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Fishermen Net Giant Squid Off Tasmania

Posted by timothy on from the jellicle dept.

Jake Dodgie writes: "A giant squid Architeuthis like the one made famous by Peter Benchley, the famed author of Jaws, in his book Beast has been netted in waters off Tasmania this week. Get the story at Museum Victoria's Web site."

8 of 19 comments (clear)

  1. Can mollusks be cloned? by Throw+Away+Account · · Score: 2

    In short, is there any way someone could produce the first live specimen of a giant squid by sticking DNA from the next dead one found into "live" eggs of another squid variety?

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    1. Re:Can mollusks be cloned? by jd · · Score: 2
      We could sell the results to the Japanese restraunts and make a fortune.

      (Hey! That's how to "fund" Open Source! Let's start mass-cloning giant squid, and flood the sushi market!)

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      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    2. Re:Can mollusks be cloned? by InShadows · · Score: 2

      Interesting you should bring up cloning. I have a BS in Marine Biology and a BS in Information Systems (go figure). My focus of studies in Marine Bio was cephalopods (squids, octopuses, cuttlefish, and nautiluses). If I was going to continue with my education in Marine Bio I was going to try and get funding to clone the giant squid to actually see one alive. But since we know so little about it and its genetic makeup since the governments think mammals are far superior to clone than invertebrates we would not be able to find a suitable egg to inject the dna necessary. Scientists have attached underwater cameras to sperm whales, which has been known to dine on giant squids, to catch a glimpse of giant squids but to no avail. We need governments to realize the potential of the deep sea and give proper funding. I have corresponded with some marine biologists in Spain concerning deep sea cirrate octopods and they told me they receive funding to go in a submersible to photograph these creatures once every ten years. In other words, don't hold your breath to see video or photos of a live giant squid in your lifetime.

      IS

  2. We're just wrong... by boarder · · Score: 2

    For years and years we've been finding all these "dead" giant squid, but we've never found a "live" one. When are scientists going to face up to the fact that maybe they aren't as smart as they think they are? These giant squid aren't dead. They are alive and living perfectly happily (until we cut them up and put them into jars, and even then who knows?); they are just faking death hoping we'll let them go. "Science" just doesn't have the knowledge to know that just because it isn't alive by current standards doesn't mean that it isn't alive in some other way. What if they are hyperdimensional beings? What if their body is contained in three dimensions, but their "life" and "spirit" are contained elsewhere? What if they are a hive society and they have no brain when seperated from the queen? All these holier than thou scientists really piss me off. If we are so smart that we can boats under the water and on top of the water AT THE SAME TIME, why can't we find a couple animals that are 300 feet long?

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  3. Re:Sushi! by jd · · Score: 2

    I doubt most restraunt goers would notice the difference. Besides, it'd probably kill all those spiral bacterial in the stomach that cause ulcers.

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    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  4. Re:well, maybe so, but... by OmegaDan · · Score: 2
    A 10-dimensional universe is a therom of tensor calculus, and theres not much more "proof" to it then that a few gravity calculations work out well in it.

    Somebody: if I'm wrong please correct me :)

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  5. Maybe, but not this one... by Guppy · · Score: 2

    "In short, is there any way someone could produce the first live specimen of a giant squid by sticking DNA from the next dead one found into "live" eggs of another squid variety?"

    Generally, the more "primitive" an animal, the easier it is to clone, so it could very well be possible.

    Unfortunately, to produce a living giant squid clone, we need a living giant squid to provide the donor nucleus for the cloning process. In the (non-crackpot) cases where a dead animal has been cloned, it was done with tissue samples removed either before or just immediately after death. So, a dead squid would work only if it was so fresh that not all of it's tissues had technically died yet.

  6. for what it's worth by Lord+Omlette · · Score: 2

    some guy (it was in an issue of Discovery magazine, I forget which one) has worked out a Unified theory of stuff that works just fine if you eliminate time from all equations. so what we're 'experiencing' is just an infinite number of universes strung together to make it appear as if we're moving from one state to another.

    with that in mind, hyperdimensional calimari that are fake 3-dimensional death to escape not-as-smart-as-we-think-we-are scientists doesn't sound that implausible, ne?
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