Kraken Stamps

The Kraken is a legendary sea creature which would attach a ship by grabbing it with its many arms and capsizing it. The crew would drown or be devoured by the monster. The arms of the Kraken were said to be to reach as high as the top of a sailing ship's mast.

Tales of the Kraken may have been inspired by a real animal, the giant squid Architeuthis dux. This animal remains elusive because it usually lives in depths of the sea and it rarely seen alive near the surface. The largest giant squid ever measured possessed a body a little under 7 meters in length and arms almost 11 meters in length, with suckers 10 cm in diameter. Giant squid are estimated to grow even larger than this, perhaps as much as 30 meters in overall length.

In October 1966 two lighthouse keepers at Danger Point, South Africa watched a giant squid drown a baby southern right whale. In 1965 a Soviet whaler witnessed a fight between a 40 ton sperm whale and a giant squid. Neither animal survived this encounter.

Attacks by giant squid on ocean going sea vessels have been documented. In the 1930s the Norwegian tanker Brunswick was attacked several times by a giant squid. The squid was unable to get a good grip on the steel surface of the hull. It slipped and was torn to pieces by the ship's propellors. Probably the ship looked like a whale to the squid.

On January 11, 2003 the trimaran Geronimo captained by Frenchman Olivier de Kersauson, carrying a crew of twelve, encountered a giant squid about 30 feet long some 400 miles off the coast of Gilbraltar. The sailors believe the squid was still alive when they encountered it, but it slid off the hull and disappeared after its encounter with the ship. It is possible the squid was already dead when the ship ran into it.

In September 2005 a pair of Japanese scientists released the first photos ever of a live giant squid in its native deep water habitat. Zoologist Tsunemi Kubodera of the National Science Museum and Kyoichi Mori of the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association snapped the photos in September 2004 in the deep waters off the coast of the Ogasawara Islands. These scientists used a bait line sporting a digital camera, timer, strobe light, depth sensor, data logger, and digital switch. Small squid and shrimp provided the bait. During a four hour bout the giant squid lost one tentacle after it became entangled in the bait line. The scientists recovered the tentacle. DNA analysis verified the squid was indeed Architeuthis. The photos demonstrate that Architeuthis is an agressive hunter, using its tentacles to capture and strangle its prey.

Another candidate suggested as the prototype for the Kraken is the giant octopus. Scientists agree that the arm length of octopodes can reach as much as eight meters -- surely frightening enough to any diver who might encounter it. But there are reports of far larger octopodes from the waters around Florida and Grand Bahama Island. These reports speak of an octopus whose arm length reaches as much as twenty-five meters.

In March 2002 New Zealand scientists identified a dead octopus caught in a trawler's net as a large specimen of Haliphron atlanticus. The octopus weighed at least 70-75 kg and was over four meters in length. This octopus fell in the size range of a fully mature giant squid.

There is disputed physical evidence for much larger octopodes. In 1896 the remains of what appeared to be a giant octopus washed up on Anastasia Island, Florida off the coast of St. Augustine. Some of the arm fragments measured over eight meters in length. Yale University zoologist A. E. Verrill estimated the total arm length of the original animal may have reached twenty five meters. Verrill initially supported the idea that the remains were those of a giant octopus. Later he changed his mind, suggesting the remains came from a sperm whale.

Later investigators working with preserved samples confirmed the identification of an octopus -- or at least a cephalopod -- of unknown type. In 1995 a highly disputed new analysis challenged the octopus identification, instead that the remains came from a whale. Perhaps the Anastasia Island remains came from two different animals. The arms may have come from a giant squid and the other portions from a sperm whale, who killed each other in mortal combat.

See the Giant Squid and Octopodes section of my cryptozoology links page for more sites offering information about giant cephalopods.

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Last modified by pib on February 19, 2010.