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Giant Squid

Myth or Fact?

With what should we begin?  Myth or myth?  It seems that the ancient myths are probably based on fact, while most of the "scientific facts" are based on modern myth.  How does one sort it out?  

I'll leave it to you.  

Here you'll find both myth and fact about the Giant Squid--all mixed together. Left to your discerning mind is the task of deciding what, if anything, is solid fact.

How do Giant Squid differ from Common Squid? 

 As you may have guessed, the most obvious difference between the Giant Squid and the Common Squid is size.

How Big do They Get?

Reports contradict one another, but CNN World News online posted a story on October 18, 1997, stating deep sea fishermen off the coast of Tasmania netted three Giant Squid, at least one of which measured 49.5 feet from the top of its head to the tip of its tentacles.  Even I wouldn't call those babies "Little Fellows!"

Still this is not the largest of Giant Squid.  They could be 60 to 100 or more feet long.  This fact is firmly based on the following:

(1) Three fishermen at Timble Tickle (I swear that's what the article said!) in November of 1878 found a Giant Squid run aground.  With a grappling hook they tied it to a tree.  After the tide went out and the creature had died, they measured it - 55 feet total length.  Kinda hard to verify, though.  They chopped it up for dog meat.

(2) One night during WWII, a British sailor on a trawler off the Maldive Islands (Indian Ocean) spotted a Giant Squid.  He claims to have seen the tail at one end of the ship, and having walked to the other end, he saw the tentacles.  The ship was 175 feet long.  The sailor was alone on deck at the time.

(3) A captured sperm whale regurgitated -- yes, vomited. A vomiting sperm whale in an aquarium must be a sight to behold!  Moreover, it rid itself of two 42-foot-long tentacles, apparently from a Giant Squid it had either eaten or badly mauled.  Anyway, after examining the regurgitated tentacles, someone declared they came from a squid measuring 66 feet in length and weighing 85,000 pounds.  The name of the person who made the declaration seems to be lost in the murky annals of time.

How Else Do Giant Squid Differ From Common Squid?

Well, for one thing, you truly do not want to meet one of these big guys while strolling the depths of the Ocean Blue.  Like their smaller cousins, they are carnivorous, eating other sea creatures--up to 500 pounds per day.  But unlike their cousins, apparently at least some of these Giants have a taste for human flesh.  Seems there is a report from the survivors of a ship sunk during WWII stating they were attacked by a Giant Squid that ate one of the party.  Must have been a lucky day for the rest of that group.  The Giant should have had a better appetite than that.  Perhaps the big guy had eaten dinner recently and one human after-dinner mint was all he could handle.

So is the Giant Squid Aggressive?

At least one article states unequivocally that the Giant Squid attacks the sperm whale (another giant of the sea), whereas another article claims the sperm whale attacks the squid.  There is evidence that the two do battle: squid parts found in whale bellies, squid sucker marks on whale skin, and an actual eye-witnessed battle that ended in a draw.  The 40-ton sperm whale was strangled by the squid's tentacles, and the squid's severed head was found in the dead whale's stomach.  But which is the aggressor and which the victim?

 A Fatal Attraction

Some people believe the squid attacks the sperm whale.  One reason is that although many sperm whales have been captured, not many have been found to have squid parts in their stomachs.

  Another reason is the story of the Brunswick, a 15,000-ton Norwegian tanker.  It was attacked at least three times in the 1930s by Giant Squid.  Each time the squid would swim alongside the ship and then suddenly attack, wrapping its tentacles around the hull.  The squid couldn't get a good grip on the steel and slid off into the ship's propellers becoming instant fish bait.

The theory is that the Brunswick looked like a whale to the squid, thereby proving the Giant Squid attacks the sperm whale.  But who knows?  Maybe the ship looked attractive and the squid just wanted to be romantic.* 

The Kraken

Or perhaps the attraction was simply that the Brunswick was a Norwegian ship. Twelfth century Norwegian myths describe a sea monster, the Kraken, as a many-armed creature that could reach as high as the top of the main mast.  The Kraken would attack a ship and wrap its arms around the hull, capsizing it.  The sailors would either drown or be eaten by the creature.

The ocean-going vessels of the time were small, many less than 100 feet long.  It would not seem unreasonable that a 100-foot, several-ton squid could overturn one.  The Norwegian myth may not be myth at all, but stories about a genuine, real-life monster of the sea -- the Giant Squid.

A quote from Richard Ellis, author of  The Search for the Giant Squid, illustrates our sum knowledge of this fantastic creature:  "Virtually every question about giant squids' natural history remains to be answered.  We don't know how it swims, how fast it swims.  We don't know if it's a powerful predator or a passive feeder.  We don't even know exactly where it lives."**

This from a vaunted expert.  And since he says we don't know any of these things, then what on earth could he have written to fill his entire book?  

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*The theories about Giant Squid romance are so bizarre that I am not about to relate them here.  There are links in the reference list below for those of you who wish to learn about squid romance.  I'm guessing that's about 99% of you. Remember as you read about it that the "fact" is that the female Giant Squid are larger than the male Giant Squid. The links also provide further general information about the Giant Squid.

Warning: You may find offensive language at the "Squid Romance - Politically Incorrect" site!

Squid Romance - Politically Incorrect

**Quoted from Fox News 

(You'll also find more about squid romance at Fox News):  

Fox News

CNN World News online

A nice illustration of the Giant Squid at Ocean Planet

Ocean Planet: In Search of Giant Squid

Fishin' For Facts

Giant Squid - Sea Monsters

 The UnMuseum - Giant Squid

The UnMuseum - The Kraken

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