Biggest Living Creature in The Ocean

Biggest Living Creature in The Ocean

The never-ending sea is home to the biggest living creatures ever known to man. And when we say big, we mean REALLLLY BIG! They make dinosaurs and other terrestrial giants of our time to look like tiny tots. In this episode, we’re going to show you only the 10 biggest living creatures in the ocean. Let’s dive in, shall we. 

1 Portuguese Man-Of-War 

Easily confused to be a jellyfish, the Portuguese Man-O-War is actually a siphonophore. Siphonophores are slender rope-shaped marine creatures. Cousins to corals and jellyfish. While sharks and whales easily win the oceanic mass monster contest, siphonophores and jellyfish take the gold for their incredible length. The man ‘o’ war is easily identified by its purple-blue floating crest about 6 inches across with long slender tentacles that can grow up to 50 feet long. And in rare cases, the tentacles can grow to up to 165 feet long. Interestingly, the Portuguese man of war isn’t one animal, but a whole community of highly specialized marine organisms called zoids working together beneath the visible sail. Like jellyfish, the man-of-war have venom-filled stinging tentacles, which they use to trap, paralyze, and even kill their prey.

2 Japanese Giant Spider Crab 

What do you get when you cross a spider and a crab? Definitely not the Japanese spider crab! This leggy behemoth with a deceptive name isn’t related to arachnids. It gets the name from its supposed resemblance to a spider. Giant spider crabs are a species of marine arthropods that live in the waters off the coast of Japan. With the crab’s legs estimated to grow up to 13 feet long, the Japanese spider crab is reckoned to be not just the largest crab ever known, but also the largest arthropod existing in the world. They aren’t the mass monsters of the sea, what with their rounded bodies weighing only 40 pounds. Still that’s an awful lot of crab. What's interesting is that Japanese giant spider crabs are edible, buuut you’re not going to find this delicacy on the menu of your local Joe's Crab Shack anytime soon. 

3 Oarfish

Mostly referred to as the giant sea serpent, the oarfish is one of the longest bony fish known. Imagine a Dorab wolf-herring, only it’s 50 to 100 times larger (lengthwise, more so). The oarfish is characterized by very large eyes, and they do not have scales. Oarfishes are approximately 26 feet long. Despite their extreme lengths, oarfishes are quite slender proportionally. And their numbers on the scales aren’t as staggering as you’d wish. The maximum recorded weight of the “King of herrings” fish is about 600 pounds. Still, it’s a large catch for any fisherman. Being a bottom sea dweller, the oarfish is a rare catch. They rarely come up to the ocean surface and even scientists are finding it hard to study them in their natural habitat. 

4 Ocean Sunfish

The ocean sunfish is one of the heaviest bony fish that is weirdly created. It is sometimes known as the Mola Mola or giant head fish. Resembling an enormous floating pancake, the Ocean sunfish mostly consists of a giant head with no tail. It weighs about 5,000 pounds (this is heavy!) and can span to 10.50 feet in length. The strangest thing about this “giant pancake of a fish,” is that it is a great swimmer even with its tail in abstention. You’re probably wondering how that’s possible right? Amazingly, the giant fish depends on its most advanced mighty fins to get around. And, it can also swim on its sides! Ocean sunfishes are avowed loners, spending much of their time in seclusion in the depths of the cold waters. Once in a while, they can be spotted swimming close to the surface to busk (hence the same sunfish). 

5 Lion's Mane Jellyfish

Also known as Giant Jellyfish, this magnificent looking, graceful swimmer is the largest jellyfish and the longest living creature in the world. The Lion’s Mane Jellyfish has a 9foot wide orange-brown bell flowing with extremely long tentacles and tan-colored oral arms that give it the resemblance of a lion’s mane. Their tentacles can measure a jaw-dropping 120 feet long. They are divided into 8 groups, mostly of 70- 150 tentacles. These needle-like features are packed with venomous stinging cells which give most jellyfishes their deadly reputation.