THE Thatcher government concocted a plan in the 1970s to search for the Loch Ness monster using a team of bottle-nosed dolphins.

Whitehall mandarins planned to import the highly intelligent mammals from America to establish once and for all whether Nessie existed.

The scheme followed years of inter-departmental discussion about the possible tourism benefits if the fabled creature was ever discovered.

Last week The Sunday Times revealed how civil servants had obsessed about whether there would be legal protection from poachers and bounty hunters if Nessie were to emerge from the depths.

Now declassified government files, released under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that the government was prepared to incur the wrath of animal rights groups in its quest to establish the truth about the monster.

A letter written in May 1979 from David Waymouth, a civil servant at the Department of the Environment, to Stewart Walker at the Scottish Home and Health Department states: “This department is presently considering the issue of a licence to import two bottle-nosed dolphins from America for the purpose of exploring Loch Ness, a scheme which has already resulted in opposition from the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

“Inquiries have been made with the mammal experts on the Scientific Authority for Animals and their advice is that there are no conservation, or indeed welfare, reasons for refusing a licence.

“Clearly, however, there are other factors, mainly political, that you might wish to consider before the licence is issued.”

The National Archive of Scotland contains no record of a response to the letter.

However, Adrian Shine, a naturalist who has been investigating the Loch Ness mystery for several decades, said he believed the dolphin plan was the brainchild of veteran monster hunter Dr Robert Rines, founder of the American-based Academy of Applied Science who took a now famous underwater photograph, in 1972, which appeared to show a large flipper in the Loch.

The Academy of Applied Science in New Hampshire confirmed that dolphins were being trained with mini cameras and strobe lights that would have been activated if they encountered any large objects. oAfter failing to outlaw the boiling alive of lobsters, MSPs are now seeking to introduce legislation banning people from keeping monkeys as pets.

A bill going through parliament will prevent people from keeping primates in their homes. Ministers believe chimpanzees, orang-utans, gibbons and monkeys should be kept in natural habitats rather than in a domestic environment.

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