JMIRxBio JMIRx Bio JMIRx Bio 2819-2044 JMIR Publications Toronto, Canada v1i1e50621 10.2196/50621 Peer-Review Report Peer-Review Report Peer Review of “The Loch Ness Monster: If It’s Real, Could It Be an Eel?” Eysenbach Gunther Jellyman Don PhD 1 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6941-2703 National Institute of Water and Atmosphere Auckland New Zealand 2023 21 7 2023 1 e50621 6 7 2023 6 7 2023 ©Don Jellyman. Originally published in JMIRx Bio (https://bio.jmirx.org), 21.07.2023. 2023

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 https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/49063 https://bio.jmirx.org/2023/1/e50618/ https://bio.jmirx.org/2023/1/e49063/ European eel Anguilla anguilla probability distribution Loch Ness folk zoology unknown animals cryptozoology

This is a peer-review report submitted for the paper “The Loch Ness Monster: If It’s Real, Could It Be an Eel?”

Round 1 Review General Assessment

This paper [1] is an interesting assessment that verifies the obvious—that any monster of ~6 m cannot be an eel (Anguilla anguilla), although there is a reasonable likelihood that eels of ~1 m could account for some of the “sightings” of elongate animals in the loch. However, even though the outcome is unsurprising, the author approaches the subject in a rigorous and systematic way. As such, the manuscript is of value in eliminating eels as possible candidate species for the mythical monster.

The manuscript is well-written and referenced.

 Essential Revisions That Are Required to Verify the Manuscript

Nil.

 Other Suggestions to Improve the Manuscript

Nil.

 Decision

Verified: The content is academically sound, only minor amendments (if any) are suggested.

None declared.

Editorial Notice

This paper was peer-reviewed by the Plan P Hashtag Community partner #PeerRef.

 Foxon F The Loch Ness monster: if it's real, could it be an eel? JMIRx Bio 2023 e49063 10.2196/49063