Giant Squid Finally Captured on Film

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Giant Squid Finally Captured on Film

Posted: 9/28/2005 8:25:28 AM EDT

So cool!

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170632,00.html

Giant Squid Finally Captured on Film

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Associated Press

TOKYO — When a nearly 20-foot long tentacle was hauled aboard his research ship, Tsunemi Kubodera knew he had something big. Then it began sucking on his hands. But what came next excited him most — hundreds of photos of a purplish-red sea monster doing battle 3,000 feet deep.

It was a rare giant squid (search), a creature that until then had eluded observation in the wild.

Kubodera's team captured photos of the 26-foot-long beast attacking its bait, then struggling for more than four hours to get free. The squid pulled so hard on the line baited with shrimp that it severed one of its own tentacles.

"It was quite an experience to feel the still-functioning tentacle on my hand," Kubodera, a researcher with Japan's National Science Museum, told The Associated Press. "But the photos were even better."

For centuries giant squids, formally called Architeuthis (search), have been the stuff of legends, appearing in the myths of ancient Greece or attacking a submarine in Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." But they had never been seen in their natural habitat, only caught in fishing nets or washed ashore dead or dying.

The Japanese team, capping a three-year effort, filmed the creature in September of last year, finding what one researcher called "the holy grail" of deep-sea animals.

The results were not announced until this week, when they were published in Wednesday's issue of the British journal, the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Kyoichi Mori, of the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association (search), co-authored the study.

Giant squid are the world's largest invertebrates, having been known to exceed 50 feet. Kubodera said the one he caught on camera was probably an adult female. He said the squid's tentacle would not grow back, but its life was not in danger.

The photos earned the team cheers from researchers around the world, largely because of the difficulty of finding the mysterious giant.

"That's getting footage of a real sea monster," said Randy Kochevar, a deep-sea biologist with the Monterey Bay Aquarium (search) in California. "Nobody has been able to observe a large giant squid where it lives. There are people who said it would never be done. It's really an incredible accomplishment."

The photos — taken with strobe lights at 30-second intervals — also shed some new light on the animal's behavior.

"We think it is a much more active predator than was previously thought," Kubodera said Wednesday. "It had previously been seen as more lethargic, and not as strong."

In the pictures, the squid's tentacles can be seen stretching out toward the bait, grasping it and pulling away in a ball. It is then seen struggling to get itself free of the jig attached to the line under the remote-controlled camera. The struggle took place at a depth of between 2,000-3,000 feet.

Kudodera said catching the squid on film was the result of 10 years of sleuthing.

He added that he had some help — from a population of sperm whales (search).

"We knew that they fed on the squid, and we knew when and how deep they dived," he said. "So we used them to lead us to the squid."

Kudodera and his team found the squid about 10 miles off the remote island of Chichijima (search), which is about 600 miles southeast of Tokyo. They had been conducting expeditions in the area for about three years before they actually succeeded in making their first contact at 9:15 a.m. on Sept. 20 last year.

"We were very lucky," he said. "A lot of research went into it, but still, others have tried and not succeeded."

New Zealand's leading authority on the giant squid, marine biologist Steve O'Shea, praised the Japanese team's feat.

"Through sheer ... determination the guy has gone on and done it," said O'Shea, chief marine scientist at the Auckland University of Technology (search), who is not linked to the Japanese research.

O'Shea said he hopes to capture juvenile giant squid and grow them in captivity. He captured 17 of them five years ago but they died

Posted: 9/28/2005 8:28:05 AM EDT

[#1]

thats awsome

Posted: 9/28/2005 8:30:53 AM EDT

[#2]

Squidzilla!

Posted: 9/28/2005 8:32:02 AM EDT

[#3]

Whoa. Creepy. I think I'd pee my pants if I saw that thing.

Posted: 9/28/2005 8:32:57 AM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:
Whoa. Creepy. I think I'd pee my pants if I saw that thing.

Or you might even ink yourself...

Posted: 9/28/2005 8:32:58 AM EDT

[#5]

3rd dupe... i was the 2nd =p

Posted: 9/28/2005 8:36:30 AM EDT

[#6]

CALAMARI TIME!!!

Posted: 9/28/2005 8:39:53 AM EDT

[#7]

When we put bait in the water it is usually on a hook!

BigDozer66

Posted: 9/28/2005 9:40:03 AM EDT

[#8]

what's the total length on that sumbitch?

Posted: 9/28/2005 9:45:21 AM EDT

[#9]

Kubodera's team captured photos of the 26-foot-long beast attacking its bait

Thats a big squid.....

Posted: 9/28/2005 9:50:07 AM EDT

[#10]

My ass never goes in the ocean.

Posted: 9/28/2005 9:52:51 AM EDT

[#11]

My undershorts would be soiled beyond those of someone who had walked in on Rosie Odonnell naked.

- BG

Posted: 9/28/2005 10:00:38 AM EDT

[#12]

I saw the photos, that's bad ass! Those things are serious fish. Saw a show recently about 6 foot long squids off of Mexico that attack people. Real agressive.

Wouldn't want one of the big ones anywhere near me.

Posted: 9/28/2005 11:56:37 AM EDT

[#13]

They've caught juveniles alive before but never adults.

Neat.

Posted: 9/28/2005 11:59:55 AM EDT

[#14]

It even shoots a death ray???

Posted: 9/28/2005 12:01:50 PM EDT

[#15]

FrankSquid is the expert on these things ... what say you Frank?

Posted: 9/28/2005 12:02:17 PM EDT

[#16]

That's a lot of calamari!

Posted: 9/28/2005 12:03:20 PM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
It even shoots a death ray???

It has to in order to protect itself from sharks with those frikken laser beams

Posted: 9/28/2005 12:04:10 PM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
FrankSquid is the expert on these things ... what say you Frank?

Methinks when he heard "26 foot squid" he ran and hid.

Posted: 9/28/2005 12:06:01 PM EDT

[#19]

www.jobrelatedstuff.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=394216

Posted: 9/28/2005 12:08:56 PM EDT

[#20]

Humans are definitely on the lower end of the food chain here.

Posted: 9/28/2005 12:09:07 PM EDT

[#21]

That is cool as shit.

Posted: 9/28/2005 12:10:42 PM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:
That is cool as shit.

I'll second that

Posted: 9/28/2005 12:17:30 PM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
Humans are definitely on the lower end of the food chain here.

ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2005/01/10/196341/squid1.jpg

Please tell your beady-eyed friend to quit lookin' at me.

Posted: 9/28/2005 12:23:26 PM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Humans are definitely on the lower end of the food chain here.

ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2005/01/10/196341/squid1.jpg

Please tell your beady-eyed friend to quit lookin' at me.

Mmmmmm.... beekeeper-mari....

Posted: 9/28/2005 12:23:46 PM EDT

[#25]

I wonder what caliber you'd want to use against that. Something in the Nitro family?

Posted: 9/28/2005 12:28:13 PM EDT

[#26]

Isn't 26feet supposedly a Juvenile? I thought these things were supposed to grow to 60feet with tentacles.

Order: Teuthoida (also known as Teuthoida, Tenthoidea)

Family: Architeuthidae

Genus & Species: Architeuthis dux

APPEARANCE

Architeuthis dux is a large, carnivorous squid with a torpedo-shaped body. They are most definitely the largest invertebrates in the world, with the males reaching up to 25 ft (7.5 m) in length. The females are larger, the longest recorded specimen being 59 ft (17.7 m) in length. It is possible that they can become longer as they are only known by about 200 corpses that have been stranded on beaches, caught in nets, or found in the bellies of sperm whales. During WW2 a crewman on board a British Admiralty trawler claimed to have seen a giant squid 175 ft (52.5 m) in length, the length of the boat. Whether he is telling the truth or not is much debated. The heaviest giant squid ever found weighed 1,980 lbs (880 kg).

Giant squid have the largest eyes in the animal kingdom, reaching up to 10 in (25 cm) in diameter, or roughly the size of a dinner plate. They have eight arms as thick as a fire hose and studded with two rows of suckers. The two feeding tentacles are thinner and longer and end in a leaf-shaped pad containing four rows of suckers, each sucker being further equipped with pointed hooks. The skin is maroon in colour.

The mantle, or main body, can reach 9 ft (2.7 m) in length and contains most of the organs. The brain is very large and complex. Giant squid are equipped with a very developed nervous system. The fins are located on either side of the mantle and are very small, used only for balance and maneuverability. The mouth resembles a parrot's beak. The funnel is small and is used to jet propel the squid through the water, as well as aiding in respiration (waster is drawn through siphon and passed through gills), and in squirting an inky-substance known as sepia.

HABITAT

Giant squid are thought to live 1000-2000 ft below the water's surface in most of the world's oceans. One of the known homes of the giant squid is the Kaikoara Canyon of New Zealand, although no live specimens have been captured there. Giant squid have been found stranded all over the globe, with at least 25 found in Great Britain and 3 in America. They seem to prefer cold water and will actually suffocate in warm water.

FOOD

The giant squid feeds on fish, crustaceans, smaller squid, and perhaps baby sperm whales. To eat, it shoots out its two longer tentacles like a bungee cord and grasps the prey with its two "clubs". The tentacles close over the prey and bring it back to the mouth, where a parrot-like beak chops the meat into small chunks. The tongue then flicks the meat down to the throat and into the stomach, going through the brain on the way down. Too large a chunk of meat and the brain is destroyed.

BREEDING

The male giant squid is thought to have very large genitalia that inject spermatophores into the skin of the female's tentacle. The spermatophores then stay in the skin until the female is mature enough to reproduce. The female then lays eggs and the hatchlings are thought to be exact replicas of the adults

ENEMIES

The only known enemy of the giant squid is the sperm whale, which has been captured with the remains of giant squid in its stomach. Battle scars found on both live and dead sperm whales are thought to be caused by the suckers from a giant squid.

Giant squid have been caught and killed in drift nets by fishermen. Although they are so large, they are not sought after by the fishing industry for commercial uses due to the high concentrations of ammonia in their body. They are considered to be nuisances because they consume large amounts of fish. Also, their large nerve axons make them a target of neurological scientists.

RELATIVES

Architeuthis dux is the only known species of giant squid. Due to some slight differences between the bodies of different giant squid specimens, there were thought to be at least six different species, with one being called Architeuthis harveyi. However, it is thought that these differences are intra-specific, and while there may be found to be different subspecies, Architeuthis dux is thought to be the only species.

Posted: 9/28/2005 4:57:54 PM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:
I wonder what caliber you'd want to use against that. Something in the Nitro family?

Yes.....NITROGLYCERINE......in one gallon bottles, please!

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Giant Squid Finally Captured on Film

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