Giant Squid Found Live!
Wow - they finally photographed a giant squid live in the wild!
For centuries giant squids, formally called Architeuthis, 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. (Seattle Times-Intelligencer)
Man - ever since last year's New Yorker article on the Squid Hunter (an excellent read - highly recommended if you want more background about the quest for the giant squid), I've been quite intrigued by the fact that the world's largest inverterbrate was almost mythical, since only dead ones had been found. It was almost like trying to find Nessie.
So I guess Steve O'Shea's quest to be the first man to see the live giant squid (as described in that New Yorker article) is kind of over - although he still has the chance I suppose to be the first to capture the giant squid live:
a squid is highly sensitive to its environment. Accustomed to living in a borderless realm, a squid reacts poorly when placed in a tank, and will often plunge, kamikaze-style, into the walls, or cannibalize other squid.O'Shea is also quoted in the Times-Intelligencer article (naturally - of course one would call in the expert on the subject), and he was very gracious to the Japanese team:
(The New Yorker)
Through sheer ... determination the guy has gone on and done it," said O'Shea, chief marine scientist at the Auckland University of Technology, who is not linked to the Japanese research.So another mystery of the deep seas resolved. Always interesting when large animals are discovered.
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