The Loch Ness Monster is a type of Freshwater Stingray

Indeed there are Stingrays in the North Sea and I believe this has been completely unexplored. Take a look at the giant freshwater Stingray they found in Asia not too long ago in a river.

Now I am a diver and I deal a lot with Stingrays, and can safely say that, when seen toward the surface, they often look a lot like some of the sightings have said. "Humps" and "ripples" and "wakes" and "fleshy bits seen breaking the surface".

As for the long neck, I propose it is not a neck that people see, but rather the tail of the Stingrays lifting up. Stingrays will often lift their barbed tail up in a whip-like fashion, not just when threatened, but sometimes just as an involuntary reflex, as was the case in the unfortunate death of Steve Irwin - witness Phillipe Costeau described the footage as showing the Ray taking off and whipping it's tail around just to make sure nothing had creeped up on it while it was buried in the sand, unfortunately something had creeped up on it, Steve Irwin, and the tail got caught in his shirt and the rest is history.

Now a tail in a whip like fashion lifting up at the surface could very well explain the long neck sightings. Also, certain Rays can actually take flight off the surface of the water, and Rays I have seen that ever come up near the surface, I have observed them doing strange things with their tail and flapping their bodies, which could be mistaken for "flippers" to a mind that has *preconceived* that Nessie is a Plesiosaur or the like.

Also, Rays bury themselves in sand and silt and can blend in very well with their surroundings - many a heart-stopping moment has occurred when I have been swimming over what I thought was just rocks or reef under sand and a huge Stingray has emerged instead. Thus, in the murky waters of the Loch, they would go undetected, and could also pass through Firth of Inverness and Moray Firth to the North Sea without being observed at all.

They also spend most of their time at the bottom, which would explain why they are only seen occasionally. Even an oversized amphibian as has been proposed before would be sighted more often.

The Rays would not even have to be huge, they could be any size. A large school of Rays moving together near the Loch's surface could look, from the shoreline, like a large animal or a group of large animals traveling together. A lift of the tail or a part of the body breaks the surface and to anyone hopeful of "Nessie" being a prehistoric animal, it would be "OMG look at the long neck, the humps! They are Dinosaurs!"

Rays can also travel at very fast speeds.

What I also think some of the sightings are, especially land sightings, are of seals.