The Kraken is a giant monster squid from Jules Verne’s iconic book, 20 thousand leagues
under the sea.
It also has its roots in fisherman’s tales from norway and greenland.
The scary thing about the kraken, is you can’t see it coming.
It waits under your boat in the dark water.
Legend has it that if you start catching too many fish, you should away row for your life,
because the kraken might be under your boat, scaring the fish so they swim up to the surface.
As far as we know, the kraken is just a legend.
But lets imagine for a second…if it wasn’t
Today, life’s biggest questions asks.
What if the Kraken was real.
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The first report of a kraken came from an account written in 1180 by King Sverre of
Norway.
Then, In the 1850s, a large squid beak washed up on the shores of denmark.
When a danish naturalist, japes steenstrup examined it, he announced that the kraken
was real.
The beak belonged to a giant squid, and he called Architeuthis Dux.
This is when scientists really began to dig deeper in to the legend of the kraken.
Could it be based on truth?
or was it really just a fisherman’s tale?
It is believed that during the dinosaur era, squids may have been 30 meters long.
Perhaps one of these specimens somehow survived when the dinosaurs did not, and kept breeding.
According to fishermen who claimed to have seen the kraken, it was the size of a number
of small islands, and its back alone seemed to be the length of a mile and a half.
Because of its size, when the kraken descends back into the depths after sitting on the
surface of the water for a time, the motion of its sinking causes a swell in the sea that
pulls everything in the vicinity down into the depths with it.
Giant squids have long tentacles that it uses to grab its prey.
Each one of these tentacles is covered in suction cups, lined with teeth.
If you get snatched by these tentacles, you won’t be able to free yourself.
Once it has you in its grasp, giant squids take small, delicate bites.
So needless to say, it would definitely suck to be eaten by a kraken.
So, for starters, If the kraken was real, imagine what that would mean for sea travel.
Sea travel was the main way to get around until very recently, especially for the vikings.
If there really was a giant squid, Nordic people may never have invaded much of the
world.
The entire history of the vikings might not have occurred.
If the kraken was anything more than a sailors legend, its unlikely any of the Americas would
have been discovered until aircraft were invented.
Lets be honest, If there was a giant bloodthirsty squid swimming around, there would be mass
public hysteria surrounding it.
There would no doubt be attempts to track it down and kill it.
History would be filled with tales about epic battles between sea monsters and brave sailors.
But just because there would be attempts to track the kraken down to ill it, that doesn’t
mean those attempts would be successful.
Cephalopods like squid and octopus are known the be the most intelligent creatures in the
ocean.
Whats more is, they hang out in the deepest, darkest parts of the ocean.
If a kraken wanted to escape, all it would have to do is dive down to where we mere humans
couldn’t reach it.
Fast forward to the modern era where there are submarines, and world governments would
want to track down the giant creature and destroy it with deep sea missiles.
On the other hand, there would also be environmental activists and scientsts who would be against
this.
The kraken is an ancient, rare creature, after all.
Studying it would be of utmost importance.
How could its species have survived until the modern age?
Since the discovery of the giant squid beak in the late 1850’s, 21 species of giant
squid have been discovered.
It is thought that some of these squids could reach 50 feet in length including their tentacles.
But interestingly, none of the discoveries were rooted in an actual sighting of one of
these great animals, only of a piece of them that washed up on shore.
The truth is, no one really knows how big giant squids can grow, and they don’t really
leave the deep ocean.
They spend much of their time 400 to 1000 meters below, and we’ve only explored about
5 percent of the ocean.
Who knows, maybe the kraken really does exist, and its lurking in the depths somewhere.
What do you would happen if the kraken turned out to be real?
Let us know in the comments below.
For now, i’m charlotte dobre and you’ve been watching life’s biggest questions.
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