Page 115 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

Mysterious Creatures 95

he giant squid, one of the most terrifying
monsters of the sea, has never been seen
alive. A member of the class Cephalopoda, Are Giant Squids
T which includes the octopus and the nau-
tilus, the giant squid is the largest invertebrate in the
the True
world.
The statement that the monster has never been Sea Monsters?
seen alive should be amended to read that no marine
zoologist or other scientist has been able to observe
Sources:
the giant squid in its natural habitat. The huge crea- Askwith, Richard. “They Came from the Deep.” The Independent,
ture, commonly known as the kraken, has been August 7, 2002. [Online] http://news.independent.co.uk/
reported throughout nautical history. There have been world/environment/story.jsp?dir=507&story=322280&host=....
frightening reports of people snatched from their “Deep-sea Monster Caught on Tape.” Science News from
boats or the seashore by the tentacles of the kraken, MSNBC, December 20, 2001. [Online] http://www.msnbc.
numerous sightings of whales being attacked by the com/news/674647.asp.
Heuvelmans, Bernard. In the Wake of Sea-Serpents. New York:
giant squid, and stories of entire ships being pulled
Hill and Wang, 1968.
beneath the surface by a beast with tentacles more
than 200 feet long. Some scholars of marine lore insist
that the great giant squid fight scene in Jules Verne’s
(1828–1905) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870) was
based on an actual encounter with a kraken that
involved the French battleship Alecton in 1861.
On a weekend in July 2002, early morning joggers
discovered the remains of a giant squid almost com-
pletely intact, stretching nearly 50 feet in length and
weighing over 500 pounds. Observers said the beast
had eyes the size of small dinner plates and a parrot-
like central beak. Dr. David Pemberton, Senior Curator
of Zoology at Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery,
rushed to the scene in time to save the fragile corpse
from the incoming tide.
Six months earlier, another nearly complete spec-
imen of giant squid had been washed ashore near
Aberdeen, Scotland. In December 2001, scientists
from the United States, Japan, Spain, and France
reported eight separate sightings in various oceans of
an unknown species of squid that if not giant squids
were certainly very large creatures. Underwater
video cameras recorded footage of what may be a
new species of squid 13 to 23 feet long gliding through
ocean depths of 11,000 feet.

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