And While We're On The Subject Of Kraken . . .

Danna Staaf

The Museum of UnNatural History has a page about the Kraken, of course, a pleasant romp through the history of the mythological creature, but unfortunately it does its part to perpetrate a common misunderstanding about the giant squid: that this poor animal is actually capable of taking on a whale.

Though giant squids are considerably less then a mile and a half across, some are thought to be large enough to wrestle with a whale. On at least three occasions in the 1930's they reportedly attacked a ship. While the squids got the worst of these encounters when they slid into the ship's propellers, the fact that they attacked at all shows that it is possible for these creatures to mistake a vessel for a whale.

Sigh. The first sentence, while technically true, would be more informative if it read "some are mistakenly thought to be large enough to wrestle with a whale." You know what is constantly found in the stomachs of whales? Squid parts. You know what is never, ever found in the stomachs of squid? Whale parts.

And the illogic of the last sentence simply boggles the mind. One can only laugh.

What was the "attack"? Was the squid simply sighted nearby the ship? Was it curiously exploring the new object with its arms? I find it exceedingly difficult to believe that a squid, no matter how giant, could or would take a bite out of a hard, undelicious ship. Even if it tried, how would the sailors even notice? The mouth is hidden in the midst of all the arms.

Anyway, whales eat squid. It is a unidirectional ecological interaction. Everything I have said about squids not eating humans applies tenfold to whales.

Comments

I have just read this letter to the Daily Telegraph:

SIR – Sainsbury’s is going to have kippered sardines instead of kippered herrings because the herring is apparently too difficult to fillet (report, October 23). . . . .

Maybe the squid thought the ships were giant sardine cans!

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Robert H. Olley Quondam Physics Department University of Reading England

Robert H Olley | 10/25/10 | 02:22 AM

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Danna, I've often wondered about these stories of whales fighting giant squid when they dive down over a kilometre for up to an hour. I once watched 3 male sperm whales diving and resurfacing in New Zealand from a boat while they were supposedly doing this. This article at http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/pred4.php says that sperm whales "do not usually possess functional teeth in their upper jaw, and in some cases the lower jaw is set at an angle, bent or broken, presumably severely inhibiting its usefulness to hold onto something. Yet these individuals do not seem to be lacking in their diet. In recent years, the idea has been proposed that sperm whales actually 'stun' their prey by emitting 'sonic booms', perhaps by somehow using their large spermaceti organ in the front of their head as an amplifier. But nobody has ever been able to test this, although some attempts have been made".

Do you think it would be possible to stun a squid with a sonic boom and is it at all possible that the giant squid have been able to at least break the Sperm whales jaws when trying to escape from them as is sometimes claimed?

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Make love not war

Helen Barratt | 10/25/10 | 18:06 PM

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Thanks for the Q's, Helen! The "sonic boom" theory was, I believe, first proposed in 1983 and no real evidence for it has accumulated since then--but it's interesting enough that I'm going to do a little more research and post a new entry on the subject.

As for giant squid breaking sperm whales' jaws, I must say I don't remember encountering that suggestion before. As I understand it, The Cephalopod Page article is just pointing out that some sperm whales have broken jaws, and you'd think that would make it harder for them to catch squid, but they still have squid in their stomachs, so maybe they don't need their jaws. But nothing about the manner in which the jaws were broken in the first place. It's pretty difficult for me to imagine a squid breaking a whale's jaw . . . even adult giant squid are much smaller than sperm whales, and the whales usually feed on juveniles . . . but that's not to say it's impossible.

With nature, my rule is "never say never"!

Danna Staaf | 10/28/10 | 17:38 PM

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Apparently, there is documented evidence of sperm whales breaking their jaws on deep sea cables. This 2003 paper by Bruce C. Heezen at Lamont Geological Observatory Columbia University Palisades, New York, USA reports fourteen instances of sperm whales entangled in submarine cables which were generally wrapped around the jaw and often around the flukes and fins.

“The cable was rarely broken but always badly mauled. The entanglements often occurred near former repairs where there is a chance for extra slack cable on the bottom. It was concluded that sperm whales often swim along the sea floor in depths as great as 620 fathoms. It is suggested that the whales become entangled while swimming along with their jaw plowing through the sediment in search of food. It is possible that the whales attacked tangled masses of slack cable mistaking them for items of food”.

See Deep Sea Research (1953) Volume 4, 1957-1958, Pages 105-114

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Make love not war

Helen Barratt | 10/29/10 | 16:08 PM

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I always thought whales were plankton eaters/digesters, and in the habit of swimming for miles with their mouths open, filtering the plankton from the water
Now, if fish or squid happen to be lazily swimming in the same area of the ocean, I suppose they could get swallowed, but is there any real evidence that squid are hunted by or are a staple of the whale diet?
Open mouth swimming for miles, could offer a better plausible explanation for broken jaws as a mere vulnerable appendage, subject, for example to shark attack, chasing about-to-be-swallowed prey, collision with submarines or getting caught in fishing nets, even, than squid fighting

A giant squid and a Sperm whale locked in mortal combat. (Copyright Lee Krystek, 2003)

Just looks funny to me!
Aitch

Henry Cox | 10/28/10 | 20:53 PM

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Ah, I was afraid this might cause some confusion. Thanks for the spur to clarify. Whales come in two basic flavors: baleen and toothed. (Or mysticetes and odontocetes, for the pedantic.)

Baleen whales filter plankton out of the water, just as you described. Humpback, fin, sei, and blue whales are examples of baleen whales. Toothed whales behave more like what we think of as a typical predator, going after individual large prey items like fish or squid. Orcas, sperm whales, and dolphins are typical ~~baleen~~ toothed* whales. (Yes, "dolphin" is a subset of "whale," just for extra confusion.)

Squid are known to be a staple of the diet of most toothed whales, especially sperm whales.

* Thanks to Anon for the correction!

Danna Staaf | 01/18/12 | 11:00 AM