Secrets of the oceans beyond comprehension. Kraken - the sinister secret of the ocean depths Acquaintance of an otter and a scuba diver of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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Blind, dense, ancient sleep is embraced,
Under the formidable firmament, in the abysses of the sea,
The kraken lurks - to the depths of such
Neither a hot beam nor a thunderous peal
Not reaching...
So, buried in a gigantic abyss,
Feeding on shellfish, he will sleep,
As long as the flame, raising the water column,
Will not announce the end of time.
Then, roaring, the monster will emerge,
And death will end the ancient dream.

LEGENDS OF THE KRAKEN
This poem by Tennyson is inspired by ancient legends about giant octopuses - the ancient Hellenes called these monsters polyps, and the Scandinavians called krakens.
Pliny also wrote about a giant cephalopod killed by fishermen:
“His head was shown to Lucullus: it was the size of a barrel and had a capacity of 15 amphoras (about 300 liters). He was also shown limbs (i.e. arms and tentacles); their thickness was such that a person could hardly grasp them, they were knotted like clubs, and 30 feet (about 10 meters) long.
A medieval Norwegian scribe described the kraken as follows:
“In the Norwegian Sea there are very strange and terrible-looking fish, whose name is unknown. At first glance, they seem cruel creatures and inspire fear. Their head is covered on all sides with sharp thorns and long horns, resembling the roots of a tree just pulled out of the ground. Huge eyes (5-6 meters in circumference) with large (about 60 centimeters) bright red pupils are visible to fishermen even on the darkest night. One such sea monster can drag a huge loaded ship to the bottom, no matter how experienced and strong its sailors are.”
Engravings from the time of Columbus and Francis Drake, among other sea monsters, often depicted giant octopuses attacking fishing boats. The kraken that attacked the ship is depicted in a painting hanging in the chapel of St. Thomas in the French city of Saint-Malo. According to legend, this painting was donated to the church by the surviving passengers of a sea sailing ship that fell victim to a kraken.

BLOODTHIRSY BEASTS FROM THE Abyss of the Sea
However, scientists were skeptical about such stories, including the kraken in the same company of mythical creatures along with mermaids and sea snakes. But everything changed in 1873, when the corpse of a giant cephalopod was found on the coast of Newfoundland. Marine biologists have identified the find as an unknown species of squid, dubbed the giant squid (Architeuthis). The first discovery of a dead giant was followed by another series of finds in the last quarter of the 19th century.
Zoologists even suggested that some kind of pestilence attacked the krakens in the ocean depths at that time. The size of the mollusks was truly gigantic, for example, a squid 19 meters long was found off the coast of New Zealand. The giant's tentacles were of such a size that lying on the ground, the squid could reach them almost to the 6th floor, and the eyes were 40 centimeters in diameter!

Having received material evidence of the existence of giant octopuses, scientists began to treat stories of kraken attacks on people with less skepticism, especially since medieval legends about bloodthirsty sea monsters have found modern confirmation.
So, in March 1941, in the Atlantic, a German raider sank the English transport Britannia, from whose crew only twelve people escaped. The surviving sailors were drifting on a life raft waiting for help, when at night a giant squid, emerging from the ocean depths, grabbed one of the raft's passengers with its tentacles. The unfortunate man did not have time to do anything - the kraken easily tore the sailor from the raft and carried him into the depths. The people on the raft waited with horror for the new appearance of the monster. The next victim was Lieutenant Cox.

Here is how Cox himself wrote about it:
“The tentacles quickly swept over my legs, and I felt terrible pain. But the octopus immediately released me, leaving me writhing in the throes of hell ... The next day I noticed that large ulcers were bleeding where the squid grabbed me. To this day I still have traces of these ulcers on my skin.”
Lieutenant Cox was picked up by a Spanish ship, and because of this, his wounds were examined by scientists. By the size of the scars from the suckers, it was possible to establish that the squid that attacked the sailors was not at all large sizes(7-8 meters in length). Most likely, it was only a cub of architeuthis.

However, larger krakens can also attack ships. For example, in 1946, the Brunswick tanker, a 150-meter long ocean-going vessel, was attacked by a giant octopus. A monster more than 20 meters long emerged from the depths and quickly overtook the ship, moving at a speed of about 40 km per hour.
Having overtaken the “prey”, the kraken rushed to the attack and, clinging to the side, tried to break through the skin. According to zoologists, the hungry kraken mistook the ship for a large whale. In this case, the tanker was not damaged, but not all ships were so lucky.

MONSTERS OF TERRIBLE SIZES

What are the largest krakens? The largest architeuthis washed ashore had a length of 18-19 meters, while the diameter of the suction cups on their tentacles was 2-4 centimeters. However, the British zoologist Matthews, who examined 80 sperm whales caught by whalers in 1938, wrote: “Almost all male sperm whales bear traces of suckers ... squids on their bodies. Moreover, traces with a diameter of 10 centimeters are a fairly common thing. It turns out that 40-meter krakens live in the depths?!

However, this is far from the limit. Naturalist Ivan Sanderson, in Chasing the Whales, stated: "The largest footprints on the body of large sperm whales were about 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter, but scars over 18 inches (45 cm) in diameter were also found." Such tracks could only belong to a kraken at least 100 meters long!
Such monsters may well hunt whales and sink small ships. More recently, New Zealand fishermen caught a giant cephalopod called the "colossal squid" (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni).

This giant can reach, according to scientists, even larger sizes than architeuthis. However, you can be sure that other types of giant octopuses lurk in the depths of the sea. In this regard, it is worth remembering that, judging by the surviving descriptions, the kraken was not a squid, but an octopus of monstrous size.

Modern science does not know octopuses larger than a few meters. However, in 1897, a huge dead octopus was found on the coast of Newfoundland, which was mistaken for a giant squid. According to the measurements of Yale University professor A. Verrill, the octopus had a body about 7.5 meters long and twenty-meter tentacles.
Of this monster, only the part preserved in formalin has survived. As modern studies have shown, the monster thrown ashore was not a squid at all, but a gigantic octopus! Probably, this was a true kraken, young and small in size. And his relatives, larger than the largest whale, are still hiding from science in the depths of the ocean ...

If it seems to you that humanity has already studied everything on this planet, then you are deeply mistaken. The ocean is one of those natural phenomena, which seem familiar at first glance, but in fact are fraught with many unsolved mysteries. Everyone has probably heard about the sunken Atlantis and the Bermuda Triangle. However, this is far from all the mysteries and wonders of the ocean that still amaze scientists. Here are 15 of the most incredible facts about the ocean and its inhabitants.

1) Luminescent plankton

From the outside, it seems that he has landed on another planet - the blue glow emanating from the water is in no way associated with the planet Earth. In fact, this amazing glow is caused by luminescent plankton. And although it looks fabulous, luminescent plankton is not the only creature on earth with this ability - fireflies do the same thing, only on land.

2) Red tides


It sounds beautiful and creepy at the same time. And such tides are really dangerous. The red color of the water is due to the bloom of a special type of algae. The degree of threat depends on the concentration of these algae: the fact is that during flowering they release a special toxin that can destroy fish, plants and other living organisms, thus upsetting the balance of the ecosystem. For humans, this toxin can also be dangerous, because, depending on its amount in water, itching and more serious allergies can occur. There are cases when there were so many of these algae that the toxin penetrated even into the air.

3) Cannibal Sharks


No, this is not about the fact that a shark can eat a person - we have known this for a long time. Much more surprising is that the shark can attack its own kind - small sharks, sometimes even of the same species. Scientists have only recently encountered this behavior of sharks. It is believed that they are capable of this only in case of severe and prolonged hunger.

4) Artist fish


At the bottom of the ocean, patterns similar to those that we draw with a stick in the sand have been found. It turned out that these circles are “drawn” by the male Fugue fish in order to attract the female.

5) Pyrosomes


Pyrosomes are fascinating underwater creatures. They look like huge, hollow tubes with luminescent elements closed at one end. They can reach several meters in length. Beyond the alien appearance, they are also surprising in that this tube, which is considered to be one creature, actually consists of many small organisms that copy themselves to create a huge colony, which from the outside seems to be a single organism.

6) Glass squid

This type of squid has a special organ that makes its body completely transparent. And not all glass squid live at great depths. There are also subspecies that live in well-lit shallow water, so transparency helps them hide from predators.

7) Underwater waterfalls


You will probably remember the one on the island of Mauritius, but the largest underwater waterfall is in the Denmark Strait. Such amazing natural “tautologies” are formed at the meeting points of two currents - warm and cold. Because cold water heavier than warm, it literally falls down. Here is the waterfall. It is a pity that the vast majority of such phenomena are hidden from the human eye.

8) Mysterious Disappearances


There are many stories about ships and planes that disappeared without a trace: some simply disappeared from radar, others managed to inform dispatchers about problems. These cases are united by a common result - the disappeared ships and planes were never found.

This time we will talk about the American submarine. She disappeared without a trace in 1968. Atlantic Ocean. There were many rumors around her disappearance, including an exploding torpedo and the machinations of the Soviet special services.

9) Mysterious structure at the bottom Baltic Sea

And although in this article we are talking about the oceans, it is simply impossible to get around this riddle. In 2012, a structure was found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea that gave rise to new round rumors of regular UFO visits. Not without reason, I must say. The design of the structure resembles a famous ship from the universe “ star wars- "The Millennium Falcon". Scientists still cannot say exactly what this phenomenon is. The natural origin is extremely doubtful, because the design includes metal elements that could not be formed naturally. One of the versions is also the assumption that this structure was built during the Ice Age.

10) Black holes


Everyone knows what black holes are in space - invisible to the human eye, they create a vacuum into which it draws all objects that are nearby. Some time ago, scientists discovered about the same thing, only under water. This powerful whirlpool draws everything in its path.

11) Ice Flowers


Fragile, as if crystal, flowers can be found throughout the Arctic, as well as on ice drifting in the ocean. In addition to being simply fabulously beautiful, they are also a source of sea ​​salts and other elements that eventually evaporate and remain in the atmosphere.

12) Underwater icicles


They are found in cold seas and oceans, especially near glaciers. When sea water freezes, some of the salts are displaced, forming a saturated and heavy brine, which flows over the ice into the usual, less cold and salty sea ​​water. Further, this solution falls down under the influence of its own gravity, simultaneously freezing the water with which it comes into contact.

13) Killer Wave


Killer waves are extremely rare. And thank God. Their height reaches 30 meters, and it is almost impossible to predict their appearance. Sailors say that such waves look like real walls of water.

14) Underwater structures


Near one of Bahamas, called Bimini, scientists have discovered something resembling an ancient road. Everything would be fine, but this road is under water! Of course, the find became a sensation and immediately gave rise to many rumors about the discovery of the lost Atlantis. However, in the course of further research, there were reasons to believe that this road is the result of geological changes, and not human activity.

It should be noted that the Bimini road is not the only underwater attraction that claims to be Atlantis. off the coast of Japan amazing place called Yonaguni. The Japanese believe that these are the remains ancient civilization who died, most likely as a result of the tsunami.

15) Ocean Milky Way


Recently, blue flashes have been seen wandering the ocean. They are amazing in that they can be seen from satellites. Scientists build various assumptions: someone says that these are just large accumulations of luminescent organisms; others argue that this is impossible, because the concentration of bacteria in the water must be simply unimaginable for the glow to be visible from the satellite. One way or another, there is no exact answer to this question yet. The mystery remains unsolved.

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Ancient and modern historical literature reports on the meeting of military and civilian sailors with mysterious animals of the seas and oceans.
Witnesses of these unsafe encounters with monsters unknown to science were both our domestic and foreign citizens, who gave information about them.
For example, former Marine officer Yu. Starikov reported that in 1953, in the area of ​​Kunashir Island (South Kuril Islands), together with the crew of the ship, he saw a sea serpent that swam not far from the ship on high speed and then lowering your head to long neck into the water, dived without causing splashes.

Another eyewitness, naval officer Yu. Litvinenko, in 1955, together with other members of the crew of sailors, also saw a huge snake in the Tatar Strait, the head of which was the size of a large watermelon and protruded 4 meters above the water. They determined the length of the body at 25 meters.

In the Barents Sea in 1959, the team patrol ship SKR-55, under the command of Captain A. Lezov, repeatedly met a floating kite.
snakes in northern seas were dark brown in color, while in the southern seas off Antarctica they were light brown in color and swam in groups of up to 30 individuals.
In July 1966, the American travelers Blyth and Ridgway, while in the Atlantic Ocean on an ordinary rowing boat, met at night with the Great Sea Serpent. They report that a large snake-like head on a long, flexible neck rose from the water. Bulging eyes the size of a saucer, flickering with a greenish light, examined people. The creature swam, overtaking the boat, and continued to examine the travelers, turning its flat head in their direction. Soon, an animal with a massive powerful body, bending its neck, dived under the water, leaving behind a luminous trail. Describing what they saw, they reported that it was very scary and embraced the feeling of an unprotected rabbit in front of a boa constrictor. People become numb even under the gaze of a far-flying kite.

For example, Canadian fisherman George Zegers, who fished in the area of ​​about. Vancouver, reported: “Suddenly I felt very strange. A shiver ran down his back. I felt someone's eyes on me and looked around. About 50 meters from the boat, a head towered on the neck with a diameter of 30 cm and a length of more than a meter. Two pitch-black eyes stared at me intently. They were big on the head. The head was about 40 cm in diameter and rose 3 meters above the water. The animal watched for no more than a minute and, turning away, swam away. On his back was a sort of dark brown mane."

On July 14, 1993, Canadian pilots Don Berends and James Wells on a Cessna seaplane saw in the area of ​​\u200b\u200babout. Vancouver in Saanish Bay two gray-blue snakes, which, when moving, curved in a vertical plane. Researcher Dr. Bousfield believes that in the month of July, Saanish Bay is a breeding ground for these creatures. At the same time, cubs are produced as live births on the shore at night.

A well-known modern zoologist, professor at the Royal Institute of Natural History in Brussels, Bernard Euvelmans, collected and systematized many such observations in the book "The Giant Sea Serpent". He subdivided them into nine main classes, which include those that look like seals.

Snakes have left a noticeable mark in the mythology of many peoples of the world. They are especially revered in the culture of the East. Here they are considered kind to people, and not a fiend, as in Europe. The eastern "king of dragons" is very powerful and has a length of 0.5 km. All natural elements obey him. He has a werewolf and can take the form of a gray-haired old man. He lives in an underwater palace and is the custodian of untold riches. He controls the oceans, seas, rivers, as well as the economy of all 5 underwater kingdoms, which include dragons of green, red, yellow, white and black countries of the North and the Earth. His retinue is made up of the kings of the dragons of all the seas, along with their wives, daughters, governors. Serpents (dragons) are considered intelligent and non-bloodthirsty.
At the same time, European mythology is replete with fanatically uncompromising struggle with dragons, starting with Zeus, Hercules and others, up to the ideologists of the modern machine-spiritual world.

AT early XVI in. Swedish scientist Olaus Magnus in his historical and geographical work " Nautical chart» with comments reports on the dangers posed by sea monsters emerging from sea ​​depths. They were dangerous for sailors sailing on small ships. There are also cases when the crew of the ships left the ship for no apparent reason. There were only trembling cats and untouched food on the table.
AT recent decades reports began to appear frequently in the press that whales, sharks and dolphins were washed ashore in large numbers in different places planets. The most massive emissions of animals are observed off the coast of the South and North America, South Africa, Australia (Tasmania), Japan. The death of animals by years is: 1970 - 250 pcs., 1987 - 3000 pcs., 1988 - 207 pcs., 1989 - 340 pcs. This is incomplete data. Currently, about 130 areas of death of whales, dolphins, and sharks are known.

Mass throwing of animals ashore falls on the period from December to March. Some animals, escaping from a source invisible to us, swim to the shore at great speed, while others get ashore slowly but stubbornly. Being returned by people again to the ocean, they again strive to land. But if these animals were taken to another place and released into the sea, then they sailed away.

In the United States, off the Pacific coast, there is a place where dolphins annually pass one or two along the coast in front of thousands of spectators. This phenomenon people called "parade". What caused the death of animals and their "parades"? So far, scientists believe that the cause of this phenomenon may be some kind of physical or physico-biological effect on animals from an unknown source.

Studies conducted with the participation of clairvoyant specialists indicate that cetaceans are ejected under the influence of powerful energy-wave effects that come from an animal that looks like a giant " sea ​​lion"or a seal. Let's call it the "ocean lion" (OL).
The brain of OL is somewhat more developed than that of dolphins, and can, by hypnotizing, emit high-frequency energy-wave impulses that can plunge cetaceans into a panic or fatal state. This is what makes them flee if they fall into the radiation sector of the OL. The view of this OL and the boundaries of its pulse-wave action are shown in the figure below.

The most distant waves cause anxiety in animals, and the middle ones cause fear, panic, and death.
A similar state of people is observed in certain places in Tibet, the Himalayas, the Tien Shan, as well as when meeting with large UFOs. In such cases, unconscious anxiety is initially felt. With further approach to the object, fear, horror, and then an insurmountable invisible air barrier appear. When you try to pierce this barrier with a stick, it inexplicably shortens by the amount of its penetration into the "barrier". Numerous examples of the energy and hypnotic effects of snakes on animals and even people have been known for a long time. Boas and even snakes can hypnotize and attract prey (rabbit, frog, etc.) with their eyes.

As for the OL, they live in families in ocean caves, which are connected by flooded passages to the air caves of the islands and coasts of the continents. There are at least seven families on the planet. Off Greenland, east caribbean, east of Tierra del Fuego, in the south indian ocean(near Antarctica), near the Solomon Islands, in the Chukchi Sea (north of Wrangel Island). Probably, the territory of the ocean is divided between them into zones of influence, as in land animals and people. OLs do not eat cetaceans, they only expel them from their territory by the power of their special energy impact. Studies show that OLs in the Chukchi Sea live approximately 350 km north of the island. Wrangel. This made it possible to establish the presence there of two rocky islands 20 and 6 km long, rising above the water up to 50-70 meters (see the figure below). Givings say that two hundred years ago on big island there were hunters who took refuge from the weather in long catacomb caves, around which there were the remains of some large stone structures. Stone and copper tools were also found there. There were also numerous signs on the stones. These islands are waiting for their explorers - archaeologists and geologists. It is possible that these islands are similar to about. Easter. The mysteries and abilities of ocean animals indicate the need to study the energy-wave radiation of aquatic animals and terrestrial reptiles, which are given to them by nature.

National Oceanic and atmospheric research(NOAA) for more than 40 years of studying the world's oceans and atmosphere, many meteorological and geodetic checks have been carried out and a grandiose photo library has been collected about the inhabitants of the underwater depths and not only. Let's take a look at the most amazing of them!

A shot of a hermit crab peeking out of a shell.

A predatory representative of the anglerfish order is the European monkfish. He got this name because of his creepy and unattractive appearance.

This curious creature was captured by NOAA on the ocean floor in 2010. The creature is completely transparent, so everything that is inside it is visible.

And this is a bathysaurus - the deepest marine predator that can live in the water column at a depth of 3.5-5 kilometers.

Acquaintance of an otter and a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scuba diver.

During research conducted in the Galapagos Islands, a marine iguana was captured on camera.

An octopus named Dumbo. This rather rare specimen can live at a depth of up to 7 thousand meters.

Another original underwater inhabitant is the sea urchin.

Cayman Islands and a stingray swimming at dawn in sea waters.

A representative of isopods belonging to the order of higher crayfish. Also known as an isopod.

A giant octopus takes on NOAA research equipment.

Seagulls sitting right on the head of a humpback whale.

The cutest couple of manatees.

They try to save the olive turtle after oil spilled into the sea.

An oil slick and ships trying to collect it.

A pod of dolphins photographed by the agency in 2010.

One of the oldest inhabitants of the deep sea is a chimera. It is also called the "ghost shark", as it is a distant relative of modern sharks, but lives at very great depths.

Humpback whale among a huge flock of birds.

The entangled seal is pulled out of the nets.

Extraordinarily beautiful Sargassum sea clown.

Lobster is from the crustacean family.

Representative of nudibranch molluscs