Lusca

In Caribbean folklore, the Lusca is a name given to an alleged sea monster said to exist in the region of the blue holes nearby Andros, an island in The Bahamas.

History

The first reported sighting of something resembling the traditional description of the Lusca in the area was in 1872, when J. S. George of Nassau in the Bahamas wrote to the American Naturalist describing a "colossal octopus" found dead on the beach. The journal paraphrased his account, saying quote: "... a huge octopus ten feet long, each arm measuring five feet; the weight was estimated at between two hundred and three hundred pounds. The monster was found dead upon the beach and bore marks of injury." During a stay on the island of Andros, marine biologist Bruce S. Wright was told by a local guide that some limestone caverns beneath a lake were home to a monster called the lusca, described as a large, half-octopus, half-dragon animal, with powerful, sucker-tipped tentacles, which lived in banana holes and blue holes. The first description of giant scuttle lore from the Bahamas was published in 1957; it was alleged that "giant scuttle" with an exaggerated armspan of 200 ft (60 m) had been seen between Hole-in-the-Wall Key and Nassau, and that stories of scuttles with armspans of 60–80 ft (18–24 m) were not uncommon.

Etymology

Lusca is a clipped form of Mollusca (a phylum containing octopus, squid, cuttlefish, and other cephalopods), referring to the creature's varied mollusk features, such as tentacles.

Description

It is described as a giant octopus, a giant cuttlefish, or a half shark, half octopus. The lusca is said to grow over 75 ft (23 m) long, but no cases have been proven of octopus species growing up to even half these lengths. George J. Benjamin of Toronto, who had long experience scuba diving in the blue holes of Andros, also described the lusca in a 1970 National Geographic article. During the 1950s, one of his guides had warned him that the lusca, or "Him of the Hands," would kill him if he entered the oceanic blue holes, and regaled him with stories of luscas sinking ships and grabbing fishermen. Benjamin did not encounter the lusca, but throughout the 1970s, various articles and documentaries on the blue holes confirmed the local belief that giant cephalopod-like monsters, called lusca or "Him of the Hairy Hands," inhabited these sinkholes.

In popular culture

The reports of a lusca monster attacking swimmers and divers was investigated by Jeremy Wade, the host of the television series River Monsters, in the episode "Terror in Paradise" (season eight, episode four). After investigating reef sharks, tiger sharks, and the giant Pacific octopus, Wade settles on a large octopus being the most likely culprit for being the lusca monster.

A Caribbean film festival, Lusca Fantastic Film Fest, was named after this sea monster; the festival is an annual event held in Puerto Rico. It is the first and only international fantastic film festival in the Caribbean.

The survival video game Stranded Deep features an enemy giant squid named Lusca the Great.

The massively multiplayer game “City of Heroes” features a giant monster squid named Lusca, which spawns at irregular intervals in the Independence Port region of the game world. Defeating Lusca for the first time earns the Devilfish badge.

In episode 8 of series 15 of the detective show Death in Paradise, a man obsessed with the creature is found dead in the ocean, his body bearing marks that look like he may have been bound up by its tentacles, although the cause of death is rather more mundane.

See also

• Kraken