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Greek and Norse sea monsters could hold key to saving endangered whales

Whales are vital to the health of the oceans, but seven out of the 13 great whale species are endangered or vulnerable.

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By Mark Waghorn via SWNS

Sea monsters in Greek and Viking mythology could hold the key to saving endangered whales, according to new research.

A mysterious new behavior identified in the marine mammals was actually recorded in ancient manuscripts - some dating back more than 2,000 years.

The feeding strategy helps explain the roots of a host of strange creatures - ranging from giant octopi to mermaids.

Recently whales have been spotted at the surface of the water with their jaws open at right angles - waiting for shoals of fish to swim into their mouths.

A clip of was captured in 2021 - and went viral on Instagram.

It seems to work because the fish think they have found a place to shelter from predators, not realizing they are swimming into danger.

And now a study of ancient manuscripts has revealed the "new" behavior being described in relation to sea monsters thousands of years ago.

At the top of the food chain, whales are vital to the health of the oceans but seven out of the 13 great whale species are endangered or vulnerable.

Understanding their preferred habitats is vital to conservation efforts.

The medieval north had a beast called the Hafgufa which evolved into the Kraken.

via GIPHY

The Hafgufa was a legendary massive sea monster or whale, purported to inhabit Iceland's waters, or the Greenland Sea, and southward towards Helluland.

Dr. John McCarthy, a maritime archaeologist at Flinders University, Adelaide, first noticed intriguing parallels between marine biology and historical literature while reading about it.

He said: "It struck me the Norse description of the hafgufa was very similar to the behavior shown in videos of trap feeding whales, but I thought it was just an interesting coincidence at first.

"Once I started looking into it in detail and discussing it with colleagues who specialize in medieval literature, we realized that the oldest versions of these myths do not describe sea monsters at all, but are explicit in describing a type of whale.

"That’s when we started to get really interested. The more we investigated it, the more interesting the connections became and the marine biologists we spoke to found the idea fascinating."

The Australian team speculate it's a result of changing environmental conditions. Whales are also being more closely monitored than ever before by drones and other modern technologies.

Old Norse manuscripts describing hafgufa date from the 13th century.

It remained part of Icelandic myths for 500 years, often included in accounts alongside the more infamous kraken and mermaids.

Bestiaries, a popular type of text in the medieval period, describe large numbers of real and fantastical animals.

They often include a description of a creature very similar to the hafgufa, usually named as the aspidochelone.

Both are said to emit a special perfume or scent that helps to draw the fish towards their stationary mouths. Some whales are said to produce ambergris, which is an ingredient of perfume.

This element may have been inspired by the ejection of filtered prey - to help attract more into a whale's mouth.

Co-author Dr. Erin Sebo said: "It's exciting because the question of how long whales have used this technique is key to understanding a range of behavioral and even evolutionary questions.

(SWNS)

"Marine biologists had assumed there was no way of recovering this data but, using medieval manuscripts, we've been able to answer some of their questions.

“We found that the more fantastical accounts of this sea monster were relatively recent, dating to the 17th and 18th centuries and there has been a lot of speculation amongst scientists about whether these accounts might have been provoked by natural phenomena, such as optical illusions or underwater volcanoes.

"In fact, the behavior described in medieval texts, which seemed so unlikely, is simply whale behavior that we had not observed but medieval and ancient people had."

Sea monsters have a prominent role in myths and legends of most seafaring cultures on Earth.

Originating in Scandinavian folklore, the kraken is usually depicted as an aggressive cephalopod-like creature capable of destroying entire ships and dragging sailors to their doom.

In ancient Greece, Aristotle and Pliny wrote about giant squid.

The study is published in the journal Current Biology.

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