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

Titanic Struggle

[Quirk]

My step Dad, a naval officer (pilot), now retired, saw a whale surface with a giant squid engulfing it's head. The whale breached a couple of times with the giant squid unrelentingly attached, attacking and maybe feeding.

I've read that during WWII giant squid would attack red life boats filled with sailors from sunk ships. Apparently the red colour attracts them.

By all accounts they are extremely aggresive, suggesting they don't see themselves as prey and know no predators.

I think I'll keep my exposure to them second hand.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Wazukkithemaster]

From my immense pool of knowledgem gathered mostly from years of watching the discovery channel, i have learned that giant squid would not be able to survive at the surface of the ocean. their blood is EXTREMELY thin and thus easily influenced by their surrounding environment. Furthermore, their blood temperature must stay around 10 degrees Celcius and too much variation would cause death. Also, The water pressure that they are used to be subject to is much greater in the depths of the ocean (obviously) than at its surface. That said, its unlikely the stories of giant squid feeding on red lifeboats filled with sailors (and what-not) are unlikely, as for the whale... i'm not sure

Now that you mention sperm whales..

[Spy der Mann]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sperm_Whale

There was an episode on Discovery's Animal Face-off about a Giant Squid versus a Sperm Whale: The winner was the sperm whale, which stunned the squid with its sonic emitter, and then ate it whole. 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).

It was an exciting and interesting episode :)

Re:How long?

[Cadallin]

Actually, yes, for awhile. The primary problem is that we have too many moist mucous membranes that will loose fluid. A face mask, covering ones nose and mouth would let one stay alive in space, even without a suit. However, one's eardrums would burst and one's eyes would boil away and probably burst as well. Add pain to the mixture as you think appropriate.

Arguably, one could make a space suit that was simply a skin tight layer + helmet. The problem with that would be that it would have to be *perfectly* skin tight. I.e. Any gas between the suit and you, and you will be VERY uncomfortable, as the gas makes the suit expand like a balloon. Assuming that was worked out, it would have of number advantages over conventional space suits. The joints would be MUCH more flexible, and less complex, as they wouldn't require complicated pressure equalization systems to allow the joints to move.

Hey, I just thought out how to get around the skintight issue. Cover the human in vaseline, or some other viscous nonvolatile (which means the vaseline wouldn't work very long, depending how much was evaporating through the suit) fluid, to fill in all the empty spaces left by the suit!

So you get a system that is = person + skin tight body suit + nonvolatile fluid + bubble helmet + Air supply. I'm certain it would work, just not sure for how long. The limiting factor is how fast you lose volatiles, but it could easily be made to work as long as the longest spacewalks the US has ever attempted, and would be a hell of a lot lighter, simpler, and cheaper.

Re:How long?

[moonbender]

It doesn't sound like it's fun, though: "At NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center (now renamed Johnson Space Center) we had a test subject accidentally exposed to a near vacuum (less than 1 psi) in an incident involving a leaking space suit in a vacuum chamber back in '65. He remained conscious for about 14 seconds, which is about the time it takes for O2 deprived blood to go from the lungs to the brain. The suit probably did not reach a hard vacuum, and we began repressurizing the chamber within 15 seconds. The subject regained consciousness at around 15,000 feet equivalent altitude. The subject later reported that he could feel and hear the air leaking out, and his last conscious memory was of the water on his tongue beginning to boil."

Thanks for the link.