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.

Comments

Nice animal

[KasperMeerts]

Damn, mother nature is really infinitely more inventive than every sci-fi movie director or write in the world. I mean, this is something I would expect to find on some alien planet or something.

Re:Nice animal

[Odin The Ravager]

Take a look at Giant Isopods. Definitely the most alien thing I've ever seen.

Conflicts, always conflicts.

[ColdWetDog]

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."

Research is research. The data doesn't 'care' who paid for the camera. Besides it is in Shell (or whomever's) interest to understand as much as possible about the location they plan on dumping large amounts of money on.

What happens if there is an alien colony down there? Wouldn't you like to know? Don't go expecting Shell to fund a study of these things, but why wouldn't they show it to people. Looks pretty cool actually.

And didn't the camera say about 7500 feet (not 4000 as in TFS)?

Re:Conflicts, always conflicts.

[Tenebrousedge]

The Exxon spill may not be the best example. The cleanup efforts were probably more harmful than the spill itself, and the environment has completely recovered since then. My authority on the subject comes from having lived in Valdez, AK for nearly my entire life; I can provide further sources if need be.

This criticism should not be taken as arguing against your point in general.

Re:Conflicts, always conflicts.

[RockDoctor]

They also have more than enough technical equipment and expertise to "improve" the data, if it is in their interests to do so.

Ah, that would account for the 30-odd (sometimes very odd) video editors, graphics artists and CGI programmers I see occupying the 4 spare bedspace on a normal drilling rig.

Sure, the oil industry can hire all the graphics expertise that it needs, when it needs it. And when they're no longer needed ... well that's the difference between "contractor" and "core crew". (I say this with one long-standing friend who's been kept off the breadline doing cartoons and animations for safety training materials while another friend regularly does video editing for induction courses, training courses and all sorts of other tediously repetitive bullshit. Hi Snoddy, Peet!)

Plus, of course, the rig is a great place for passing around video clips that are either weird (RTFA), shoot-yourself-in-the-foot-funny (I should have a link for the dropping of the Oseberg casing string somewhere at home, and there's always the wreckage of the LE's jetting assembly for raising a laugh), variously perverse ("She does WHAT to an Alsatian with a bog brush??"). Or just plain old kill porn, from the smoking wreckage of 167 men in the Piper to laughing one's arses off at YABLR (Yet Another Burning Land Rig) as everyone stands around looking sheepish and counting the crew.

In their traditional role as Porn-Merchants Designate to the industry, the ROV shack know fine well their obligations to copy and disseminate anything in the slightest bit out of the ordinary. for decades they were the only people on board with a video recording system, let alone a video COPYING system, and they've always known what to do with the spread.

Mother of all viruses?

[Tablizer]

Looks like a giant virus:

http://50milesmore.blogspot.com/2008/03/prepare-to-be-assimalated.html

Squiddy will give you a flu like no other.
     

Alien?

[ThierryD]

Actually, is it me or does it kind of look like the queen mother from the Aliens movie? Argh.

Discovery Channel has had a few shows on this

[CFD339]

I've seen at least three different shows on Discovery Channel about these squid that until a few years ago were considered by most biologists to be nothing by a myth.

One was about the first ever captured specimen of a Giant Squid -- it was almost microscopic and they couldn't keep any alive.

Later, one was about actually getting fleeting video of one in the wild.

Most recent was one about another kind of giant squid that's even bigger and was caught in a net accidentally. The fishing trawler was smart enough to quickly freeze it. In the show, they were able to thaw it carefully and do a dissection. Apparently one of the problems with scientists working with these is that thy decompose extremely rapidly.

Oil exploration is pushing serious camera time deeper than ever. At the same time, an awareness of the value to science of creatures that we don't know about is making inroads into fishing crews in even the most remote places where in the past such a find might simply have been discarded as waste.

There is a LOT of volume in the oceans, and we're far from understanding it in the kind of depth we one day will.
 

Re:Truth/Fiction

[Terrasque]

I've heard it a bit more elegantly said :

Truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction have to make sense.