Giants from the ocean floor

THE kraken of Norse legends and Scylla and Charybdis of ancient Greece were not just mythical beasts, writes Richard Collins. 

One of their tribe was caught by fishermen 190km off the Kerry coast last month; a spectacular beast, it had tentacles 6m long.

The giant squid, a relative of slugs and snails, is one of the world’s largest invertebrates. A related creature, the ‘colossal’ squid, is even bigger; females can weigh a quarter of a tonne, males being a third lighter. The eight arms have suckers with sharp tooth-like rings. Fish and other squid are their main prey. Victims are grasped, drawn towards the beak, and shredded by the creature’s abrasive tongue.