Are There Sea Monsters in the Ocean?
by Inspector Barry Mins on Sep 23, 2025
Hey kids, and welcome back to another “Ask a Baraminologist” feedback article.
This week, our question comes from Violet L. (age 12), who asks,
“Are there sea monsters in the ocean?”
Great question, Violet. To answer it, we need to know what you mean by sea monsters. If you mean mythological creatures like the kraken or mermaids, no, those do not exist. However, there are some very large creatures in the ocean that may have inspired some of the myths. For example, there is a species of squid, called the giant squid, that gets up to sixteen feet long, though there have been claims of much longer specimens. A squid this size could easily have given rise to kraken legends.
Other large animals inhabit the ocean, like the massive blue whale or the terrifying-looking, but utterly harmless basking shark. Basking sharks are up to 33 feet long, while blue whales can reach one hundred feet and weigh 200 tons! Now that’s a monster!
A giant squid on the largest kind of toothed whale.
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 via Flickr by Mr. Tin MD
Sea monster legends and ideas probably have their roots in the post-flood era. We know that there were large sea-going reptiles, like plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, in the pre-flood world.
While they were not on the ark, it is likely some of them survived the flood. Post-flood myths about man-eating sea monsters were probably based on real encounters with these monstrous reptiles (and possibly also Megalodon sharks, which have been estimated to have grown up to 70 feet long). However, it is almost certain these creatures have gone extinct, so sea travel has become much safer. There are no more monsters waiting to sink our ships. Well . . . except icebergs.
A fossil of a plesiosaur.
CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr by Ryan Somma
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