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Oil Exploration Leads To Video of a Mysterious Elbowed Squid
eldavojohn writes "A rare glimpse from Shell Oil of a giant squid brings to light the strange relationships some deep sea marine biologists have with drilling companies. The video of the squid (Magnapinna) is very rare as this creature remains largely a mystery to science. While some are concerned of a conflict of interest, biologists and big oil sure make for strange bedfellows. The video is from 200 miles off the coast of Houston, TX and about 4,000 feet down." Looking at this creature gives me the willies, frankly.
I missed any mention of the approximate size of the squid. Does anyone have an idea about how large this creature might have been?
Um, I dunno if you noticed, but... squid float, and swim in the water. Unless they stay suidicially still while one of the drilling beams is slowly lowered onto them, there's nothing to worry about.
While I am as cynical as the next slashdotter about corporations, Shell have donated submersible time for researchers to gather their own information at this (and other) sites. Without that generous donation the researchers concerned would have squat.
This video was just something the oilmen spotted and thought was interesting enough to film.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
So you believe that atmospheric pollution, oil spills and groundwater contamination are myths and hysteria? Perhaps incidents like the Bhopal disaster and the Exxon Valdez spill could demonstrate that the risk to human and animal survival is very real, and based in observed fact.
Dude really, you're on the wrong forum. Perhaps www.RavingPsychoticIndustryDrones.com would be more to your liking.
I hate printers.
You never hear the full quote, but it is so much better then the shortened version:
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.
Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master.
yea, that video gave me the chills. at first it looked sorta like the alien from Independence Day, but about 100 times creepier. but once i actually understood what i was seeing, i was just in awe at the beauty of such a bizarre living creature. these kinds of discoveries just emphasize the reason we need to support ecological conservation all the more. imagine all of the millions of other bizarre and beautiful creatures out there still unknown to science.
for those who are interested in other video clips of Magnapinnidae, here's a page with several short clips and screen captures. most of them are poor quality, as they seem to be VHS-rips, but the 6th and 8th clips are pretty amazing.
That is a bacteriophage, which is neither a cold nor a flu virus.
"Excuse me, did you say 'Trekker'? The word is 'Trekkie.' I should know; I created them." -- Gene Roddenberry
"The oil drillers actually believe in science...unlike the environmentalists with their superstition
Warning, this could cause your politically biased head to explode.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
A mile and a half (two and a half kilometers) underwater, a remote control submersible's camera has captured an eerie surprise
Anyhow, very creepy.
Someone please shoot the asshole controlling the camera
Chill out - the camera's servo only has one speed as should be obvious from the panning when the view zooms out versus when it zooms in. You would not have done any better.
Get a grip. Ever been to an actual oil rig?
They provide an artificial reef and are little islands of life. Fishing around them is a full time industry in the Gulf of Mexico.
Most of them are very very clean and scrupulous about keeping the sea uncontaminated... as in everything a few bad apples have given the whole barrel a bad image.
Chuck
actually, Bigfin squids were first discovered in 1907, and the species in this particular video isn't new either. if you're talking about this particular specimen that's captured the video, then you may be right. but otherwise, deep sea drilling hasn't contributed much to our scientific understanding of this species.
I fish commercially in Alaska during the summers. (Caught 112 000 lbs of fish last summer with three other guys.) Valdez's salmon run is still completely destroyed in some places. I don't know how things are on land, but out on the water fishermen have lost their trade from that oil spill.
Three things occur to me : (in decreasing order, probably) drilling mud coating the surface of rock cuttings discharged over the side ; unstable and/ or soluble minerals as part of the rock cuttings themselves ; heat from the cuttings. If you're using oil-based mud (technically, invert emulsion drilling fluid with a low-dielectric continuous phase and a high-dielectric discontinuous phase ; the chemical nature of the continuous phase is varied but it is universally some degree of bad news for any skin it encounters ; I've got the chemical burns to prove it.) then it's unsurprising that dumping tons of it onto the seabed can cause problems in the surrounding areas. Less obviously, throwing tons of rock salt or anhydrite or unstable clay minerals has potential to do various degrees of nasty to water chemistry. There's also the other additives in the mud to consider - barytes is often associated with lead mineralisation, for example, raising the possibility of other forms of pollution. Finally, the rocks that come up from drilling are generally hot to some degree, and while the sea does have significant cooling power, when many tons are dumped into the sea in short order, it's within the bounds of credibility to change temperatures for a while, particularly within the seabed.
All of which is why discharge of cuttings coated with "oil" (natural or synthetic) is now forbidden in a number of areas. Which simply prompted the development of a range of "skip'n'ship" solutions which are loathed by drillers, but allow drilling to continue to use oil-based muds.
Well, you did ask!
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Unlike say, Climate Scientists, the scientists who are involved in commercial geological exploration are held to a much higher standard as their "results" can potentially swing share prices one way or another. The Securities Commission require full disclosure.
I may also say that those concerned about our destroying the giant squid eco-system should think very carefully. We have killed so many Sperm Whales in the past (their main predator) it wouldn't surprise me if their population were much higher today than it has been historically.
http://www.sf.adfg.state.ak.us/FedAidPDFs/sp08-13.pdf
This appears to be a current summary of the Prince William Sound fisheries. Since the oil spill, PWS has been quite well studied.
http://www.lib.noaa.gov/japan/aquaculture/proceedings/report22/kron.html
The above report gives a summary of the historical data, which seems damn hard to come by online. The short form is that salmon stocks fluctuate wildly for reasons that are little understood.
The cleanup effort was a media circus. Nobody had any idea what to do about it, there were no preparations*, no science, and very little thought involved. The primary method of oil removal was to spray boiling water on the beaches. I think the idea was that if the oil didn't kill everything, the cleanup would fix that. I was reading a NOAA paper earlier on the effectiveness of that technique, which was negative, but I seem to have lost the link.
Beyond that, I can try to dig up more local sources tomorrow, if you'd like. Certainly I could provide a wealth of anecdote, but I'm sure that more concrete data is available within the community.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
Did anybody else notice that the video is from November 2007?