Giant Squid Caught on Film

caffeined writes "I think almost every geek's heart must skip a beat when they hear about giant squids (think "Jules Verne"). It appears the two Japanese researchers have managed (for the first time) to get actual footage of a live giant squid in action. It was "only" 26 feet long (a little more than 8m) which is big enough for me." Update: Pictures and no registration required at National Geographic.

Comments

Pictures

[youknowmewell]

Pictures here.

Re:The Pictures

[m0nk3ym1nd]

Here's one at National Geographic

squid pic

[opaqueice]

Here's a photo:

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

Pictures

[Anonymous Coward]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/ph otogalleries/giant_squid/index.html

Giant Squid happy snaps

[Anonymous Coward]

Pictures here

http://www.smh.com.au/media/2005/09/28/11278045094 63.html

"only" 8m...thats big

[weighn]

from the wikipedia : recent estimates put the maximum size at 10 m

Re:"only" 8m...thats big

[Boccaccio]

From the National geographic article on the squid.... The longest giant squid on record measured 59 feet (18 meters), including its two elongated tentacles.

I have some shocking news for you Mr. Geek

[Anonymous Coward]

26 feet long (a little more than 8m)

26 feet = 7.9248 meters

PICTURES

[Tyrsenus]

Here they are!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/09 27_050927_giant_squid.html

Re:where's the vid

[Bananatree3]

I have been searching up and down google for a video, and I have yet to see even a reference to a site with it. According to this article, It is a 30 time-laps movie of 3 hours while the giant squid was tied up. If you find a link, please post.

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

Its already been done - though for a different species. http://www.thesciencesite.info/squidcam.shtml

will photos do?

[weighn]

National Geographic has some piccys
here...

Re:How long?

[mrchaotica]

Well, yeah, anything's possible, but is it practical to build one big enough for a giant squid? Don't forget that the pressure vessel would have to be much stronger than a spacecraft -- a spacecraft only has to contain a pressure differential of one atmosphere, whereas this would have to contain a differential tens or hundreds of times that.

Re:Too bad

[Otter]

The NYT article makes it sound like the squid got accidentally entangled, but if you look at the diagram on the National Geogrpahic site, the scientists deliberately snagged it. The baits were rigged with what seem to be scaled-up versions of squid jigs.

Re:I just hope..

[eLamer]

sealab 2021 reference? haha

Octopus attacking shark and other videos

[brit74]

Quite a few people have commented on octopus being predators. Here's a video of an octopus attacking a shark:

(Sorry, realplayer only.)
(Low Bandwidth)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/octopus/media_playe rs_blue/shark_lo.html
(High Bandwidth)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/octopus/media_playe rs_blue/shark_hi.html

WMV of an octopus blending in with its surroundings (which is pretty amazing to watch). http://www.big-boys.com/articles/octopus1.html

Re:mmmmm ... rubber (yuck!)

[jcorno]

It's not the texture you have to worry about. They taste like ammonia. Apparently it's necessary because they don't have a swim bladder. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_squid

Re:Fuck You Thomas Patterson!

[Mechcozmo]

This reminds me of snopes...

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/mrgorsky.htm

Status? False.

Re:Now that you mention sperm whales..

[khellendros1984]

....and apparently pretty inaccurate....since when are a squid's tentacles clawed??

Re:I cant wait for the video release

[einhverfr]

One should note that the above link is perfectly worksafe. And a mighty interesting read too....

Re:Titanic Struggle

[duffahtolla]

Rising slowly is to prevent bubbles from forming in the blood (for air breathers) or from the gas bag bursting (gas bladder fish). The Giant Squid does not breath air or have a gas bladder. It suffuses its tissue with ammonia to make itself buoyant, So I'm guessing that rising quickly wouldn't be a problem.

What kills them at the surface is the warmer temperature. Giant Squid blood sucks at carrying oxygen at higher temeratures. If they are too big, they will eventually suffercate in temperate water. The Surface area to volume ratio will only allow the much younger/smaller ones to live near the surface.

Note also that they said the chunk of tentacle that was ripped off the photographed squid was still gripping the boats deck and even fingers when it was prodded.

It could very well be that the Squid seen attached to the Sperm whale was still cold enough to fight (if brought up fast enough) and even as it began to die, it's tentacles would continue holding on for a while.

Re:I cant wait for the video release

[quigonn]

New? I wouldn't call this new.

Re:pressure

[imsabbel]

ok, lets take your example:

Submarines. You can build submarines capable of diving very deep. But those things are
a) made from steel (many times stronger than _any_ glass
b) self supporting (try cracking an egg by pressing on it from the outside, compare to pressure by chicken form inside)
c) go nowhere near "deep water" besides very small ones (which would be a unsuitable size for an aquarium).

Just imagine: a 1000m deep sea aquarium would have a pressure of 1000 metric tons per m^2 on every surface. Thats a stack of 15 fully supplied M1 tanks.
And it scales _baddly_. if you have a cube, and double the side length, you get square the surface, and thus square the force pushing on one side. But the line of material holding the the face in at the edge is only doubling, so you have to double glass thickness, too...

With those forces, you may build a pressure chamber (i.e. massivly externally supported structure with small volume) from glass (although i dont think it will work well), but an aquarium needs support (air/heating/cleaning), and any of those breaks would make the whole thing instable (remember, glass likes to crack).

Re:I cant wait for the video release

[Anonymous Coward]

wicked stuff ...

now this will make the sexual movie industry just blush /* from the article mentioned above */

The male's sexual organ is actually a bit like a high-pressure fire hose and is normally nearly as long as his body - excluding legs and head. /* end snippet */

So pr0nowood has a long to go with the genital enhancements.

So you can pretty easilly say that "he is a serious pr*ck!"

sneak/peak preview here (warning, explicit content!) : http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/ops/fm/shellfish/Imag es/couple_squid.jpg

Pics here

[hrstrand]

http://ekstrabladet.dk/VisArtikel.sasp?PageID=3134 71

they actually cut of a tentacle ( last pic )

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[StrawberryFrog]

. I have seen old Japanese art depicting Japanese women being mauled by octopus.

Yup. The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife done in 1820.

Re:How long?

[Inominate]

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answer s/970603.html
Exposure to vaccuum isn't the catastrophic event hollywood makes it out to be.

Re:How long?

[moonbender]

Humans' lungs would implode underwater, and explode in space.

That really depends on what's inside them. Divers survive because they fill their lungs with air at the same pressure as their surroundings. Thus the lungs don't collapse. Of course, if the air inside your lungs is at 1 bar while you're in the deep, bad things happen. But the far more common accident AFAIK is actually the converse: you resurface while your lungs still hold air pressurized for 5, 10, 20 metres. Your lungs get stretched (ie they "explode"), and you're in a world of pain.

The BBC article on the subject has photos...

[cbirkett]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4288772. stm

you wont get cold... silly, just hot.

[cheekyboy]

In cold space, there is barely any molocules to STEAL the heat from you.

So how are you going to get cold? you wont.

You actually will get HOTTER, because of the HEAT from the sun. You need to cool down, something to
take the heat (kinetic energy) away, and there isnt enough medium to do that. Thats why in cold antarctica you
get cold, because there is a LOT OF AIR that steals your heat. In space, what little atoms there are, - are not enough
to take the heat out. We have had this posting before, a human can survive in space because their skin is strong enough
to keep the inside preasure (just dont have cuts on you). Your eyeballs wont blow up though they
might dry up real real fast - so goggles will be usefull. Dont open your mouth either.

The bright side of you wont heat up that fast, it would be the same as you being on the beach or high altitude skiing. There is a maximum level of heat energy per second delivered, its not like your are at mercuries distance. As I said before , you will
get hot because you wont loose heat thats why you get HOT. Even if you rotate slowly to even out exposure. So ironically, space may be -270c, but you will get damn hot because of the suns photons, so you need to cool yourself somehow using liquid nitro or something. Sure if you stayed in the dark you would slowly cool down, but not over 5minutes.

I mean people dont blow up on mount everest do they, and thats pretty damn low PSI. Your inside PSI isnt that high either, not strong enough to burst you.

Re:where's the vid

[Anonymous Coward]

Video Link here...

http://news.tbs.co.jp/newseye/tbs_newseye3126582.h tml

Re:How long?

[DVega]

You've just described the "Space activity suit".

Architeuthis tentacles aren't "clawed" like others

[ianscot]

Of course, before this, the whale had to swim at a very high speed to get rid of the squid's clawed tentacles (this is why some sperm whales have scars on their heads, because you can't just take off a squid's tentacle, you have to rip it off - ouch).

Giant squid don't have clawed tentacles. "Colossal squid" do, but architeuthis does not, for whatever reasons.

There are some smaller species that have truly badass claws on there. Humboldt squid -- which we have on camera as they become curious about a diver, grab him, and easily pull him down below dive depth before deciding maybe the wetsuit isn't worth fooling with -- are around 6 feet long, big and muscular, and equipped with some very serious hardware nested in the middle of their suckers.

Humboldts are seriously aggressive hunters with those claws. The usual signs of cephalopod intelligence, though:

...From the depths of the sea, several five-foot squid are now hovering around Jacquie flashing colors in what we had learned was pre-attack behavior. I could see her readying herself for the impacts. Then, suddenly, they all retreated with blinding speed, leaving us with only one approaching squid. But this was no ordinary squid.

The largest Humboldt ever filmed was about six feet and weighed nearly 100 pounds. The Humboldt closing in on Jacquie was huge. Truly the giant of the shoal, he was nearly seven feet in length and about three feet across, and must have weighed 150 pounds. He seemed to move slower than the others, but then I realized his size merely made him look slower. He came in to about two feet of Jacquie's lure, then stopped cold. He studied the lure, and then I honestly think he saw the monofilament line because he deliberately raised up along it, right up to Jacquie's eye level. Then, he just hovered there, glaring into her faceplate. He did not flash color or attack, he just sat there for about four seconds and studied her.

I was horrified that this monster was going to attack and kill her. She was so much smaller than this creature that I feared she would have no chance of survival against an all-out attack. So I moved in quickly to help, knowing any second the situation could explode. Amazingly, the enormous squid just hovered there, intensely studying her with no aggressive actions. Then, slowly, without concern for my approach, it flapped its huge fins and glided back down to the black depths of the sea. Much to Jacquie's credit, she filmed the entire event.

http://www.pbs.org/oceanrealm/producers/showscen es3.html

http://diver.net/seahunt/fend/f_scottc.htm

Re:WOW.

[Anonymous Coward]

Likely to be this: "On The Edge: Sea Monsters: Search for the Giant Squid". Credits are here: National Geographic Channel website.

Re:How long?

[-brazil-]

so if he had an open mouth (or probably also access to the tongue through the nose ?) it might have actualle started boiling

No, because the blood is still protected by the skin and blood vessel tissue. What actually DID boil away in the incident mentioned was the saliva on the tongue. This loss of moisture would pose a problem in prolonged vacuum exposure without any protection, apart from the lack of oxygen.

Re:WOW.

[Nintendork]

Thanks to the link posted by someone else and some creative Google seaching, here's a link to purchase the video. It even mentions the scene with the camera mounted on the whale.