60' Squid Washes up on Tasmanian Beach

Astrobirdr writes "CNN has a story about a giant squid that recently washed up on a Tasmanian beach. Some think it might be a new species." 60 feet long is enough for a lot of calimari.

Comments

Sadly we can't catch a live one.

[infonography]

That's one of the holy grails of oceanography, to catch a live Architeuthis seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov

awe inspiring

[tps12]

It is incredible that in this day and age, with GPS in our cars and microwave ovens in our bedrooms, where children are more accustomed to AIM than to the telephone and "snail mail" is only used for paying those few bills that can't be paid online, in this brave new world we still know so little about what lurks beneath the indigo waves of the oceans that cover 80% of our planet.

We talk of finding life on other planets, which orbit around other stars. And we talk about environmental issues and geological events with such certainty, such God-given insight. Or is it indeed God-given? Have we not perhaps eaten instead of the Fruit of Knowledge? Did we doom ourselves long ago to the curse of insight? It is not for me to say, nor for any man. But we have no choice: we, as a species, are driven to seek information, knowledge, science.

And as we do so, we will continue to find wonders that make us catch or breaths. Even in this modern world, beasts crawl the frightening depths, luring the simple-minded translucent fish to their jaws. What else lies beneath those waves? What else hides in the dark rain forests of South America, or in the frozen tundra of Canada? It's an amazing world out there, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

It boggles my brains.