Maris Stella Yacht Club and Crabbing SocietySunday, August 06, 2006
Kraken Alert
I warned you all about krakens, a month or so ago, and you skoffed. And yet, on a visit to the supermarket today, there was the Weekly World News proclaiming, "Giant Squid Attacks Jersey Shore!" and "Terror From Deep Unleashes Its Fury!" Still you may skoff, but the Weekly World News does not call itself "The World's Only Reliable Newspaper" for nothing.....
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BAT BOY LIVES !
REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Marine biologists say they have finally solved one of the sea's most baffling mysteries, the countless cases of "ghost ships" that have sailed into ports with no one aboard.
In most such cases, scientists have discovered, the passengers and crews were seized by giant squid who yanked them overboard and ate them alive!
"Our findings will probably come as a great disappointment to those who are always looking for a supernatural explanation for odd phenomena," said sea-life expert Dr. Jon Bogadottir, who helmed a five-year study of such cases for the Finnish Institute of Natural History.
"However, we have collected insurmountable evidence pointing simply to hungry squid."
For centuries, cases such as that of the Mary Celeste, in which an intact, undamaged vessel was found with the crew missing -- but with no sign of having been deliberately abandoned -- have been part of sea lore.
When such incidents have occurred in places like the Bermuda Triangle, they have been chalked up to the supernatural. But the Devil's Triangle isn't the only place where ghost ships have been recovered -- there have been more than 250 such cases reported all over the world since 1900.
Dr. Bogadottir and his team reached their startling conclusion in part based on a tiny tissue sample recovered from the deck of the Invincible, a private yacht owned by a Dutch businessman who vanished with his wife and six other people in 1989.
"At the time of the disappearances, the science was not there to identify the tissue," said the expert. "But with DNA tests available today, we were able to ascertain that it came from a squid."
Giant squid commonly grow to 50 feet -- and some as long as 150 feet have been spotted. They are the most intelligent of all the invertebrates, with human-like eyes and large brains. The stealthy, patient creatures use their craft, speed and 10 sucker-bearing arms to snatch unsuspecting prey.
Attacks on humans are rare -- but when they occur they are frightening beyond words.
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