Mysteries of the Deep Grade 3

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english language arts Mysteries of the Deep Grade 3

Student Reader

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

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

The Beast of Loch Ness Lauren Tarshis

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

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-2- 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 5 a rainy month in the Scottish Highlands, but this day was bright. The trees 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,

The Beast of Loch Ness by Lauren Tarshis -3- 10 and pointed out the window. “Stop! The beast!” she gasped. John 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 15 all, who would believe them? A monster in Loch Ness? It sounded 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 20 their eyes and laughed. But many others listened with fascination. There 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, 25 the Mackays’ story was completely believable.

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

But what was it?

The Beast of Loch Ness by Lauren Tarshis -4- Fantastic Creatures

For thousands of years, people from around the world have been telling 35 stories of mysterious creatures. Some of these mythical beasts are 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 40 round head, a jagged-edged beak, and enormous, powerful tentacles. They 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 45 managed to cut off a 19-foot piece of tentacle. This slimy specimen 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 50 shores when one of them heard something approach from behind. He 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 55 story. He organized an expedition with the American Museum of Natural History in 1926. Sure enough, he found a population of ferocious, meat-

The Beast of Loch Ness by Lauren Tarshis -5- 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 60 devote their lives to the search for mythical and legendary creatures. These 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 65 scientists. They are convinced that there are still astonishing undiscovered 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 70 about what the beast of Loch Ness could be. Some say it is an unknown 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 75 now living in the loch.

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

The Beast of Loch Ness by Lauren Tarshis -6- 80 family that breeds and raises its young. Is it really likely that a clan of giant 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 85 a “long oval shape” in the water and captured it on film for two minutes. The 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 90 unimpressed with the image of a murky blob moving slowly through the 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 95 underwater creature. But, as with Dinsdale’s film, the image was too blurry 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 100 found logs and old buoys. “We have covered everything in this loch, and 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?

The Beast of Loch Ness by Lauren Tarshis -7- 105 Imagination and Belief

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?

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

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

120 Rines believed that a major discovery is waiting in the murky waters of Loch Ness. One day, perhaps he’ll be proved right.

The Beast of Loch Ness by Lauren Tarshis -8-

Monster of the Sea Lauren Tarshis

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

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-10- 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.

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

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

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

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 -11- "I've been sailing for 40 years, and I've always had an answer for 20 everything—for hurricanes and icebergs," de Kersauson would later say. "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?

25 A Tall Tale?

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 30 have returned home from long voyages with terrifying tales of enormous, 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 35 hallucinations brought on by sunstroke. Then, in 1873, a fisherman off the 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

40 Eventually, scientists deduced that what sailors were probably seeing was a kind of giant squid. Every so often, huge squid body parts would wash up

Monster of the Sea by Lauren Tarshis -12- 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 45 in the ocean than ever before. Teams of scientists called "squid squads" 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.)

50 Still, no one could find one.

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. 55 Jars of squid parts line his shelves; unblinking squid eyes stare out at you. In the garage, he keeps stacks of boxes with squid carcasses that have washed up on beaches around the world.

Monster of the Sea by Lauren Tarshis -13- Over the years, O'Shea has managed to unlock a few of the many mysteries surrounding these creatures. For one thing, giant squid are 60 indeed giant. They can weigh up to 1,000 pounds and grow to almost 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 65 their highly developed nerves, they can react in an instant, darting away 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, 70 all the babies were dead. Crying, O'Shea pulled the corpses out himself. 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 75 hunch the whales might lead them to a squid's lair.

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 80 tentacles. It thrashed so wildly to break free that one tentacle broke off in the struggle. Before it got away, the scientists snapped more than 500

Monster of the Sea by Lauren Tarshis -14- 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.

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

Monster of the Sea by Lauren Tarshis -15-

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