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Mysteries of the Deep

englishlanguage artsGrade 3

U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H

Student Reader

Mysteries of the Deep

English Language Arts Unit Grade 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Beast of Loch Ness ................................................................................. 1 by Lauren Tarshis

Monster of the Sea ......................................................................................... 9 by Lauren Tarshis

©2015 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

The Beast of Loch Ness

Lauren Tarshis

From "The Beast of Loch Ness" by Lauren Tarshis. Published in SCHOLASTIC SCOPE, October 2014. Copyright © 2014 by Scholastic Inc. Used by permission.

APA Reference: Tarshis, L. (2014, October). The beast of Loch Ness. Scholastic Scope, 63(3), 4-8.

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The Beast of Loch Ness by Lauren Tarshis

Is There a Monster Living in Scotland’s Legendary Lake?

On an April afternoon in 1933, Aldie and John Mackay were driving along

the shores of one of Scotland’s largest lakes, Loch Ness. (Loch is the

Scottish term for lake, pronounced “lock.”) The road, the A82, was brand-

new, and Aldie was enjoying the view from the car window. April is usually

a rainy month in the Scottish Highlands, but this day was bright. The trees 5

were vivid green and even the murky waters of the lake seemed to sparkle.

Then Aldie saw something she would never forget. The water rippled, and

a giant creature seemed to rise out of the loch. It appeared to be black, with

a humped back. Aldie grabbed her husband’s arm, trembling with fright,


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and pointed out the window. “Stop! The beast!” she gasped. John 10

screeched the car to a halt. For several minutes, the stunned couple stared

at the loch as the creature seemed to “roll and plunge,” until the waters

finally calmed.

For a few days, Aldie and John kept quiet about what they had seen. After

all, who would believe them? A monster in Loch Ness? It sounded 15

preposterous. People would think they were liars or, worse, that they were

insane.

But of course, the couple couldn’t resist sharing their remarkable story, and

the news soon spread. As the Mackays had predicted, some people rolled

their eyes and laughed. But many others listened with fascination. There 20

had always been something mysterious about Loch Ness, something

spooky. For centuries, people from the nearby towns had whispered stories

of a legendary creature living in the loch, a huge and terrifying beast. Many

avoided the surrounding woods because of it. To a number of local people,

the Mackays’ story was completely believable. 25

Over the next few weeks, more people claimed to have seen the creature.

“It was horrible,” reported a schoolteacher. “It had a head like a cobra.”

“It was as big as an elephant,” said a local farmer.

“My heart stopped,” recounted a visiting businessman, who said he saw the

beast while taking a walk. “It looked right at me.” 30

But what was it?


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Fantastic Creatures

For thousands of years, people from around the world have been telling

stories of mysterious creatures. Some of these mythical beasts are 35

obviously fictional, as fantastic as Norbert, Hagrid’s pet dragon from the

Harry Potter books, or the fauns from the Chronicles of Narnia.

But some creatures of myth and legend have turned out to really exist.

For hundreds of years, sailors told stories of a hideous creature with a large

round head, a jagged-edged beak, and enormous, powerful tentacles. They 40

called this creature the kraken. Despite hundreds of eye witness accounts,

most people dismissed the kraken as a tall tale that sprang from the

imaginations of homesick, sunstruck sailors. But in 1873, a fisherman and

his son spotted one in the waters off Newfoundland, Canada. They

managed to cut off a 19-foot piece of tentacle. This slimy specimen 45

convinced skeptics that the old sailors’ stories were absolutely true.

Scientists gave the kraken a new name: the giant squid.

Years later, in 1912, a group of pearl fishermen landed on a small island in

what is now known as Indonesia. The men were relaxing on the rocky

shores when one of them heard something approach from behind. He 50

turned and screamed. It was an immense lizard, maybe 10 feet long. It was

rushing toward them, its beady eyes glistening with menace. The men

escaped and made it home to tell their story, which few believed.

Eventually, a scientist named W. Douglas Burden happened to hear the

story. He organized an expedition with the American Museum of Natural 55

History in 1926. Sure enough, he found a population of ferocious, meat-


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eating lizards exactly where the fishermen said he would, on the island of

Komodo. He named the creatures Komodo dragons.

Incredible stories like these have encouraged some men and women to

devote their lives to the search for mythical and legendary creatures. These 60

people call themselves cryptozoologists (krip-tuh-zoh-AH-luh-jists).

(Kryptos is the Greek word for “hidden” or “secret”; a zoologist is a scientist

who studies animal life.) To many people, cryptozoology seems more like

fantasy than real science. But some cryptozoologists are respected

scientists. They are convinced that there are still astonishing undiscovered 65

animal species on Earth.

And one of those creatures, they say, could be lurking in Loch Ness.

Finding the Proof

Over the decades, cryptozoologists have come up with several theories

about what the beast of Loch Ness could be. Some say it is an unknown 70

water mammal. Others believe it is an enormous fish. Some even say it is a

prehistoric creature—perhaps a plesiosaur. These long-necked marine

reptiles lived alongside the dinosaurs and died out 66 million years ago.

Perhaps a few survived, some suggest, and one of their descendants is

now living in the loch. 75

But these are just the theories of a few passionate believers, theories that

most scientists reject and ridicule. The water of the loch is freezing cold

and so dark that few plants survive, let alone fish. What would the creature

eat? And how could there be just one creature? There would have to be a


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family that breeds and raises its young. Is it really likely that a clan of giant 80

animals is living in the loch, invisible to all but a few accidental witnesses?

Perhaps no person has been as interested in these questions as Tim

Dinsdale was. He was an engineer who led 56 Loch Ness expeditions

between 1960 and 1987. In 1960, Dinsdale and his fellow investigators saw

a “long oval shape” in the water and captured it on film for two minutes. The 85

image was blurry, but Dinsdale was convinced it was the creature.

He gave the film to experts from the British government, who studied it

carefully. They concluded that the object was probably alive and that it was

between 12 and 16 feet long. Cryptozoologists cheered. But skeptics were

unimpressed with the image of a murky blob moving slowly through the 90

water.

Another respected Loch Ness investigator was the American scientist

Robert Rines. In the 1970s, Rines used sonar (sound) equipment to

capture an image that seemed to show the head and body of a large

underwater creature. But, as with Dinsdale’s film, the image was too blurry 95

to provide clear answers.

In 2003, British scientists studied the loch using sonar and satellites. They

were hoping to prove the plesiosaur theory. They investigated the loch

“shoreline to shoreline, top to bottom,” said scientist Ian Florence. They

found logs and old buoys. “We have covered everything in this loch, and 100

we saw no signs of any large living animal,” Florence said, his voice tinged with disappointment. “I think this might settle the question. There is nothing

there.”

But what about the people who say there is?


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Imagination and Belief 105

In the eight decades since the Mackays took their fateful drive, more than

1,000 people have claimed to have seen some kind of creature in the water

or on the shores of the loch. Certainly some of them are attention seekers

or pranksters. But can all of them be making it up?

Even skeptics admit that it’s likely that the Mackays really did see 110

something on the loch that April day. Perhaps a log was caught in the

waves, or an overturned boat was bobbing up and down. Perhaps the

glittering sunlight on the loch turned an ordinary object into a fantastic

monster. The human imagination is powerful. And so is our power of belief.

After all, isn’t it imagination and belief that have led to humankind’s greatest 115

scientific achievements?

“If you don’t have an open mind, in my judgment, you’re not a scientist,”

said Rines. “If you don’t have ideas, if you don’t have adventure, you’ll

never make a discovery.”

Rines believed that a major discovery is waiting in the murky waters of 120

Loch Ness. One day, perhaps he’ll be proved right.


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Monster of the Sea

Lauren Tarshis

From “Monster of the Sea” by Lauren Tarshis. Published in SCHOLASTIC SCOPE, March 2012.Copyright ©2012 by Scholastic, Inc. Used by permission.

APA Reference: Tarshis, L. (2012, March). Monster of the sea. Scholastic Scope, 63(3), 10-13.

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Monster of the Sea by Lauren Tarshis How Scientists Discovered the Truth Behind One of the Scariest Sea Monsters of all Time

On a moonless January night in 2003, a famous French yachtsman named

Olivier de Kersauson was racing across the Atlantic Ocean. He was trying

to break the record for the fastest sailing voyage around the world when his

boat came to a mysterious halt.

In the darkness, de Kersauson's massive 110-foot boat shook violently. 5

The mast rattled and the hull shuddered. The crew ran up and down the

deck, shining flashlights into the water, trying to figure out what was going

on. Below deck, first mate Didier Ragot peered through a porthole into the

ocean.

Then he saw it: an enormous tentacle snaking around the ship. 10

A Horror Movie

The creature was like something out of a horror movie. Some 30 feet long,

it had glistening skin and long arms covered in toothy suckers that left

impressions on the sides of the boat. It seemed to be wrapping itself

around the ship, which was creaking and groaning under the strain. 15

Just when the crew thought the boat would snap into pieces, everything

went still.

The creature was gone.

Monster of the Sea by Lauren Tarshis

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"I've been sailing for 40 years, and I've always had an answer for

everything—for hurricanes and icebergs," de Kersauson would later say. 20

"But I didn't have an answer for this. It was terrifying."

What the crew claimed they saw—a claim that many regard as a tall tale—

was a giant squid.

But are giant squid even real?

A Tall Tale? 25

Sea monsters have captured our imaginations for thousands of years.

There are countless movies, novels, and legends about fearsome beasts

that attack ships and drag everyone onboard to a watery death.

Some of the craziest stories have come from sailors. For centuries, men

have returned home from long voyages with terrifying tales of enormous, 30

squidlike beasts. These creatures, some said, were larger than whales and

stronger than elephants. One of the most feared was the kraken, which

could supposedly trap a ship by creating a huge whirlpool.

Scientists thought these stories were little more than tall tales—or

hallucinations brought on by sunstroke. Then, in 1873, a fisherman off the 35

coast of Newfoundland returned to shore with a 19-foot tentacle. Scientists

realized that the kraken—or something like the kraken—was really out

there.

Squid Squads

Eventually, scientists deduced that what sailors were probably seeing was 40

a kind of giant squid. Every so often, huge squid body parts would wash up


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on a beach or become tangled in fishing nets. Yet, no scientist had actually

seen a living giant squid.

In the 1960s, oceanographers developed the technology to explore deeper

in the ocean than ever before. Teams of scientists called "squid squads" 45

started combing the high seas in hopes of glimpsing one of these elusive

creatures. For them, giant squid represented all that we don't know about

the ocean. (As much as 95 percent of the ocean remains unexplored

today.)

Still, no one could find one. 50

Unlocking the Mysteries

Marine biologist Steve O'Shea has been trying to find giant squid since

1996, when a fisherman showed him the corpse of one. Step into O'Shea's

office or home and you might think you've walked into a mad scientist's lab.

Jars of squid parts line his shelves; unblinking squid eyes stare out at you. 55

In the garage, he keeps stacks of boxes with squid carcasses that have

washed up on beaches around the world.


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Over the years, O'Shea has managed to unlock a few of the many

mysteries surrounding these creatures. For one thing, giant squid are

indeed giant. They can weigh up to 1,000 pounds and grow to almost 60 60

feet. O'Shea also knows why giant squid are so hard to find. They live

thousands of feet below the surface of the ocean, far deeper than any

human can go. They have enormous eyes—larger than those of any other

animal—which enable them to flee at the first sign of trouble. And thanks to

their highly developed nerves, they can react in an instant, darting away 65

from a net or camera.

The closest O'Shea has ever come to capturing a live giant squid was in

2001, when he caught 17 babies—each about the size of a grasshopper.

His plan was to raise them in captivity. But by the time he reached shore,

all the babies were dead. Crying, O'Shea pulled the corpses out himself. 70

He later learned the tank was made of a material that is toxic to squid.

A Breakthrough at Last

In 2004, researchers finally had a breakthrough. Two Japanese scientists

were tracking a pod of sperm whales off the coast of Japan. They had a

hunch the whales might lead them to a squid's lair. 75

They were right.

After days of searching with an underwater camera, they caught sight of

something stuck under a rock: a creature the size of a school bus. Its eyes

were as big as basketballs. It had eight flapping arms and two long, sinewy

tentacles. It thrashed so wildly to break free that one tentacle broke off in 80

the struggle. Before it got away, the scientists snapped more than 500


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photos. They also hauled the 18-foot tentacle onto their boat. In 2005, the

same team found another giant squid 3,000 feet below the surface—and

managed to film it.

Since then, millions have viewed the photographs and watched the 85

footage. But to this day, no one has been able to capture a living specimen

to study, though a few have come close.

There are still many mysteries about giant squid. One thing is certain,

though: The monster is real.


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