Capture of the giant squid

These are generally fairly deep dwellers are they not? I imagine the change in pressure and oxygen levels would have an effect if that was the case, although it may well have been exhausted from the original battle...

I'm waiting for the video of some guys taunting a squid, like in that video, and getting hauled into the water by it. Who'd be laughing then, monkey boy! Muhahah! They'll mount your sucker-marked head at the Architeuthis museum!

Sorry, lost control of my cephalopodic tyranny.

For some reason, I've always imagined them to be bigger.

Poor guy! It's awesome to have more video of a live giant squid... but unfortunate that he didn't stay live for very long afterward. =(

Stanton:

As I recall from an English write-up regarding that video, the squid depicted is immature and not fully grown.

What on Earth could possess these people to try and capture the poor creature? We already have preserved dead specimens to study, we don't need another corpse(!). Frankly I'm surprised that there isn't more outrage at the lack of effort to study the creature vivo by this team. I find the whole exercise to be a bit unjustified scientifically.

Many of the specimens we have are either corpses washed up on the beach at various stages of decomposition, or have been extracted from whale stomachs. I think there is a need for a few intact specimens.

However I have a feeling that the Japanese might go in for scientific squid hunting in the same way as they go in for "scientific" whaling. I think the next stage in the project should be radio tagging (if that's practical).

Man, can you spell C-A-L-A-M-A-R-E. Nicely breaded, just lightly sauteed, a little hot sauce on the side...
And knowing the Japanese that "scientific" specimen had to have ended up on someone's dinner plate.

Where's a kraken when you need one?

Where's a kraken when you need one?
Posted by: Peter McGrath | December 31, 2006 01:36 PM

Well said, Mr. McGrath!

Poor thing. I also thought it was destined for sushi.

I highly doubt Architeuthis would make good eating, what with its high ammonia content.

This one was a juvenile female, so yes - it's safe to imagine them being bigger. This one wasn't much bigger than a humbolt (aka 'jumbo') squid.