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

I cant wait for the video release

[Anonymous Coward]

This will user in a whole new era of porn
http://www.cdnn.info/news/eco/e050925.html

Skip a beat, eh?

[Dachannien]

I think almost every geek's heart must skip a beat when they hear about giant squids

Mmmmm.... Tentacle hentai....

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[Neo-Rio-101]

I can't believe some people get off on that stuff.

My girlfriend knows such a Japanese lady who draws tentacle hentai and gets off on it. She's cute, but has many imaginary boyfriends apparently. We always joke that she has a octopus for a boyfriend. She thinks that men and women holding hands and kissing is disgusting though (?!) - which as you can imagine, tends to turn most guys off her, probably causing her to fantasize about poor octopi.

On a seperate note, I think Freud would have had a field day over in Japan.

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[JanneM]

Also, Japan is just a veritable breeding ground for fetishes in general.

Actually, living here I suspect that it's not that various fetishes are more common here than elsewhere. It's rather that it's much less of a social stigma, and so people are more open about it - which of course increases the available audience for material catering to it, which in turn greatly increases the visibility.

Also, the concept of "fetish" is a rather slippery one (entendre intended). In psychological litterature, having a strong preference for red hair counts as a fetish, but not a similarily strong preference for blonde or black hair. Nothing is a fetish in itself; it's very dependent on the social context. Having a strong preference for tall, blonde women would make you a fetishist in Japan; in Sweden you'd just be seen as boring. If everybody would like tentacle sex, it would cease to be a fetish at all.

mmmmm ... calamari

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

served with a little butter, garlic and wedge of lemon

Re:mmmmm ... calamari

[AcidDan]

Must... Not... Give... In...
Bah! Sod It:

In depths of ocean, calamari eats you!

-- Dan =)

Pictures

[youknowmewell]

Pictures here.

Re:Pictures

[dummyname12]

More pictures here.

Heart Skip

[mrclark13]

I think gaint squid are interesting. That being said, I think maybe the submitter needs to get out more and enjoy some human companionship if his heart skips a beat at the thought of squid. Either that or his ex-girlfriends must have been really monstrous.

Re:The Pictures

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

Here you go giant squid

Re:The Pictures

[m0nk3ym1nd]

Here's one at National Geographic

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

Fuck You Thomas Patterson!

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn right. I remember that day back in 6th grade where we got into a huge fight over the existance of the giant squid.

I had said that carcasses were found, and after making fun of me for using the word "carcass," you proceeded to articulate further on my sexuality (which, btw, you couldnt have been more wrong about.)

Tom, you then declared, through some haphazard strange conglomeration of swears and 6th grade dialogue, that you would drink your own pee if it were real.

Im going to find your number, and ask if you are going to do it. Just to fuck with you.

(name changed)

I have some shocking news for you Mr. Geek

[Anonymous Coward]

26 feet long (a little more than 8m)

26 feet = 7.9248 meters

Re:I have some shocking news for you Mr. Geek

[mallocme]

you're forgetting the latest exchange rate. The foot has really been taking a hit lately.

will photos do?

[weighn]

National Geographic has some piccys
here...

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

IT'S A TRAP!

[SoundGuyNoise]

That's what Calimari say when they get caught like that.

Well if it becomes a threat

[Solr_Flare]

We can just send in a squad of Toxic Dart Dolphins.

What do they look like? Duh...

[NewsWatcher]

"Nobody knew what they looked like in the wild."

Well, at a guess, just like a normal squid, only bigger.

Thank god the hunt is over. That was obviously worth the effort.

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

Without lungs to collapse is the pressure really an issue?

You mean like how humans would do just fine in outer space wearing nothing but a face mask?

No. Pressure is always an issue.

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 :)

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:pressure

[cornface]

so at the very least, they could put a giant squid inside a submarine.

He could wear a little captain's hat and pretend to steer.

Best laugh I've had all day!

[Wabbit Wabbit]

I'd mod you up if I could. And you owe me a coke and a keyboard.

Re:How long?

[martyr69]

Our top priority should be hunting them down and defeating them. They're much too large to not be a danger to us: we might be looking at the new WHALES here people.

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?

[ScarKnee]

"So you get a system that is = person + skin tight body suit + nonvolatile fluid + bubble helmet + Air supply "

I guess if you got a couple of Slashdotters to try it out in space you'd have two less lonely people in the world.

I dunno, it's entirely possible that Air Supply already has quite a bit of experience with vasoline, skin-tight body suits, etc... maybe they could go up and try it out.

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

What if you fart?

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.

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.