by Leann Zotis

Created on: July 10, 2011   Last Updated: September 19, 2011

The ocean waters have been a world of mystery and intrigue since the beginning of time.  Despite the great strides humanity has made on the land and in space, the depths of the ocean still fascinate and inspire our imaginations.  The ocean yields far more questions than answers when it comes to its inhabitants.  It's no wonder, really, since some of the largest and most feared creatures of the world come from beneath the surface of our ocean waters.  Giant sea creatures have always been the stuff of myth and legend.

The super large creatures that walked the earth, predominantly those belonging to the dinosaur era, have met with extinction long ago.  Perhaps due to the protective nature of living beneath the ocean waters, where human interaction has had less opportunity to destroy natural habitats, many of the largest and most ominous creatures from the ocean depths still have the freedom to live out their lives and continue to survive.

It should come as no surprise that the largest creature to swim the ocean depths, or to inhabit the planet for that matter, is the blue whale.  They have been known to reach 100 feet in length and 200 tons in weight.  A baby blue whale can weigh as much as 3 tons at birth.  An interesting fact about the blue whale is that its tongue can weigh as much as an elephant; its heart can weigh as much as an automobile.

While the blue whale is majestic and awesome, some of the other large creatures of the deep are much more frightening and horrible, and justifiably so.  The giant squid, for example, is ranked among the largest animals in the ocean, with an adult length of up to 60 feet.  It is classified with octopus and other squid in the caphalopod class.  This mysterious sea creature is only known to exist because it occasionally appears washed up on shore or is trapped in the nets of fishermen.  The giant squid is the perfect fodder for myths and legends as undocumented seafaring stories abound where survivors of sunken ships may tell of the horrible creature that reached out of the water and pulled a crew mate from the boat to a watery grave.

Another famous, some might say infamous, creature of the ocean waters is the great white shark.  This magnificent creature seldom lives up to its fearsome reputation as a man-eating carnivore.  They never deliberately seek out human prey, horror movies to the contrary.  Their preferred diet is sea lions.  Any humans

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