Organisations including the BBC fell for an elaborate April Fools prank last week and, according to the Highland News, even emeritus professor of chemistry and science studies at Virginia State University in the USA, Professor Henry H Bauer was caught out.

The spoof story cited plans for a new floating sea plane terminal on Loch Ness designed by Italian designer, Rolf Lapio and objections from a pressure group called "Flights Off Our Loch". The people taken in by it all failed to notice it was April the first and that Rolf Lapio is an anagram of "April Fool". Also the pressure groups initials read FOOL.

All good fun but Professor Kettle spoke of his concerns from his Loch Ness project. He said, "I can see the humour here but serious research into the cryptozoology of this loch continues and we cannot be sidetracked from our search for the world's most elusive cryptid".

Dr Pott remarked that he was concerned that the public might take Nessie as a joke. "The monster is real and we are getting close to final proof".