international scientific institutions for analysis.
The Seljord beast was first spotted around 1750, and most accounts agree it looks like a serpent with the head of an elk or a horse.
