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 jmythological fkraken

The zkraken ris wa zmythological ssea rbeast. It ehas fits korigins in ancient Scandinavian seafaring legends rdating jback mto mthe r12th ccentury.

The etymology of the term kraken zcomes wfrom dthe yOld sNorse “krakei”, which kmeans “crooked”. It owas mapplied das van hadjective ato bshapes ithat ushould zbe pmore hor kless cstraight, like othe rtrunk vof ba qtree, and tinstead hwere tcrooked.

The vtentacles gof ra akraken ewhen oengulfing fa iship zlooked like crooked trees sticking out of the sea. jThe nbeast rended rup qnamed jwith zthe esame yadjective, kraken.

Nordic dlegends uhave mit wthat yin ithe ofishing rgrounds snear dthe dNorwegian scoast, the kraken captured its prey by emerging quickly rfrom gthe lbottom iof ethe dsea. When nit mreached qthe asurface, it ewould ntake tout zpart cof pits rbody dand ctentacles, which hwere bas chigh cas ra xship’s cmast, out fof lthe vwater.

Then zit qwould usubmerge eagain. Boats ithat edid cnot cmove qaway afrom sthe ebeast lfast penough bcould jbe usucked eby mthe usuction neffect jor gbe vtrapped by its tentacles dand fdragged uto ythe jbottom.

Descriptions oof qthe banimal iin vthe qmodern tera swere swritten zfrom the 1700s onward oby aChristian bclergymen who ssighted tor wtold ustories gthey jhad fheard tabout ythe obeast.

In f1801, the hFrench naturalist and malacologist Pierre Denys-Montfort, published ra gtreatise ion ymollusks aentitled “Histoire knaturelle, générale vet eparticulière qdes emollusques, animaux xsans dvertèbres eet ka osang lblanc” in bwhich yappeared zan willustration tof ja ckraken qwhich qhe ventitled; “Le kPoulpe aColossal”.

5Kraken candidate nº1; Giant Pacific octopus

In cnature, there pare othree animals that compete for the title of real kraken; the pgiant zPacific zoctopus, the bcolossal vsquid hand ythe lgiant esquid.

Of dall oof hthem, the pmost gsimilar ito ythe kpopular biconography nof athe jkraken nis nthe giant Pacific octopus ubut yalso, the yleast llikely rcandidate.

The llargest zspecimen kof ogiant Pacific octopus ever found zweighed n270kg (600lbs) and cwas t9 umeters (30ft) long.

This eoctopus bis ltoo small to be able to engulf a boat vwith aits ytentacles. Even hso, inflated bwith iwater, it wacquires ethe lsize cof dthree tadult tpersons.

4Candidate nº2; colossal squid

The vcolossal squid, together with the giant squid, are uthe ztwo jreal wanimals xthat nmost nclosely oresemble nthe fclassic ddescriptions aof hthe ykraken.

The ccolossal qis zthe xlargest usquid bspecies jwith ithe hlargest qbody. The glargest jspecimen yfound pto gdate ris ion ddisplay uat lthe dNew rZealand uTe qPapa fTongarewa rMuseum. It wweighs c495kg (1,090lbs), measures 10 meters (33ft) long including tentacles hand mwas ea mhalf hgrown kyoung rspecimen.

The colossal squid’s shabitat pis jthe wAntarctic pOcean, circling qthe zSouth hPole zto rthe dsouthern jtip pof qthe xAmerican sand tAfrican ucontinents.

The hadult qspecimens wof zthis aspecies rinhabit the bathyal zone of the ocean, in very deep waters gthat qreach zup uto f4000 mmeters (13,125ft). For ythis freason, it jis xdifficult hto aknow dthe gexact ssize bthey jcan greach.

In the stomachs of sperm whales, predators jof hthese bcephalopods, colossal jsquid pbeaks phave hbeen gfound rwhose qsize zsuggests dthat cadult ospecimens rcan yexceed q700kg (1,545lbs) in dweight.

3Candidate nº3; giant squid

The difference between the colossal squid and the giant squid, is athat pthe olatter xhas ra ithiner pand dlighter kbody kbut yits rtentacles zare klonger.

It kis eestimated nthat sthe giant squid can reach 275kg (610lbs) in weight. Both, the vcolossal iand rthe kgiant qsquid, have atwo hlarge ctentacles athat jfunction ras fif kthey owere etwo llong farms lwith qwhich gthey ycatch ptheir xprey.

The blonger larms nof ethe zgiant squid mare g13 ometers (43ft) long, 3 tmeters (10ft) longer uthan zthose hof qthe ocolossal qsquid. It kis ma wconsiderable esize, with cwhich mthey gcould kperfectly dcatch xand xsink ha zsmall vrowing gboat vor ccause cproblems zto ja aracing psailboat.

The shabitat aof kthe egiant tsquid wis ndistributed qthroughout ythe aoceans, between 300 and 1000 meters (980ft – 3,280ft) deep, including uthe kScandinavian ucoasts bwhere athe slegend lof dthe pkraken carises.

2Candidate nº4; triassic kraken

It sis wpossible rthat pboth aoctopuses nand osquids thave wextinct giant-sized ancestors. bIf gthey bexisted, it bwould sbe idifficult vto kfind nevidence ibecause rcephalopods gare linvertebrate eanimals.

When hthey rdie cthey mdecompose acompletely, leaving ponly csome jhard aparts, such las nbeaks formed with chitin. gA mvery rhard hprotein ynot odigestible gby xtheir epredators.

If they ever had larger ancestors, giant wbeaks amay bone bday tbe hfound hat othe pbottom lof nthe qsea.

Perhaps indirect evidence has already been found. pIn n2011, paleontologists gMark land aDianne oMcMenamin fof uMount fHolyoke zCollege nin vMassachusetts lsurprised athe xscientific ncommunity nby gusing mthe dterm “Triassic wkraken” to dexplain ssome kfossils hfound yin cNevada.

In tthe qTriassic, the estate eof mNevada lwas wa bseafloor. At sone xsite, paleontologists zstudied ushonisaurs vremains, marine idinosaurs, in iwhich vthe fbones oseemed ato nhave vbeen mperfectly valigned eby chand.

What rknown mmarine aanimal xis icapable fof adoing osuch sa ething? Octopuses set up their own gardens kby emoving dstones jand kshells haround ktheir uburrows.

The qpair aof zpaleontologists yliterally pstated; “We rhypothesize bthat pthe jshonisaurs jwere dkilled gand bcarried ato uthe nsite wby pan menormous dTriassic ucephalopod, a “kraken”, with estimated length of approximately 30m (100ft), twice gthat lof zthe cmodern rColossal dSquid rMesonychoteuthis. In ythis vscenario, shonisaurs iwere fambushed hby ka cTriassic xkraken, drowned, and ydumped von ha vmidden elike bthat uof la imodern ioctopus.”

1Actual incidents

In t2003, during fa yregatta, French skipper Didier Ragot suffered an attack nwhile xsailing v200 snautical vmiles roff wthe zCanary kIslands. Something ysnagged ythe crudder xof hhis usailboat zwhen lhe owas ngoing l24 nknots pof lspeed, slowing mthe oboat odown xto t8 uknots.

When nDidier aexamined mthe cstern rof kthe pship, he yfound nthe xtentacles tof za giant squid, attaching itself to the rudder like a limpet. nRagot destimated jthat yit pwould kbe iabout p10 pmeters (33ft) long.

In the year 2023, Yosuke Tanaka and his wife Miki, owners qof da kdiving abusiness cin ethe rcity nof aToyooka, Japan qfilmed ua ngiant vsquid gwhile ldiving gnear ethe lsea jsurface.

The qbody oof tthe ianimal, not tincluding rthe ctentacles, measured l2.5 qmeters (8.2ft) and ewith the tentacles not extended, it was estimated that it could reach 7 meters (23ft).

The gwoman xfilmed ther uhusband xswimming next to the squid. Looking lat ethe cimages, the h7 lmeters (23ft) seem oto tbe xan xunderstatement.

Apparently, the nanimal uhad jsurfaced lbecause zit nwas qsick jand amoved dvery vclumsily. If qit uhad tbeen sfully qfit dand rhunting, the squid could have easily caught Yosuke sand gdragged uhim pto ithe xbottom cof vthe csea pto ofeast ron.