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Giant Octopus Attacks Sub

Apostata writes "As reported by the CBC, 'Salmon researchers working on the Brooks Peninsula [British Columbia] were shocked last November when an octopus attacked their expensive and sensitive equipment.' Apparently it was caught on video, but no word on when/where it will be available. Apparently this is the first documented attack." Obviously the start of something bigger.

43 of 322 comments (clear)

  1. Are you sure? by bizitch · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wasnt this an episode of Sealab 2021?

    --
    ---- "Logoff! That cookie shit makes me nervous!" - A. Soprano
    1. Re:Are you sure? by dotgain · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Diddled by a giant squid on the first day?! Imagine how that'd feel in the morning!" -Cat, Red Dward S0506

    2. Re:Are you sure? by generic-man · · Score: 2, Funny

      The warm grip of the squid's mouth enveloped me like a mother's womb.

      I must have my cupcakes! My sweet cakey treasures! Piping hot from their 40-Watt womb!!

      --
      For more information, click here.
  2. Obligitory by Elitist_Phoenix · · Score: 2, Funny

    I for one welcome our giant submarine attacking overlords!

    --
    "I'm going to f***ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f***ing kill Google"
    1. Re:Obligitory by SilverspurG · · Score: 1, Funny

      I bet the guy's drawers looked like they'd been squirted with octopus ink when he returned to shore.

      --
      fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.
    2. Re:Obligitory by Muhammar · · Score: 4, Funny

      Don't make fun of the young Cthulhus, they tend to grow over time

      --
      I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
  3. Dr. Venkman once said... by Nuclear+Elephant · · Score: 5, Funny

    Obviously the start of something bigger.

    Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria.

    1. Re:Dr. Venkman once said... by Elitist_Phoenix · · Score: 3, Funny

      Would you say its time to start cracking open each others skulls and feasting on the goo inside?
      Yes, yes I would Kent.

      --
      "I'm going to f***ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f***ing kill Google"
  4. Don't blame the Octopus by dangitman · · Score: 5, Funny

    It was just looking for seamen to swallow.

    --
    ... and then they built the supercollider.
    1. Re:Don't blame the Octopus by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well...It's nice to see Anna Nicole Smith have something to do in her retirement, isn't it?

      --
      "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
  5. I -clearly- need to get out more. by MaXiMiUS · · Score: 4, Funny

    I LIVE on Vancouver Island, and Slashdot knew about something of this scale before me? MAN do I need to get out more.

    --
    It's never just a game when you're winning. - George Carlin
  6. 8 Giant Tentacles!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This thing is going to be huge in Japan.

    1. Re:8 Giant Tentacles!!!! by rawporkchop · · Score: 2, Funny

      Literally.

  7. Not so giant... by TuxMelvin · · Score: 5, Funny

    When I hear "Giant Octopus Attacks Sub" for some reason I imagine something a lot larger than 80lbs. Then I read the story and find out it's not really a GIANT Octopus, and he wasn't attacking a 688 Attack Sub.

    So it's not all it's cracked up to be. Huh. Why do I feel like I've done this before?

    1. Re:Not so giant... by Havenwar · · Score: 2, Funny

      Harry. I would call him Harry. Oh the fun times we would share.

  8. Best quote by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "I go full reverse and blast him with all these seabed particles," said Wood, describing the attack shown in the video. "Finally, he lets go and disappears off into the gloom.

    "It was desperation. It's a $200,000 machine, and it's not insured," said Wood, who runs SubOceanic Sciences Canada in Duncan, B.C.


    Even when you get your sub insured they neglect to mention you have to pay extra for underinsured gaint squid and octopus coverage.

  9. Ouch! by Nuclear+Elephant · · Score: 5, Funny

    an octopus attacked their expensive and sensitive equipment

    Ouch, that sounds painful. Anybody ever had an octopus stuck to their sensitive equipment?

    1. Re:Ouch! by ozmanjusri · · Score: 4, Funny

      Anybody ever had an octopus stuck to their sensitive equipment?

      I haven't tried it myself, but this young lady seems to be enjoying it.
      http://www.answers.com/topic/the-dream-of-the-fish erman-s-wife

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  10. Re:Video of attack by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · · Score: 5, Funny

    I, for one, welcome our new Cthulhunoid Overlords.

    --
    "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
  11. Proof the advertising is everywhere by FerretFrottage · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nice to see the Subway is now sending images of Jared and those mouth watering tasty subs into the deep blue. They now have one new customer. Hopefully the video will answer if our eight legged, ink blotting friend likes mayo or mustard, and whole wheat or plain.

    BSG commerical over---back to eating my sub....

    --
    "Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
  12. Re:Video of attack by smittyoneeach · · Score: 4, Funny

    Oh, you too will be devoured, sycophant.

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
  13. If I found a Sub way... by themysteryman73 · · Score: 2, Funny

    If I found a Sub way under the ocean I'd try to get something to eat, too...

  14. Outrageous by iamdrscience · · Score: 5, Funny

    This attack was terrible and completely unprovoked, I think we need to strike back at the octopuses with full force to show that we can't be pushed around! This giant octopus attacked a sub, so I say we build a giant sub to attack an octopus!!

    Those Octopussies won't know what hit 'em!!

  15. Defensive measures for future ROV missions by spamster · · Score: 5, Funny

    From here on out, all subs will be equipped with miniature Kirk Douglas's armed with spears to fend off these ferocious attacks!

  16. Re:Video of attack by GoofyBoy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Apparently the best defense against a giant octopus is to use a large aerosol can of pixilation.

    --
    The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
  17. Mike Wood? by ppanon · · Score: 3, Funny

    Are you sure his last name wasn't Nemo?

    --
    Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
  18. I didn't know by guruevi · · Score: 3, Funny

    that the flying spaghetti monster could swim. Apparently his noodly appendage doesn't like we filth his sea's with sub's.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  19. Fuck by erikharrison · · Score: 5, Funny

    Frankly, I'm surprised it's taken this long. In the last year we've seen the discovery of a super giant squid, the first videos of a giant squid in the wild, and now this!

    Look.

    Do you know how fucking big a sperm whale is? It's huge. HUGE. And giant squid eat them. Listen to your heart - no matter what the scientists tell you, 4th grade ecology has convinced us all that whales are intelligent loving animals. Did you see Star Trek 4. They're the freakin' saviours of humanity man.

    And giant squid eat them

    Eat them

    Not beacause it's easy. Oh no, not because a sperm whale is an easy catch. Big, remember? No. It's because squid are evil incarnate

    Do you know how long they've been down there? No one does. But my guess is the squid and it's precurser have been down there in the depths for a lot longer than man has been knucklewalking. That's old. And you know they think down there. Brood down there. Their tentacles floating like the limbs of children relaxing in the water, they brood and wonder how to conquer us from below.

    Things that think and brood also dream. And things that dream begin to worship the stuff of dreams. Out of man's insecurity we have sublimated a great father figure into the sky, according to Freud. What about the tentacled things in the watery darkness, whose females are larger than their males?

    I'll tell you what they worship

    A great multilimbed mother of the dark watery brood. Deep down in the very molten cracks of the earth filling the sea with inky blackness. THAT's what they worship. We killed men in the crusades. Men who looked the same as other men. What will the dark octupi and squid do to US who are mere flabby bloodsacks to rip apart and drink out fluids with their beaky maws? What in the name of their Dark Mother goddess will they do to us when they rise into our airy realm?

    Think about it dudes

    Us computer geeks are basically fucked

    1. Re:Fuck by pembo13 · · Score: 2, Funny

      BACK AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER Take a deep breath. Look around you. What time is it? If it's dark out, go get some sleep. If it's sun out, go take a walk. No seriously. You need help. WOOOOSAHHH

      --
      "Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
    2. Re:Fuck by Jerf · · Score: 3, Funny

      What in the name of their Dark Mother goddess will they do to us when they rise into our airy realm?... Us computer geeks are basically fucked

      If you'd like to learn more about this, perhaps to better defend yourself in the future, I believe the Japanese have a huge selection of documentaries on this very subject.

    3. Re:Fuck by meringuoid · · Score: 2, Funny
      Do you know how long they've been down there? No one does. But my guess is the squid and it's precurser have been down there in the depths for a lot longer than man has been knucklewalking.

      Worse than that. Squid swam in the nightmarish primaeval seas alongside the first ancestral vertebrates. These loathsome mollusks are so utterly alien and horribly ancient that even the natural fishes of the sea are more closely related to us than to them.

      They've been lurking in the inky blackness for aeons longer than human mind will dare compass, turning over in their twisted minds their hatred against the entire race of the vertebrae, which in an age long forgotten to all but the most thorough palaeontologists seized all the world for its dominion and left the squid-kind in the uttermost night.

      And you think it's only mankind they will destroy. No, it's everything we know as normal they hate. This dreadful loathing is more ancient than we can ever hope to conceive, and on the scale of the squid-creatures' appalling thoughts all the ages of human history and all mankind's mighty works are a mere scribble on the latest page of a very, very long history...

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  20. Who's he kidding by caller9 · · Score: 4, Funny

    " revved the ROV's thrusters in reverse in an attempt to blast seabed particles at the creature."

    Sounds like a well thought out revisionist history of "HOLY SHIT REVERSE MAN REVERSE!!!eleven!"

    To me at least after viewing the video, he did what anyone would in a FPS. Run backward dropping 'nades to escape short range melee weapons in the hopes that his ass would survive long enough to get a new strategy. Good thing they had a rocky seabed or we would've seen the death of an ROV.

    Too bad they didn't build this thing with a strafe-jump and gibber, he could've misdirected then lead the octopus into a lunge in which he pushed the gibber against its head by using it's off-balance timing and commitment to the lunge.

    New headline: ROV driven by newb almost gets pwned by octopus.

  21. A gadget freak... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "It may have been curious, looking for a meal or a girlfriend..."

    "Certainly male", lives underground in parent's basement or underwater in mud, prefers screwing with expensive gadgets instead of real girls, scares off people when seen in public, and sooner or later ends up working at MacDonalds or seefood business... Clearly just one of our marine slashdotters. Perhaps this means we can soon enjoy articles about hacking submarines to run linux?

    But remember shall you:
    "Such large, powerful animals deserve respect, Cosgrove said."

  22. Where is the ASPCA? by TCQuad · · Score: 3, Funny

    Off defending something cuter.

  23. Fools! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    This is what happens when you let the terrorists take courses in Marine Biology!

  24. Re:Video of attack by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    I, for one, welcome our new Cthulhunoid Overlords.

    I, for one, will overthrow any leader I cannot spell.

  25. Giant squid vs Creationism...... by joppabukowski · · Score: 4, Funny
    This reminded me of a funny article from an old comedy/magizine site called Penis Owners Club, which is no longer updated. I'll paste it here, since the site probably isn't very work safe. =)

    "The world was not created for man by God, oh no!

    For some years, some biologists have argued that there was a 7th day of creation, during which God thought about his prototypes and finally made the crowning glory of his creation here on Earth: the giant squid.

    The basic problem with the idea that we humans are the peak of his creation was pointed out by none other than Charles Darwin. The problem is explaining the evolution of the vertebrate eye. He gave this as a very serious problem, because this organ doesn't fossilize at all, and it is difficult to explain how all the intermediate forms could have been sufficiently functional for Natural Selection to have selected them.

    In recent years, Creationists have vociferously challenged the entire evolutionary paradigm, and some biologists have given serious thought to their criticisms, as well as Darwin's issue of the eye. Some have suggested the thought experiment: Suppose that the Creationists are right, and the world was built by some sort of Cosmic Engineer (which we may call "God" for short). What can we learn by studying the artefacts of the creation process?

    One thing that we learn when we study the vertebrate eye is that it has a rather strange structure. The blood vessels and the nerves pass through the surface in a bundle (the "blind spot"), and spread out on the inside of the retina. This is a very bizarre way to lay out the "wiring". Why would any sensible engineer do it this way, rather than the much more sensible way of running the wiring along the back surface?

    We might hypothesize that there is some obscure benefit to doing it this way, and we just aren't clever enough to figure it out. But this is shot down by a simple fact. The "camera" type of eye seems to have evolved (or been created, if you prefer) more than once. The cephalopods (a family of animals that include octopi, squid, and nautilus) have eyes that are superficially similar, but on close examination, we find that all the details are different. In particular, they have the "wiring" on the back of the retina, as you'd expect.

    So, if there is a Creator, He seems to have done the job twice, once poorly (with vertebrates), and once well (with the cephalopods). This is very suspicious. It is especially suspicious when you consider that, while we humans claim that the planet was built for us, it is roughly 3/4 salt water. If you measure the areas that we humans actually inhabit in any significant numbers, we are talking about maybe 5% of the globe, whereas the giant squid is at the top of the food chain over roughly 70%. When you consider the actual volume of the inhabited space, the giant squid has a home range many thousands of times greater than ours.

    So the evidence appears to be that humans were one of the experiments, good enough to let live but not good enough to be given a large range (or to rework things like the eyes so that they worked better).

    If this isn't convincing enough, consider also that humans have quite a good record of wiping out all the large predators, on both land and at sea. We have devastated the cetacea and are busy wiping out the large sharks, tunas, and other major marine predators. There is one exception: Humans show little interest in interacting with the giant squid. Sure, we catch the little ones and eat them, but as for the biggest species, we almost totally ignore it, although it is a major predator in all the oceans. And if you are like most humans, you are probably thinking that this is silly. Who cares about a bunch of big squid?

    This is very, very suspicious. We have a glaring blind spot here. Most large predators drive us crazy. We are terrified of wolves, bears, and sharks. Although very few humans have ever been injured b

  26. Re:Video of attack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Dear god, I love Slashdot, where the parent earned an "Insightful" mod. :D

  27. Works for Sony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    ..It's been working for Sony Playstation for years; with both PSX and PS2 using their crappy idea of graphics, thereby cooking up the ol' pixelfest for those that not know better..

  28. Re:Video of attack by Hurricane78 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ah. Thats's why you americans vote like this...
    "Bush" is obviously simpler to spell than "Kerrey". ;P

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  29. I'll try and bear that in mind. by kale77in · · Score: 4, Funny
    If you were underwater and had a choice between a shark or an octopus attacking you, go with the shark. You have a better chance of survival.

    Interesting point and all, but seriously dude... that is quite some hypothetical.

    OCTOPUS: GurgleRarrr! *attacks*
    ME: *oof* Ex-CUSE me, but I SPECIFICALLY requested the shark.
    OCTOPUS: *slinks away, professionally embarrassed*

  30. Re:Was this really an attack? by mithras+the+prophet · · Score: 4, Funny
    Check out the cephalopod's side of the story:

    Innocent giant pacific octopus residing off Vancouver Island in Cascadia suffer malicious attack by remotely operated human submarine.

    Octopus find nice metal box left on sea floor. Box contain valuable information revealing whereabouts of tasty salmon. Law of the ocean: Finders keepers (see: Hermit v. Fiddler, 1987).

    Human submarine stealing box. Octopus protecting property. Human submarine blast octopus with mechanical siphons, rip two arms off octopus, steal box. Octopus pale with distress. Octopus demand restitution.

    Human submarine operators record crime, post crime video to Internet, make false accusations, show no shame.

    All octopus protest human crime. Will bite transoceanic Internet cables unless salmon information box returned to rightful octopus owner. Octopus lose salmon information, humans lose celebrity gossip.

    --
    four nine eighteen twenty-7 thirty-nine forty-7 fiftyeight sixty-nine seventy-9 eighty-8 one-hundred-and-nine one-twenty
  31. Wow! by Kingrames · · Score: 2, Funny

    "...when an octopus attacked their ... sensitive equipment..."

    was there video? ...and remember:

    Don't tease the octopus, kids!

    --
    If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.