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.
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.