On Oct 25, beachgoers at Magnetic Island, off Townsville, claimed that they saw "a distinctive long, curved neck bobbing up and down off the coast," AAP reports.

The beachgoers were quick to associate the image they saw to the mythical creature Loch Ness monster or most popularly called Nessie.

Locals of the Magnetic Island were now desperate to find answer or a name to the image that they saw.

"It was bobbing up and down in the water and at first I thought, what's that? Someone yelled out 'it looks like a Loch Ness monster. I've never seen anything like it - it could be anything. We are all wanting to know what it is," David Herron, a marriage celebrant told AAP.

Mr Herron was able to photograph the "monster" from a 200 metres distance.

However, marine biologists who have seen the photograph taken by Mr Herron said that the object bobbing up and down off the coast could be a piece of a tree or boat.

Glen Chilton, James Cook University biology professor, echoed what the marine biologists said.

"It's probably a piece of a tree or piece of a boat which has somehow broken away," he told AAP.

But Australian cryptozoologist and self-proclaimed "yowie man" Rex Gilroy took the locals' side saying that "it's hard to say from the photo" whether the image seen was just that of a piece of tree or a part of a boat.

Mr Gilroy said that he had known 800 sightings of creatures resembling the Loch Ness monster. Some of these sightings were from the Magnetic Island and Townsville area. In fact, in Oct 2012, a local fisherman saw a grey coloured creature emerging from waters off the Magnetic Island.

The mystery about the Loch Ness monster, Nessie, had been being told over and again for 80 years now.

The story started as far back on Apr 14, 1933, when a couple - John Mackay and his wife - saw something strange as they drove past the Loch Ness Lake in Scottish Highlands. According to accounts, the couple described what they saw as something resembling a whale.

The story of Mr and Mrs Mackay had since then gave birth to more sightings of the Loch Ness monster.

To date, there is still no concrete evidence to support the sightings.

Scientists even consider the mystery of the Loch Ness monster as a myth and hoax to drive tourism to the lake.