Omens and portents of Cephalopodmas

I don't know if this is it, giant squid caught on a line and lost part of a tentacle?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9503272/

Nah, that's the old one, from 2004. The same guy has announced just this week that he's got another of a smallish female on the surface.

The Eye in the Sea recently filmed a squid they describe as:

The very first time this lure was used it attracted a large squid that is so new to science it can not be placed in any known family

Is this the video? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/help/3681938.stm
The BBC don't stream in good quality though :(

CNN has some decent video up at their site. The link for it is in the middle of an article at:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/12/22/giant.squid.ap/index.html

cnn.com has a video at the following link.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/12/22/giant.squid.ap/index.html

(Sorry if this is the same as the one on the BBC--I couldn't load that one.)

CANNIBAL! A giant squid attacking a bait squid is pulled up by a research team off the Ogasawara Islands, south of Tokyo, on December 4.

As I recall, Moby Dick has some good lines about cannibalism. It may be time for a re-reading.

Here's one as well (german):

http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/0,1518,456216,00.html

I have to admit, I felt a real twinge of sadness when I read about this. Why did they feel the need to capture the thing? How different is this from capturing a whale? From what I've read of octopus and squid intelligence, I don't think it's all that different.

Let the giant squid live.

I enjoy calimari and tako just as much as the next guy, but still, to me, capturing a giant squid is just not the same thing. Okay, now we know where they live; we may have a chance for technology to help us find answers one day to let us observe them; that doesn't mean we have to turn into elephant hunters on the way.

Up to this point, I'd really admired Kubodera's work, too. This just seems so pointless.

I apologize if I'm coming off as a wet blanket here. Just had to get it off my chest.

It's probably the level of cannibalism equivalent of you eating a hamburger.

And this thing is tiny -- as far as giant squid go. It's only Humbolt sized. Weak!!

PZ--

Finally, he brings me some giant squid vid! This is amazing. My first inclination would have been to jump in the water with it. How dumb would that have been to try to swim with this creature? I'm very curious about their strength, because its not too apparent from the video. And are they really RED like that? Or is this just a "I'm mad at you" sort of thing?

Just curious-- although I've already seen the video at CNN now... but I wasn't able to watch it in Firefox-- it kept asking for Windows Media Player and yakking about being "optimized" for it, and all...

So I had to bite the bullet and upgrade, and STILL turn on my dreaded copy of Explorer (that I save for backwards-ass websites!) in order to see it.

Does anyone know what I have to set up (or what else I could have used) to see this video? I hate dealing with Windows Media anything, or Explorer. Feel free to contact me through the e-mail at my blog. Thanks! --DaveX

Somewhere in Japan, a large vat of tempura batter is being readied...

There is this one at ABC

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2746026

His Revenge is at hand. . Ho, ho, ho!!!!

Anybody who's EVER fished in a public waterway should know: if you catch a juvenile, you PUT IT BACK. Especially if it's a member of a endangered species, which these guys seem likely to be.

Where's a game warden when you need one?

Few quotes from the AP article...

...and says the elusive creatures may be more plentiful than previously believed, a researcher said Friday.

He also said that, judging by the number of whales that feed on them, there may be many more giant squid than previously thought.

I don't think they are in danger of extinction at all.

Heck, I prefer catching juvenile halibut. Much better eating. I am more likely to release the two hundred pound mature adult. It has grown past the capabilities of most predators, is in prime reproductive years, and is not nearly as tasty.

National Geographic has a photo, if not a video. I'd say this is a promising place for a video to appear.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061222-giant-squid.html

Why did they have to capture it? Why did they have to kill the poor thing? Im not a scientist but wouldn't you learn more from a Giant Squid if it was alive, and you didnt kill it?????? What kind of people are conducting this research? Im sure if they wanted to, they could have come up with a better way to gather information, video, pictures whatever with out killing it. They should be ashamed of themselves. How ignorant can they be?