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The Kraken Shall Rise Again |
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Diego Antolini |
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Since
ancestral time sailors and seamen have spoken of a huge tentacled
monster emerging, during violent thunderstorms, from the unfathomable
depths of the ocean. They called that creature "The Kraken".
They were familiar with octopuses and squids, which were marine
animals with tentacles, but The Kraken was considered a different
species due to its gigantic size, larger than any other animal. At
times The Kraken was thought to be a giant octopus, other times a
giant squid. But most of the times, The Kraken was simply as sea
monster.
At the
dawn of scientific discoveries the academic world dismissed the tales
of The Kraken as ridiculous, not even considering the carcasses of
these creatures when, in rare instances, came ashore under low tide.
Then, at some point, things changed.
Scientists were forced
to focus on the topic after the number of carcasses of the alleged
Kraken were found within short periods of time, and obviously the
public opinion demanded answers.
It was established that The
Kraken was a real species, and labeled as Giant Squid. This creature
is still today one of the most elusive among the large animals living
on Earth.
Scholars and
researchers have been trying to observe the Giant Squid for years in
its habitat, but have always failed. Those who claim to have seen it
were mostly fishermen and sailors, the same witnesses who are rarely
believed when they speak of sea serpents living in the seas.
The
scientists spent millions of dollars organizing expeditions, but
could never record a Giant Squid alive on camera. All the information
we possess today come from the carcasses found ashore.
On September, 2004 a
team of Japanese scientists lured a Giant Squid to the surface using
a bait, and took more than 500 photographs before the creature set
free and disappeared. The scientists were left with nothing more than
a five meters tentacle attached to the bait.
The questions still
haunting the researchers is what size a Giant Squid can reach.
According to the scars found on whales lead to the idea that the
oceanic depths may host creature a lot bigger than the ones found on
shores. And again, is there only one species of Giant Squid, or more?
The Giant Squids living
under the Antarctic continent belong to a species called
Mesonychoteuthis Hamiltoni, which is believed to be bigger
than any other Giant Squid observed so far. It seems that we have
just seen the “cubs” of this creature, but their size was enough
to name the Antarctic Squid “Colossal Squid.”
The term “Kraken”
comes from the Norwegian “Krake” which means an unhealthy or
twisted thing. In the German language Krake (plural) and Kraken
(singular) mean octopus.
In the Icelandic saga
Orvar-Oddr (XIII Century) there is one episode about a journey toward
Helluland (Baffin Island) that leads the protagonists across the
Greenland sea. There, they observe two enormous sea monsters called
Hafgufa (Sea Mist) and Lyngbakr (Heather’s Back). The first is
believed to refer to The Kraken.
After coming back from
Greenland, the anonymous author of the KonungsSjuggsja or Natural
History of Ancient Norway (circa 1250) describes in details the
physical features of these two creatures, included their diet. The
author suggested that there existed only two specimen, based on the
fact that their sightings were limited only to that portion of the
North Sea.
Carl Linnaeus classified The Kraken as a cephalopod,
giving it the scientific name of Microcosmus Marinus in his
Systema Naturae (1735.) In his last work, Fauna Suecica
(1746), however, he calls it “Singulare Monstrum” or
unique monster, that allegedly inhabited the Norwegian seas.
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The legend of The
Kraken keeps on to these days, as several reports continue to arrive,
some of them quite interesting.
In 2012 marine
biologist Edie Widder filmed what could be a Kraken, at about 2000
feet below the Pacific Ocean. Is this a proof of the existence of The
Kraken? We know about the giant squids only because of their
carcasses brought ashore by the currents. Like Widder put it, “We
have so far managed to explore only 5% of the oceans, therefore what
can exist into its depths is still an absolute mystery.”
On April 2, 2003 Kim
Griggs writes about a colossal squid being filmed in the Antarctic
waters, marking it as the very first example of an intact
Mesonychoteuthis Hamiltoni.
Professor Steve O’Shea,
an expert researcher of squid to the Auckland University of
Technology, New Zealand, said to BBC,
“All that we knew
about this species until today was that it lived within the depths
around the Antarctica. Now we learned that it utilizes the water
currents to come up to the surface, and that it can reach colossal
dimensions.”
The Mesonychoteuthis
Hamiltoni was discovered for the first time in 1925 after two
tentacles were found inside the stomach of a sperm whale. At the
moment there are six species that have been classified, five of which
found inside the stomach of sperm whales while the sixth one
entangled in a net at 6561-7200 feet deep into the ocean.
“Now we can state
that [this squid] can be way larger than the giant squid, which then
it is not the largest existing creature. By larger I don’t mean
just ‘bigger’, but of a more extended magnitude. When alive, this
animal must be one of the most terrifying predators of the sea. It is
unrivaled in the oceans.”
O’Shea adds.
This
squid has one of the biggest beaks known to man, and hooks at the end
of each tentacles. These two weapons allow it to attack large fishes
such as the Patagonia’s salmons or car fish, and even sperm whales. |
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Tsunemi Kubodera e
Kyoichi Mori could capture, although temporarily, an adult specimen
of the Giant Squid at 9:15 of September 30, 2004 at about 2900 feet
deep, a unique feat.
The two researchers
stood in the offing of Ogasawara islands, Japan, when a 26-foot
Architeuthis enveloped with its tentacles the bait (a mixture
of parts of squids and prawns) that had been readied to lure it.
While the giant squid
was trapped, Kubodera and Mori took more than 500 photographs of the
cephalopod as it attempted to set free.
Finally, 4 hours and 13
minutes later, the tentacle that had been stuck in the net ripped
off, and the giant squid disappeared quickly within the ocean’s
depths.
The Giant Squid or
Architeuthis has always been the subject of research, on the
attempt to observe it in its natural habitat. The 550 photographs
taken by the Japanese researchers have been published in the
Proceedings Journal of the Royal Society B.
Even though the
creature eventually set loose and escaped, one of its limbs, an
18-foot tentacle, remained trapped inside the net, and was
immediately transferred on board of the ship,
“It was awesome to
have the tentacle of an Architeuthis alive. It was
still moving when we took it on board.”
Prof. Kubodera told BBC
News.
The suction pads kept
on sticking to the ship’s deck and to Kubodera’s fingers every
time he touched the tentacle.
The Kraken, however,
the real sea monster of the old Norse legends keeps on swimming
undisturbed and unobserved within the depths of the oceans, and most
likely will remain a “cryptid” until technology will allow men to
explore the bottoms of the great oceans.
A special focus should
go on the Antarctica, an unexplored continent that lately has been
subject to stricter regulations by the governments that have
jurisdiction upon it.
From the tales of
famous writers such as E.A.Poe and H.P.Lovecraft to the Nazi bases,
from Project Highjump of the 50s to the recent, mysterious
object found in the Middle East and immediately hauled to the South
Pole, everything leads to the impression that the “Frozen
Continent” conceals secrets that, if unveiled, could change the
whole vision we have of our planet.
What to make of the
ever-growing, disturbing rumors from ships crossing the South Pole,
what observed, at times, gigantic humanoid beings swimming underneath
the water, and known by the Japanese as Ningen. According to
the legends, the Ningen could reach dimensions that would
ridicule the largest Mesoychoteuthis Hamiltoni.
The research goes on
and the Cryptozoology, as fringe science, finds signs and clues into
the myths and legends surrounding the Earth’s waters. The biggest
challenge remains that of finding the nexus between folk-tales and
science. |
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17/01/2020 21:05:09 |
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