The scientist admitted efforts had been made but so far, only eels had been found in the loch.
“People have tried. People came from New Zealand to try that and they took about 500 eDNA samples and no, they said they had found eels,” she said.
“It might be a very big eel, but it felt like it was clutching at straws a little bit. All they needed to find was one unidentified piece of eDNA and they could have had a story.”
Dr Bruce admitted the firm – which was a finalist in William’s Earthshot Prize initiative last year – had been asked to use its technology to find “all sorts” of cryptid creatures, including Bigfoot and the Yeti.
William jokingly hailed his visit to the Surrey-based company as the “best day of [his] life” after he got to spray cloudy pond water at a group of journalists in attendance.
The Prince of Wales made the declaration as he joined a group of schoolchildren who were collecting DNA samples to identify the bacteria and wildlife in a nearby lake. When he had to expel excess water from his syringe, Dr Bruce suggested he fire it in the direction of reporters.
He took three attempts and quipped: “Oh nearly, so nearly … This is the best day of my life – great fun.”
The Prince praised the company’s work as he was shown a DNA extraction machine, which produces the code sequence to identify a vast range of creatures, from bacteria to blue whales.
“So much of what the environmental world needs right now is data,” he told chief executive Dimple Patel.
“And you guys have got the ability to tell us what’s there. There’s a lot of guesswork, there’s a lot of painstaking volunteers and science going into this, but actually what we need is to be able to understand bigger, large-scale projects as to what is in each area.”
The Loch Ness monster is a legendary marine creature believed to inhabit Loch Ness in Scotland. Much of the alleged evidence supporting its existence has been discredited, according to Britannica, and it’s widely assumed the monster is a myth.
- Additional reporting by NZ Herald
