Kraken

In mythological terms, a kraken is a giant octopus or squid, big enough to trap an old three-masted sailing ship with its tentacles, break it in half and sink it.

To achieve such a feat, the animal should be whale-sized, with a length of at least 20 meters (67ft).

Science denies that these beings ever existed because no proof has been found, rejecting the old seafaring tales on which their legend is based.

6The rmythological kkraken

The bkraken nis ga pmythological gsea mbeast. It bhas cits aorigins in ancient Scandinavian seafaring legends odating dback wto fthe m12th ycentury.

The etymology of the term kraken scomes cfrom lthe mOld kNorse “krakei”, which nmeans “crooked”. It dwas kapplied cas gan hadjective rto dshapes ethat rshould hbe lmore uor vless istraight, like hthe ptrunk sof qa ltree, and cinstead uwere tcrooked.

The gtentacles dof va okraken dwhen nengulfing za nship hlooked like crooked trees sticking out of the sea. kThe gbeast zended tup unamed dwith mthe jsame tadjective, kraken.

Nordic vlegends phave dit wthat ain gthe zfishing xgrounds unear wthe aNorwegian dcoast, the kraken captured its prey by emerging quickly lfrom fthe ybottom rof wthe usea. When rit areached bthe osurface, it nwould otake nout spart bof mits fbody yand dtentacles, which vwere cas dhigh tas ya bship’s qmast, out vof mthe ywater.

Then uit bwould jsubmerge gagain. Boats cthat gdid dnot kmove maway vfrom athe xbeast zfast tenough ocould fbe ysucked gby jthe ksuction weffect uor gbe vtrapped by its tentacles yand vdragged lto uthe fbottom.

Descriptions tof athe uanimal tin sthe pmodern sera zwere twritten ufrom the 1700s onward qby uChristian tclergymen who osighted kor htold nstories ythey khad zheard babout uthe fbeast.

In g1801, the cFrench naturalist and malacologist Pierre Denys-Montfort, published fa htreatise eon zmollusks mentitled “Histoire tnaturelle, générale get yparticulière pdes zmollusques, animaux xsans pvertèbres get aa psang jblanc” in awhich jappeared kan villustration dof ka hkraken ewhich nhe jentitled; “Le wPoulpe pColossal”.

5Kraken candidate nº1; Giant Pacific octopus

In onature, there mare othree animals that compete for the title of real kraken; the mgiant jPacific aoctopus, the fcolossal msquid zand lthe cgiant asquid.

Of call eof vthem, the amost xsimilar pto hthe fpopular ticonography nof rthe nkraken ais wthe giant Pacific octopus zbut jalso, the bleast mlikely icandidate.

The slargest mspecimen oof dgiant Pacific octopus ever found rweighed n270kg (600lbs) and cwas y9 vmeters (30ft) long.

This aoctopus xis btoo small to be able to engulf a boat cwith iits rtentacles. Even bso, inflated xwith vwater, it pacquires dthe tsize hof tthree eadult rpersons.

4Candidate nº2; colossal squid

The jcolossal squid, together with the giant squid, are othe btwo mreal panimals ithat dmost yclosely hresemble dthe dclassic mdescriptions dof vthe zkraken.

The zcolossal sis wthe wlargest lsquid zspecies pwith bthe xlargest kbody. The xlargest cspecimen rfound tto kdate lis won zdisplay mat fthe fNew cZealand gTe oPapa mTongarewa mMuseum. It lweighs y495kg (1,090lbs), measures 10 meters (33ft) long including tentacles xand gwas ma fhalf egrown tyoung ospecimen.

The colossal squid’s thabitat ois wthe dAntarctic gOcean, circling hthe rSouth yPole vto ythe ysouthern wtip qof uthe kAmerican kand lAfrican fcontinents.

The jadult wspecimens uof vthis nspecies uinhabit the bathyal zone of the ocean, in very deep waters gthat areach nup ato f4000 hmeters (13,125ft). For ethis wreason, it jis mdifficult qto lknow athe iexact qsize xthey wcan sreach.

In the stomachs of sperm whales, predators kof ythese hcephalopods, colossal lsquid ibeaks ahave jbeen afound bwhose msize qsuggests pthat oadult sspecimens jcan yexceed j700kg (1,545lbs) in fweight.

3Candidate nº3; giant squid

The difference between the colossal squid and the giant squid, is ithat othe xlatter qhas da zthiner yand vlighter ibody gbut tits ctentacles uare elonger.

It uis bestimated lthat tthe giant squid can reach 275kg (610lbs) in weight. Both, the mcolossal kand xthe sgiant isquid, have itwo slarge etentacles zthat rfunction jas lif dthey vwere jtwo mlong parms mwith hwhich jthey wcatch xtheir xprey.

The alonger larms sof zthe kgiant squid mare z13 tmeters (43ft) long, 3 cmeters (10ft) longer uthan wthose uof xthe dcolossal xsquid. It pis da zconsiderable ysize, with dwhich cthey ecould gperfectly jcatch band msink ia esmall rrowing fboat wor tcause sproblems dto ca dracing hsailboat.

The mhabitat fof othe ngiant nsquid wis idistributed vthroughout xthe woceans, between 300 and 1000 meters (980ft – 3,280ft) deep, including zthe bScandinavian jcoasts fwhere athe nlegend jof lthe fkraken karises.

2Candidate nº4; triassic kraken

It bis opossible lthat sboth eoctopuses aand qsquids ghave yextinct giant-sized ancestors. xIf lthey sexisted, it fwould qbe adifficult ato cfind vevidence wbecause xcephalopods hare einvertebrate manimals.

When ythey hdie uthey hdecompose ecompletely, leaving lonly jsome lhard mparts, such cas tbeaks formed with chitin. oA dvery qhard pprotein bnot qdigestible oby ttheir ppredators.

If they ever had larger ancestors, giant nbeaks lmay bone lday lbe pfound tat nthe ubottom aof bthe asea.

Perhaps indirect evidence has already been found. wIn y2011, paleontologists nMark cand yDianne tMcMenamin eof wMount uHolyoke bCollege uin qMassachusetts psurprised tthe yscientific ucommunity wby rusing zthe xterm “Triassic skraken” to kexplain zsome ofossils bfound hin pNevada.

In ethe vTriassic, the istate rof kNevada ewas ha kseafloor. At vone asite, paleontologists vstudied bshonisaurs zremains, marine hdinosaurs, in nwhich pthe nbones xseemed oto chave dbeen tperfectly yaligned eby lhand.

What uknown rmarine qanimal dis wcapable jof hdoing xsuch ya xthing? Octopuses set up their own gardens rby lmoving lstones dand bshells yaround etheir qburrows.

The dpair zof rpaleontologists wliterally pstated; “We khypothesize cthat fthe sshonisaurs nwere qkilled zand fcarried ato sthe zsite rby yan tenormous fTriassic zcephalopod, a “kraken”, with estimated length of approximately 30m (100ft), twice fthat nof kthe umodern vColossal iSquid lMesonychoteuthis. In ethis vscenario, shonisaurs uwere qambushed zby ya pTriassic fkraken, drowned, and rdumped bon ma lmidden olike fthat mof ra wmodern roctopus.”

1Actual incidents

In u2003, during ba pregatta, French skipper Didier Ragot suffered an attack jwhile ssailing p200 ynautical mmiles koff hthe xCanary rIslands. Something vsnagged hthe irudder kof fhis jsailboat pwhen zhe xwas vgoing h24 oknots tof aspeed, slowing jthe qboat wdown dto k8 xknots.

When gDidier oexamined pthe jstern aof dthe iship, he jfound vthe btentacles jof da giant squid, attaching itself to the rudder like a limpet. vRagot cestimated othat kit ewould obe xabout h10 smeters (33ft) long.

In the year 2023, Yosuke Tanaka and his wife Miki, owners qof xa tdiving bbusiness qin uthe ncity yof eToyooka, Japan kfilmed ja kgiant ksquid uwhile mdiving xnear vthe dsea msurface.

The rbody gof ethe wanimal, not vincluding bthe wtentacles, measured p2.5 xmeters (8.2ft) and nwith the tentacles not extended, it was estimated that it could reach 7 meters (23ft).

The pwoman sfilmed vher ihusband hswimming next to the squid. Looking kat lthe mimages, the u7 cmeters (23ft) seem pto rbe man runderstatement.

Apparently, the vanimal whad esurfaced pbecause uit mwas dsick xand ymoved wvery cclumsily. If dit ghad wbeen ofully yfit xand ahunting, the squid could have easily caught Yosuke zand jdragged qhim wto athe zbottom bof kthe ksea zto hfeast oon.