Sea monsters have been with man since humans began to take to the water. There were hundreds of years wherein maps would end within a few miles of land and beyond that was the great unknown. No one dared to venture into the void. Sailors would develop stories about what lay beyond shrouded by fog. Some of those stories began to evolve into tales of great monsters that were lurking and waiting for a ship full of sailors to have for dinner. These stories would scare some of these sailors into being landlubbers.

It is now known that at least some of the stories could have been the result of seeing real creatures. These creatures would have been unknown to the sailors and would perhaps scare them. Then the stories began to have a real dimension to them.

Given the fact that much of the world’s oceans remain unexplored, it certainly remains possible for life to be found that some might consider sea monsters even today. Recently, scientists have been finding all kinds of new creatures in areas that was thought to have been explored but they just didn’t go down deep enough.

The Kraken is a monster that used to provoke such a fear in early sailors. The Kraken was variously described as squid-like, or in some cases whale-like. Although most often it was described as a squid-like creature and of a giant size.

There are a couple of creatures that could account for the sea serpent idea. Firstly, there is the squid. Everyone now knows that the squid comes in various sizes and recently a Giant Squid has been videotaped. The female of the species has been estimated to reach a maximum length of 43 feet. Imagine if you will, being a sailor on a ship 300 years ago. Your wooden ship might be 100 feet long and because it’s wood and it might be old, it might not be the most satisfying thing to be on in the first place. During the night watch, the watchman yells about seeing something off the starboard port.

Everyone scampers to the side of the ship and see this 43 foot-long female Giant Squid. This squid might be half the size of your vessel but in the darkness it would be hard to determine the full size of the creature. This would be more than enough to cause fear in the average sailor of the time.

There has been found a new species of squid that is called the Colossal Squid. Marine biologists have estimated a length of as much as 46 feet. Given that these are perhaps the rarest of the squid species, the extra three feet in the water would make this squid seem even larger and thus even scarier than the Giant Squid.

It should be kept in mind however that the sea serpent has most often been described as snake-like. While the tentacles of the squid are indeed snake-like, perhaps they make up only part of the sea serpent mythos.

Delving deeper, pun fully intended into the subject, one needs to look for another viable option for the sea serpent; the Oarfish. The Oarfish comes to mind as a great example of what might have been seen as a sea serpent. The Oarfish is commonly seen as about 24 feet long. There have been reports of this snake-like creature reaching lengths of 50 feet or more.

Certainly if a sailor a few hundred years ago were to see a 50 foot- long, snake-like creature coming to the surface next to their ship, it would cause some concern at the very least. The Oarfish fits the profile of a sea serpent fairly well. It is long and snake-like and it is in fact particularly ugly, only a face a mother could love. If you happened to see one either dead or alive it could easily shake you and then could cause you to tell some stories when you reached the nearest port.

Is there another possibility for the sea serpent? Perhaps, but maybe they are still hiding down at the bottom of the ocean still awaiting discovery.