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There are many flavours of [[Sea Monster]] (well, yes, [[A Worldwide Punomenon|most taste a lot like squid]], unsurprisingly). These subtropes include:
 
* [[Giant Enemy Crab]] <br />[[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Really big crabs]]. Well, other crustaceans, too. They all taste like a lot like crab, though.
* [[Giant Squid]] <br />[[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Really big squid]]. [[Older Than Feudalism]], they have the benefit of actually existing. Makes great calamari.
* [[Kraken and Leviathan]] <br />The epically scaled, humongous world-ending dwellers of the deepest trenches, often with lots of references to [[Cosmic Horror|Lovecraftian]] or Biblical beasts. Tastes like whale meat.
* [[Megalodon]] <br />This prehistoric beast is great for those who like to buy their Shark Fin soup in economy scale.
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Please place examples belonging to those subtropes only in the specific page, not here.
 
See also [[Fish People]], [[Our Mermaids Are Different]], [[Space Whale]], [[Giant Flyer]], [[Everything Is Even Worse With Sharks]] and [[Everything's Squishier Withwith Cephalopods]].
 
{{examples}}
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== Film ==
* ''The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms''.
* ''[[Jaws (Filmfilm)|Jaws]]'' and its host of [[Follow the Leader|imitators]].
* The bluntly titled ''[[Godzilla|Godzilla versus the Sea Monster]]''.
** Heck, Godzilla himself certainly applies. In the first film, he's even shown sleeping underwater.
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== Literature ==
* The Avanc (from the afanc of Welsh mythology) from [[China Mieville]]'s ''[[The Scar (Literature)|The Scar]]''.
* ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'' also has the whole "beast from sea" speculation affair.
* The Watcher in the Water from ''[[Lord of the Rings]]''.
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* The sentient sea serpents in [[Robin Hobb]]'s ''Liveship Traders'' trilogy.
* In the massive live-action RPG [[Show Within a Show|tournament]] from ''The California Voodoo Game'', the aliens responsible for all the weird events were stranded on Earth because they'd grown into adulthood since their ship crashed. Their mature forms were those of massive flatfishes more than 50' long, so they could no longer fit into their spaceship. Too bad the players never made it back up to the roof, to sneak a peek at the swimming pool....
* ''[[Sense and Sensibility Andand Sea Monsters]]'' lives on this trope.
* Taylor Anderson's ''Destroyermen'' takes this trope to an insane level. In this alternate world, the great white shark is a small predator with loch ness style creatures being average size and everything being dwarfed by the monster fish, a sea creature so ridiculously enormous that it could swallow an aircraft carrier in one bite.
* [[Percy Jackson and The Olympians|Percy Jackson]] encounters the legendary Charybdis and Scylla in ''The Sea of Monsters'', a random sea serpent in the short story ''Percy Jackson and the Stolen Chariot'' from ''The Demigods Files'', and sees a whole army of them attack Poisden's forces in ''The Last Olympian''.
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== Myth And Legend ==
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: Charybdis, from ''The Odyssey'', an unseen monster that swallows and spits out ''the entire ocean'' on a regular basis in the form of a giant whirlpool. Related is Scylla, who lives near the ocean rather than in it and has lots of heads <ref>Scylla used to be a sea nymph. She was courted by the god Glaucus, but spurned his advances. Glaucus went to the sorceress Circe for a love potion. Circe, falling for Glaucus, turned her "rival" Scylla into a monster in a fit of angry jealousy. Greek Myth: a soap opera, but hardcore.</ref>
* Another even older Older Than Dirt example: Tiamat, the primordial sea serpent from the Babylonian creation myth ''[[Enuma Elish (Literature)|Enuma Elish]]''.
* Many a woman [[Chained to Aa Rock]] was to appease a Sea Monster. From Greek legends, Hesione and Andromeda's monsters. Andromeda's was named "Cetus," or "Ceto," which of course means "whale" now.
** To add insult to Ceto's mortal injury, after Perseus slashed her throat, he delivered the deathblow by showing her the petrifying head of her own daughter, Medusa, transforming Ceto into a coral reef.
* The Con Rit, or Tarrasque, a sea serpent claimed to be found in the South China Sea. Some theories say that the possible sea serpent is inspiration to both the Oriental Dragon, and the South African Snake God. <ref>In French mythology the Tarrasque was originally a tortoise-shelled, eight legged land bound dragon that menaced the French region of Tarrascon (thus the name) until defeated by a female saint. The French drew on this legend for their name for the beast of Halong Bay while Vietnam was still part of French Indochine.</ref>
* [[The Kalevala]] has a giant pike and Iku-Turso, a malevolent sea monster.
* [[Norse Mythology]] has the Kraken of course. And then there's Jormungandr, the Midgard (World) Serpent, the sea monster to end all sea monsters. An immense sea snake, he wraps all the way around Midgard, holding his tail in his own jaws. He has a major rivalry with Thor, and plays a key role in [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|Ragnarok]].
 
 
== Tabletop Games ==
* [[Magic: theThe Gathering]] has tons of Sea Monsters. Leviathans, Krakens, Sea Serpents etc... Notably enough, they're often both blue and absurdly huge, despite blue colour being anything but based on brute force.
* ''[[Rifts]]'' has boatloads of sea, lake, and even river monsters.
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''
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== Video Games ==
* The Water Dragon from ''[[Okami]]'', {{spoiler|which turns out to be the king of the Dragonians}}.
* The Sapphire Drake [[Bonus Boss]] of ''[[Wild Arms 4 (Video Game)|Wild Arms 4]]'', which the player first sees preying on ''another'' sea monster.
* ''[[Pokémon]]''
** Kyogre fills the 'primal sea monster' niche, while lesser creatures such as Gyarados are based on sea serpents.
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** Gold/Silver/Crystal features a Red Gyarados (most are blue) rampaging in a lake. In the game a Red Gyarardos evolves from a Golden Magikarp
* The Sega arcade shooter ''The Ocean Hunter'' has its share of giant sea creatures, the biggest of which serve as boss and mini-boss fights.
* ''[[La -Mulana]]'' is maybe the only video game to use the Babylonian interpretation of Tiamat (fierce ocean goddess) rather than the [[Dungeons and Dragons]] interpretation (five-headed dragon queen).
* ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'' - The Demoman considers the Loch Ness Monster to be his mortal enemy, and he accidentally [[Self-Made Orphan|killed his adoptive parents]] in an attempt to [[Mad Bomber|blow it up]].
* Del Lago from ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' resembles some kinda giant newt.
* ''[[Banjo -Kazooie|Banjo-Tooie]]'' - The boss of the [[Under the Sea|obligatory underwater level]] is Lord Woo Fak Fak, a gigantic lanternfish who literally lives in Davey Jones' Locker. He can [[That One Boss|be a bit tricky]], but is much easier to fight if you use the Submarine transformation.<br /><br />Also in Jolly Roger's Lagoon is a giant fish that swallowed Merry Maggie the barmaid. Strangely, it doesn't try to attack you, even when you knock all the teeth out of its mouth in order to rescue her.
* There are some large aquatic creatures in ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. Notable examples include Ghaz'rankha, a giant hydra that's a boss in Zul'gurub raid instance (gaint hydras also appear as bosses in Zul'zarrak and the Underbog), and The Lurker Below, a boss in Serpentshrine Cavern raid whose ingame model is actually called "kraken". Some of the larger naga may count for this trope too, their queen Azhara most certainly does.<br /><br />Hydra in World of Warcraft are lizards with three heads. They have two legs and a heavy tail, so they basically move on a tripod as well. Normal ones are about the size of a wooly mammoth or so, but bosses are a little bigger. The Lurker Below is big enough to be a genuine kraken, and three other things in the game share its same ingame model: two similar wild animals related to specific quests and a sea goddess.
* ''[[Super Mario]]''
** ''[[Super Mario 64 (Video Game)|Super Mario 64]]'' introduced Unagi the giant eel <ref>who has since made appearances in ''New Super Mario Brothers'' and ''Mario Kart Wii.''</ref> and the Sea Dragon -- who actually lived in an underground lake. The Sea Monster's name is "Dorrie", although in Japanese it's name is "Doshi", which is a parody of the Loch Ness Monster and Yoshi since the nickname "Nessie" in Japanese is "Neshi".
** ''[[Super Mario Sunshine (Video Game)|Super Mario Sunshine]]'' had a boss named Eely-Mouth, who was more goofy-looking.
* Niptra of ''[[Arcana Heart (Video Game)|Arcana Heart]]'', an ancient fish that became the largest and wisest fish in the seas through cycles of [[Reincarnation]] before [[Ascend to Aa Higher Plane of Existence|finally becoming the]] [[Making a Splash|Arcana of Water]].
* The Shiguras from ''[[Video Games/Dark Cloud|Dark Cloud 2]]'', extremely reminiscent of [[Pokémon]]'s Lapras. [[Mad Scientist|Dr. Jaming]] intends to use them as tools for his own nefarious purposes, and goes as far as to enslave one of them, Pau's friend, Shingala.
* ''Aquanaut's Holiday'' has several whales swimming in its oceans, but there's also an enormous prehistoric fish floating in the southwest corner of the map.
* ''[[Monster Rancher]]'' had the Zilla, a freaky whale/bear hybrid.
* Morpheel in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess]]''
* One of the later puzzles in ''Azada: Ancient Magic'' requires you to free the Baron (Munchausen) from a giant sea monster's mouth.
* ''[[Monster Hunter (Video Game)|Monster Hunter Tri]]'' features new mechanics which allow your character to swim and fight underwater. Obviously this has introduced a whole slew of new aquatic monsters including a lightning-spewing serpent/crocodile mix and a large, grotesque Angler Fish capable of perfect camoflage, blinding flashes of light and inflating into a spined ball.
* A boss in ''[[Metroid|Metroid Fusion]]'' is Serris, a sea serpent capable of [[Super Speed]].
* ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'' features two: the electric eel colossus that is [[Primal Fear|frankly terrifying]], and the wading lake monster, which is terrifying AND [[AI Roulette|frustrating]].
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* ''[[Tradewinds]]: Legends'' and ''Odyssey'' have several sea-monster battles, both bosses and random encounters.
** Also, in the ''Legends'' [[Captain's Log]]: "Fought kraken. Looking for good calamari recipe."
* Nintendo game ''[[Cobra Triangle]]'' featured several different sea monsters to include a [[Giant Enemy Crab]], a [[Giant Squid]], sea serpents and [[Everything's Even Worse Withwith Sharks|a giant shark]] {{spoiler|as the final boss}}.
* This is the entire point of the [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|World Monster Fishing]] mode of [http://www.facepunch.com/threads/1093537-PS1-Big-Ol-Bass-2-(AKA-EXTREME-FISHING-THE-GAME) Big Ol' Bass 2], an obscure but awesome fishing game. You can catch everything from [[Eagle Land|bass with the American flag colors]] to [[Mona Lisa Smile|a trout with the Mona Lisa on it]], from [[Everything's Even Worse Withwith Sharks|a shark]] [[Panthera Awesome|with a leopard design]] to {{spoiler|[[Up to Eleven|Dinosaurs]]}}.
* [[Oblivion]] has the [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Giant Slaughterfish]].
 
 
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' features a metrosexual sea river serpent whose hysterics over having his good looks ruined in a medium-term sort of way cause our heroes a problem in the [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap/S1 E2 Elements of Harmony|second episode]].
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''
** There is a reason that the Serpent's Pass in was called such, which the characters find out first hand when the giant sea serpent came out when they tried to cross.
** The giant lion-turtle with an island on its back.
** And the Unagi that lives near Kyoshi Island.
*** Which feeds on [[Call a Smeerp Aa Rabbit|elephant]] [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|koi.]]
** During the Season 1 finale, the ocean spirit [[One-Winged Angel|assumes the form of a]] huge, humanoid, [[Godzilla]]-esque monstrosity.
* Cecil the Sea-Sick Sea Serpent from ''[[Beany and Cecil (Animation)|Beany and Cecil]]''
** Bad guy Dishonest John had an undersea craft disguised as a giant cephalopod, known and feared far and wide as Billy the Squid.
* ''[[Catscratch]]'' features a Kraken, which Gordon must fight in order to wish for a longer tail.
* The pilot of ''[[The Drinky Crow Show (Animation)|The Drinky Crow Show]]'' involves whales, which is appropriate because it's set on a whaling ship. The whales are drawn in the style of those really old maps with "Here be dragons" written in the corners.
* ''[[Star Wars: theThe Clone Wars]]'' - [[The Scrappy|Jar-Jar]] summons a bigger fish.
* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants (Animation)|SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' - When bob yells that there are sea monsters on the beach to keep people out of the water, an erudite serpent reminds him that "we sea monsters have made great strides in the fields of science and literature."
* The giant Nautilus of ''[[Cybersix (Animation)|Cybersix]]''. She beats it by dropping a bridge on it, literally.
* ''[[Care Bears]]'' had a sea serpent named "Shaky" who needed work on his confidence.
* In other ''[[Star Wars: Clone Wars]]'' the Mon Calamari fought the separatist forces with knights riding on giant eels.
* ''[[Duck Tales (Animation)|Duck TalesDuckTales]]'': The sea monster that ate Scrooge [[McDuck]]'s ice cream is actually a submarine colored to resemble an orca.
* ''[[Yellow Submarine (Animation)|Yellow Submarine]]'' had an entire Sea of Monsters.
 
 
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* Whales, [[Captain Obvious|obviously]].
* And including extinct animals, we have [[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|plesiosaurs and similar creatures]] like the ichthyosaur and mosasaur, and [[Megalodon]], a prehistoric shark the size of a whale. Its modern counterpart may be the Whale Shark, which is thankfully nonaggressive and feeds on plankton.<br /><br />Indeed, so many different creatures like this existed in the past that one can argue that plesiosaurs can't have survived to the present, because ''the mosasaurs would've eaten them'', long before the K-T extinction took down subsequent forms of reptilian [[Sea Monster]].<br /><br />The modern equivalent of ''Carcharocles megalodon'' might be the Whale Shark from a size perspective, but in every other respect it's basically a Great White that is... bigger.
* Check out the miniseries ''Sea Monsters'' (from the creators of ''[[Walking Withwith Dinosaurs]]'') for some of the nastiest aquatic predators ever.
* [http://www.canada.com/Technology/Predator+fossil+makes+look+feeble+Scientists/1395499/story.html Predator X]. Its teeth are each a foot long.
* The Oarfish: an eel-like fish that can exceed fifty feet long. Harmless, but quite impressive.
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* Saltwater crocodiles can be even larger than Gustave. Large adult male saltwater crocodiles can be more than six meters long and weigh more than 2,600 lbs.
* [[wikipedia:Bloop|The Bloop]], or rather, whatever made the Bloop, an ultra-low frequency underwater sound that matched the profile of a living creature, but not any specific living creature we know. If it did come from a living creature, scientists agree that it would have to be several times larger than the Blue Whale, the largest known animal on earth.
** Interestingly enough, the signal originated from a point in the South Pacific roughly 950 nautical miles from [[Cthulhu Mythos|the sunken home of another large monster.]] Now, if the Bloop was made by... '''THAT''', then we [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|might be in for a surprise]] sometime in the future...
* ''Tullimonstrum'', a bizarre fossil invertebrate, bears a striking external resemblence to the Loch Ness Monster, except it's barely a foot long and found in North America.
* The Coelacanth. Now, fair enough -- as fish go, they're small and rather harmless. But the fact the coelocanth has been swimming around virtually unchanged for millions and millions of years, makes a lot of supposed sea-monster sightings just a little bit creepier.
** A person-sized carnivorous fish is not harmless.
* The whole point of fishing shows like ''[[River Monsters (TV)|River Monsters]]'', ''Hooked'', and ''Monster Fish''. Their catches range from the modest (Taimen), to the bizzare (catfishes of the Amazon), to the truly gargantuan in scale (marlins, giant catfishes, and the Mekong Giant Stingray).
* The basking shark, second-largest living fish, can grow up to thirty-plus feet. They also look rather monstrous, cruising through the water with their three-foot mouths. Fortunately for all mankind, [[Gentle Giant|they and whale sharks eat only plankton]]. They are also the source of a few sea monster myths, where the decomposing bodies of these sharks after having beached or caught as by-catch have been mistaken for plesiosaurs.
* Several deep-sea species of shark are also quite large. The megamouth shark grows to eighteen feet in length, and the Pacific sleeper shark can grow to fourteen, though ichthyologists theorize they may grow as long as twenty-three feet. Related to the Pacific sleeper is the Greenland shark. It lives [[Captain Obvious|in Greenland]] and closer to the surface, routinely grows to seventeen feet in length and has been found with ''parts of polar bears in their stomachs.''
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