In the Caribbean Sea, near the Bahamas, there lives an enormous octopus, which the local aborigines gave the nickname “Lusca”.
It is believed that they’re rarely seen because they hide within the so-called blue holes – very deep, round underwater sinkholes, of which there are various within the Bahamas.
Lusca is commonly blamed for the mysterious disappearances of swimmers and fishermen, whose bodies are sometimes found with unusual wounds, but most frequently disappear with no trace.
Similar huge octopuses have also been seen in other areas of the Caribbean, in addition to off the coast of Cuba, Belize and even off the coast of Mexico. Generally, where there are deep sea holes, convenient for shelter.
One of the primary known reports of Luska dates back to 1863, however it took place as early as 1836. Benedict-Henri Revoil wrote in his book that an anonymous American captain told him how a “giant kraken” attacked his ship within the Lucayes Strait (Bahamas). .
“The Kraken stretched out its gigantic arms, reached out, and dragged two of its crew members into the sea. In vain did their companions try to save these two unfortunates from death, all their efforts were in vain. However, the crew achieved a partial victory, as the senior helmsman cut off one of his arms with an axe. This monstrous appendage was 3.5 meters long and as thick as a man.”
In 1872, a person named J. S. George, a resident of Nassau, described that “the huge octopuses found here are considered a rarity.” But the fundamental flow of knowledge began in the course of the twentieth century, when a note appeared within the press in regards to the sighting of a large octopus with a tentacle span of 60 meters.
The creature was spotted near a blue hole off the coast of Nassau, and there have been reports from local residents that it was quite large and that smaller octopuses – with a tentacle span of “only” 24 meters (78 feet) – were far more common. .
In the Sixties, Western marine biologist Bruce S. Wright visited Andros after an area resident told him about Lusk. He hadn't seen the creature himself, but he swore that many fishermen had seen it. He also testified that he saw a “huge dead body” within the water that was longer than his 5-meter boat.
In the Seventies, an article about Lusk was published in National Geographic magazine and the entire world learned about it. It has also been reported that local fishermen are afraid to swim to the blue holes as a result of the danger of being attacked by huge octopuses. When the then-famous oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau read this text, he sailed there to try to seek out these creatures.
He and his team had heard many stories from fishermen about some large creature cutting their lines, and in addition they managed to photograph a suspiciously large lump of brown meat within the water, however it was hard to inform what it was.
The story of a certain Heitor Ishmel from the Bahamas became very famous. Before his eyes, something huge dragged a dead horse into the depths.
When journalist Randy Wayne White went to Cat Island in 1997, locals tried to influence him to not dive into a close-by mangrove lake, which they believed was the habitat of a man-eating monster. One respected local elderly farmer, Gaitor Ishmel, told White that he once spotted what gave the impression to be a big, carnivorous animal within the lake that had carried off the carcass of a horse that had died on his father's farm.
“A big animal dies on this island, we all the time burn it or throw it into the water. I used to be a young man then and I remember what it was like. It was a Sunday, we pushed this horse into the lake and shortly we see a giant ridge of water coming towards us, like a giant wave, I understand.
“And this thing got here out from under the water and took this horse. It pulls your complete horse underwater. He disappears there, within the depths! That once I know that there’s a dangerous creature living on this lake, because a horse, it's not a small thing, man. My grandmother told me the creature was a mermaid.
“I do know that this whole island once lay under the ocean, and when it pleased God to bring a few of it onto dry land, it could have happened that giant creatures were left in holes under the water. Maybe giant octopuses – I don't know. But there's something in that lake, man. I do know this much because I saw it myself.
In 2009, the crew of the paranormal television series “Destination Truth”, led by Josh Gates, went to the island of Andros looking for Luska, and while exploring the blue hole, they filmed something large splashing on the surface of the water.
Jeremy Wade, host of Animal Planet's “River Monsters,” also visited the positioning in 2016, but without success.
Described as a large hatch, a word normally applied to an octopus, many cryptozoologists have theorized that Lusca is definitely a large octopus, an unknown cephalopod similar in size to a large squid.
No known octopus has been officially recorded to have reached such a big size; the biggest is the enormous Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) from the Pacific, which has a median arm span of 14 feet (4.3 m), although some larger records include specimens with arm spans of 30 feet (9 m) and 9.8 m (32 ft) ). Lusca would perhaps be twice as large.
Image Source: Pixabay.com
