Squid paired text

Compare & Contrast
How scientists
discovered the truth
behind one of the
scariest sea monsters
of all time
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Scholastic Scope • MARCH 12, 2012
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n a moonless January night in 2003,
a famous French yachtsman named
Olivier de Kersauson was racing across
the Atlantic Ocean. He was trying to break the
record for the fastest sailing voyage around the
world when his boat came to a mysterious halt.
In the darkness, de Kersauson’s massive 110foot boat shook violently. The mast rattled and
the hull shuddered. The crew ran up and down
the deck, shining flashlights into the water,
trying to figure out what was going on. Below
deck, first mate Didier Ragot peered through a
porthole into the ocean.
Then he saw it: an enormous tentacle

snaking around the ship.
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WWW.Scholastic.com/scope • MARCH 12, 2012
11
THE MON
STER
legends about fearsome beasts that attack ships and
drag everyone onboard to a watery death.
Some of the craziest stories have come from sailors.
For centuries, men have returned home from long
voyages with terrifying tales of enormous, squidlike
beasts. These creatures, some said, were larger than
whales and stronger than elephants. One of the most
feared was the kraken, which could supposedly trap a
THE KRAKEN
is a monster from
Norse mythology, but
sailors claimed it was
real for centuries. It was
said to attack ships,
then eat everyone.
Bon appétit!
A Horror Movie
ship by creating a huge whirlpool.
Scientists thought these stories were little more
than tall tales—or hallucinations brought on by
sunstroke. Then, in 1873, a fisherman off the coast
of Newfoundland returned to shore with a 19-foot
tentacle. Scientists realized that the kraken—or
something like the kraken—was really out there.
Squid Squads
The creature was like something out
of a horror movie. Some 30 feet long, it had glistening
Eventually, scientists deduced that what sailors were
skin and long arms covered in toothy suckers that left
probably seeing was a kind of giant squid. Every so
impressions on the sides of the boat. It seemed to be
often, huge squid body parts would wash up on a beach
wrapping itself around the ship, which was creaking
or become tangled in fishing nets. Yet, no scientist had
and groaning under the strain.
actually seen a living giant squid.
Just when the crew thought the boat would snap into
In the 1960s, oceanographers developed the
technology to explore deeper in the ocean than ever
pieces, everything went still.
The creature was gone.
answer for everything—for hurricanes and icebergs,” de
Kersauson would later say. “But I didn’t have an answer
for this. It was terrifying.”
What the crew claimed they saw—a claim
that many regard as a tall tale—was a
giant squid.
GEND
THE LE
But are giant squid even real?
A Tall Tale?
Sea monsters have
captured our imaginations
for thousands of years.
There are countless
movies, novels, and
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Scholastic Scope • MARCH 12, 2012
THE HYDRA
is a water monster
from Greek mythology.
If you cut off one of its heads,
two more will grow. The Hydra
has the worst breath ever—
as in, catch a whiff and you’ll
fall down dead. (Have a
mint already!)
top: Charles Walker/Topfoto/The Image Works; bottom: Shutterstock
“I’ve been sailing for 40 years, and I’ve always had an
ST
before.
Teams of
CIENTI
THE S
scientists called “squid squads”
Steve
O’Shea
has dedicated his life to
finding giant squid to study.
He doesn’t think there is
anything monstrous about
them at all.
In 2004, researchers finally had a
breakthrough. Two Japanese scientists
were tracking a pod of sperm whales off
started combing the high seas
the coast of Japan. They had a hunch the
in hopes of glimpsing one of
whales might lead them to a squid’s lair.
these elusive creatures. For
them, giant squid represented
They were right.
all that we don’t know about the
After days of searching with an underwater camera,
ocean. (As much as 95 percent of
they caught sight of something stuck under a rock: a
the ocean remains unexplored today.)
creature the size of a school bus. Its eyes were as big as
basketballs. It had eight flapping arms and two long,
Still, no one could find one.
sinewy tentacles. It thrashed so wildly to break free that
Unlocking the Mysteries
one tentacle broke off in the struggle. Before it got away,
Marine biologist Steve O’Shea has been trying to find
the scientists snapped more than 500 photos. They also
giant squid since 1996, when a fisherman showed him
hauled the 18-foot tentacle onto their boat. In 2005, the
the corpse of one. Step into O’Shea’s office or home and
same team found another giant squid 3,000 feet below
you might think you’ve walked into a mad scientist’s
the surface—and managed to film it.
lab. Jars of squid parts line his shelves; unblinking squid
top: Marcel Tromp/wenn.com/Newscom; bottom: Tsunemi Kubodera/National Science Museum of Japan/AP Images
A Breakthrough at Last
Since then, millions have viewed the photographs
eyes stare out at you. In the garage, he keeps stacks of
and watched the footage. But to this day, no one has
boxes with squid carcasses that have washed up on
been able to capture a living specimen to study, though
beaches around the world.
a few have come close.
Over the years, O’Shea has managed to unlock a few
of the many mysteries surrounding these creatures. For
one thing, giant squid are indeed giant. They can weigh
up to 1,000 pounds and grow to almost 60 feet. O’Shea
also knows why giant squid are so hard to
find. They live thousands of feet below the
surface of the ocean, far deeper than any
There are still many mysteries about giant squid. One
thing is certain, though: The monster is real.
•
Adapted from “The Squid Hunter” by David Grann from The New Yorker,
May 24, 2004, issue. Copyright © 2004 by The New Yorker magazine.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
THE REALITY
human can go. They have enormous eyes—
larger than those of any other animal—which enable
them to flee at the first sign of trouble. And thanks to
their highly developed nerves, they can react in an
instant, darting away from a net or camera.
The closest O’Shea has ever come to capturing
a live giant squid was in 2001, when he caught 17
babies—each about the size of a grasshopper. His
Giant
squid
really look
like this!
plan was to raise them in captivity. But by the time
he reached shore, all the babies were dead. Crying,
O’Shea pulled the corpses out himself. He later learned
the tank was made of a material that is toxic to squid.
WWW.Scholastic.com/scope • MARCH 12, 2012
13
LITERATURE
A
FREAK
OF
NATURE!
In this excerpt from Jules Verne’s famous novel 20,000
Leagues Under the Sea, the narrator Pierre Aronnax and the
crew of the Nautilus battle bloodthirsty sea monsters.
Verne published this
novel in 1870, when
many still
thought
giant
squid
were a
myth.
Verne’s depiction
of the squid is
based on reports
from sailors
about monster
sightings
at sea.
Squid
can’t
really
lift their
tentacles out of
the water. Once
severed, a tentacle
doesn’t regrow.
WRITING CONTEST
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activity
Online
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Scholastic Scope • MARCH 12, 2012
clockwise from top right: Jim Tierney; Norbert Wu/Science Faction/Corbis; www.istockphoto.com;
The Natural History Museum/The Image Works; Stefano Bianchetti/Corbis
An actual
giant
squid eye
looks like this.